Living the stereotype since 1992

Since coming back to school, most of my classes have been in the design building on college. I don't know if your school had one but it's the building with the strange architecture, walls covered in whatever reviews are going on that week, and its chocked full of the stereotype. The architects are wearing turtlenecks and thick plastic glasses. The interior designers are groups of sorority girls talking about fabric samples. The graphic designers are glued to their laptops sans umbilical cord. And the ones studying to be practicing artists are dressed in a strange eclectic fashion with an aura of unwashed angst.
I catch myself sometimes considering the eccentrics with a wide-eyed stare. There is one girl in particular that shows up in the most odd clothing. She came dressed as cleopatra once...in November. She wears hats that she makes to resemble cartoon animals. It is perpetually a surprise. I always catch myself wondering if she does it because she wants to or because she thinks its what artists should do. I wonder if she's been dressing like this forever or if it started with becoming immersed in an art environment.
I've been dressing like an art nerd for as long as I can remember. My mother criticized me frequently for only wearing black. I've expanded a little but my closet is still dominated by black, gray, and other dark colors. It's what I'm most comfortable in. I realize that I've grown up in the stereotype that I would one day be. Even as I type, I'm sitting in the design building, coffee cup in hand, dressed in black, wearing dark-framed glasses (and looking moody, I'm sure). It has never occurred to me to dress any differently to go against the stereotype. I guess maybe Hat-girl is the same way. She grew up quirky and it has never occurred to her to do anything differently. I wonder if the world is the same outside of the design building...do people grow up in the stereotypes or do they break out?