Dressing to Impress: A Far From Frivolous Endeavor
By Amanda Ratner ’08
News Staff Writer
“I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh, I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St. Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.”
This brilliant quote from the 2006 movie “The Devil Wears Prada” epitomizes the importance, influence, and value of the fashion industry. In a recent article in the Opinions Section of the 4/18 edition of The News, I read, in print, that my life was “empty and useless” because sometimes, late at night, I think about what I’m going to wear the next day. What an egregious violation of the very institution that is feminism! Not. This notion is absurd; girls at Choate dress nicely for their own reasons—to feel put together, comfortable, and confident. So what if I make a homunculus out of possible outfits on my floor?
It enrages me that the auhor of the 4/18 article claims that dressing up a little for class, putting yourself together for the day, or even just appreciating fashion deems one to be a conformist. This would be true, if it were opposite day.
The aforementioned article backs the notion that girls and women who care about fashion and their appearance are somehow less independent, less intelligent, and are wasting their time by “dressing to impress.” But personal style is unique. Style is defined by you, yes, YOU. Style is what you make it, not what anybody or anything tells you it is. Two personal styles can be utterly different, but totally cool. For instance, Loren “Pellegrino” Olsen ’08’s awesome, free, colorful style contrasted with Nina “2008 Junior Adlai Stevenson Fellow” Tarnawsky ’08’s refined and laid-back style. In addition to these girls, most people (those who appreciate fashion and their own appearance in some way or another) have their own style of dress and personal appearance that is not dictated by “materialism and self-obsession,” as last week’s article stated. If it were, the most self-obsessed and materialistic people would certainly be considered the best-dressed. Now, not to toot my own horn, but I was best-dressed in the “Fashion Forward” piece that same week (love you Alice B.), and I certainly have neither the most expensive clothes on campus, nor a narcissism complex. The author also seems to hold the view that girls at Choate dress nicely for other girls at Choate “because they are so judgmental about each other.” I don’t know about any of you, but I don’t put on my outfit in the morning, look at myself in the mirror and think, “Wow, all the girls in my English class are totally going to think I look awesome in my new gladiator flat sandals.” It’s more like: “I’m wearing some great shoes, therefore I rock.”
Caring about the way you look does not have to be time-consuming or demeaning. The article published on April 18th criticizes those who care to look good and degrades uniqueness, citing the lack of time at Choate and the waste of the four “most precious years of [our] lives” as a reason to stop thinking about clothes, shoes, outfits, and looking good. After all, the girls’ dress code only calls for nice shirts and shorts, skirts, or pants—the bare minimum. So why do people work hard to look good and not the same as everyone else? Because we are not living in 1984, here, people! We do not all have to comply with a standard to dress the same or look the same, and I hope people can appreciate that. People appreciate music, literature, and art in all of its forms, and one of these forms is fashion. Fashion does not cause girls at Choate to “fill the mold” as the author of the article stated; it causes girls to break the mold and emerge as powerful, individual women. Go ahead, girls, plan tomorrow’s outfit. Don’t forget shoes. And jewelry.
