i find it so interesting that people take kumiko's "i chose kitauji for the sailor uniforms" thing at face value bc to me it's one of the first and clearest indications we have that she's an unreliable narrator.
kumiko never expresses interest in fashion outside of that single line and whenever we see her out of her uniform she's in like, a t-shirt and shorts. she is in fact positioned as kinda schlubby next to the glamorous reina in 1x08! and it's obvious from the "so you quit concert band?" "why do you say that?" "you're at kitauji" exchange with mamiko that kitauji's band has a reputation for being pretty bad. so that line reads more as a synthesis of kumiko's early s1 conflict avoidance; she can't admit to herself (or the audience) that she picked kitauji to get away from concert band and more specifically to get away from reina.
(which is of course what makes it so ironic and so funny that within like a day she is back in concert band WITH reina. great job there buddy.)
