Near the end of the my senior year, the theatre club I was a part of held a big awards ceremony. At that point in the year, I was very caught up in exams, and I regretfully I did not pay attention to other important things, such as the e-mail updates I received for this event. Because of my complete failure to read a simple three lines of text in said emails, I was very uninformed on the event aside from the date and time. In my ignorance, I slapped on a pair of black pants I recently bought and an untucked button down, along with my favorite pair of vans. I felt comfortable and happy. When I opened the door to the location of the event. I immediately felt frightened by the fact that everyone was wearing formal dresses and tuxedos. That’s when we took the picture above.
At first, I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb, and I was mortified. But now, I look at that picture and embrace it wholeheartedly. I dressed as how I wanted, and why should that in any way be a problem?
The fact that anyone should care enough to openly judge or attempt to dictate what someone wears is completely ridiculous to me. If it suits me, and I feel comfortable, why should it be up to some random person to tell me that it isn’t appropriate?
This may sound like a small issue, and maybe it is, but I think it really says something about us as a society when we care more about how someone’s outfit is in relation to someone else’s standards more than we care about much more important factors to someone’s personality.
When being given a professional interview, people are expected to dress formally as a way to “give off a good impression.” What baffles me is that this is a requirement that is somehow seen as on the same set of criteria for employment as you're experience, your skills, and your attitude. If someone were to come in for a job interview and had the perfect resumé, displayed a solid amount of knowledge and skill in his profession, but came dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, would you deny that person the job simply because of the latter? It’s simply an illogical proposition to care that much about what someone wears, because it doesn’t signify anything but that he feels comfortable enough in those clothes to wear them.
I hate to seem obnoxiously philosophical, but what are proper dress standards anyway? Clothes are merely meant to cover up the body. Since when did humankind start to develop rules and regulations for how one may do something like this? And what qualifies clothes as “formal”? Who decides whether or not it’s “formal” or “appropriate”? I don’t see how a suit can be inherently fancy or a t-shirt could be inherently casual. Objectively, it’s all just fabric. It’s society that makes attributes them to these adjectives.
Not only do I find dress standards utterly illogical, but it’s also a bit constricting to our mood and personality. I have done interviews that I have completely bombed because my suit made me feel so uncomfortable and stuffy that I couldn’t help but feel like I’ll naturally fail. If I went in to that interview with a t-shirt, shorts, and a baseball cap, I’m sure that the casualness of my outfit would make me feel more at ease with myself to keep a composed demeanor when being interviewed.
Despite my opinions on the matter, I do understand that for me to get anywhere in this world, it’s only sensible to apply by them. I need a job, and for that I might need to dress how I don’t want to dress a few times. It’s not worth my future to not comply by those simple rules. However, I think that this is an issue we should look at more closely. Though it may not seem important, it’s worth looking into to some extent.
