The first day of school I walked down A.J.’s Way and I saw a girl wearing crop leggings and a PINK hoodie. My overly critical self thought, “That’s the best you could do for your first day of school outfit?”
I remember the days of grade school when I would spend hours picking out my outfit for the first day of school. There was a small amount of pressure associated with that choice. In elementary school, I could count on my mom holding up the entire school bus because she insisted on taking a picture of me in that outfit, with my backpack on, as I got on the school bus. I wasn’t very popular with the bus drivers.
In middle school the pressure resulted from a status quo. The outfit construct was pretty formulaic: Hollister flip-flops, American Eagle shorts and an Abercrombie & Fitch graphic tee with a PINK hoodie. As long as the number of brand logos on your clothing was equal to or greater than four, getting dressed didn’t require right-brain thinking.
In high school, dressing for the first day of school evolved into a competition. I would shop for my outfit and hope that I would have the trendiest skirt or the most avant-garde blouse. After the first nine weeks of class, half of the school population had digressed to wearing their boyfriends’ track sweatpants two to three times a week. But for those first few days, the high school hallways were a fashion show runway.
Now that we’re in college, there’s very little pressure to look good at school. No one is holding up the E to take your picture. Every class you have is with an entirely new group of people so comparing outfits with 150 different people in a day is ludicrous.
However, I think there are still some incentives to dressing your best.
In the professional world, wearing thoughtful outfits is required. If you went to Erie Insurance headquarters in crop leggings and a PINK hoodie, you would definitely be sent home. I’ve heard professors say, “Sure, I’d love to come to class in my pajamas at 8 a.m., but I would be fired.”
Looking nice for class is sometimes just a sign of respect for your professors. It says, “Good morning, Prof! I have taken the time to be prepared for your class and put effort into the way I represent myself. You do not have to wonder if I wore this to bed last night.”
OK, maybe it doesn’t say all of that, but it is a tad disrespectful when students roll into class in slippers and PJs.
How can you ask your professors to write letters of recommendation and to be references for grad school when they’ve seen you wearing revealing yoga pants or booty shorts?
I’m not saying that it’s a crime against humanity to bum around every once in a while, I just think that as we mature as people, our fashion sense should too.
It seems like the only immediate incentive for looking nice in college is an opportunity to post it on Instagram. #OOTD is just a way to show off your closet in Lo-Fi, Valencia, and X-Pro II.
When you feel like you’ve made a great outfit for class and you want to post about it, tag #OutfitOfTheKnight and you could appear in our next issue.
BRIANNA WOODS
