Dressed to Impress...NOT!

On February 26, 2009 our entire English 110 class dressed up in the craziest outfits you would ever expect college students to wear. Not only were these outfits extravagant, but they were far outside our comfort zones. I even felt uncomfortable in my own skin for the entire day I wore my crazy mismatched clothes.
It was a challenge deciding what to wear for this special day. I had no idea how much the other people in my class were going to get into this assignment. It worried me while I was picking out my outfit that I would be the only one really going “all out” for this assignment. To be honest, my outfit was pretty tame compared to most other individuals in my class. Some came I in prom dresses, others wearing cowboy attire, some wore mismatched colored clothes like myself, and others simply wore shirts or dresses they would never be caught dead wearing. I wanted to make sure my outfit was not too outrageous where people would view me differently, but I wanted it to be out of my norm enough so people would notice. I guess you could call me a chicken, but I worry so much about my appearance that I tried to make my crazy mismatched outfit “cute” by doing my regular makeup and hair to the best of my ability. I did this hoping that people could concentrate on my pretty face rather than the outrageous attire I had chosen for the day. So those were sort of my boundaries I set for myself when choosing what to wear: wear enough to be seen by others, but not so much that they would judge me.
Most of my friends were already aware of the assignment because I talked about it over and over again. I tried getting their advice on what to wear throughout the previous week so they knew what to expect when I walked into classes. When I approached the people I knew they basically let out a good laugh and cracked a joke at my crazy outfit.
“You look like some 70’s GoGo Girl Fashion Disaster,” my friend who let me borrow a larger flannel long sleeve shirt for the occasion. He needed the shirt back before I could take my pictures for the blog, but I basically put the shirt over my bright colored t-shirts and tied it up in the middle.
“You look like you are a sophomore….in high school!” my classmate Dave commented. I replied with a sarcastic thanks. I didn’t know a crazy outfit could actually make me look younger. I already look young because of my size; I didn’t want to make myself seem too immature.
As far as the people I didn’t know, they really didn’t say much to me. They gave me funny looks, but no one asked me why I was dressed the way I was. They seemed to talk to me as if nothing was wrong, but I know as soon as I turned away they would talk about my crazy fashion choices after I left. No one wanted to come up to me and say, “What’s the deal with this insane outfit you are wearing?” If they were to ask it would make me feel so much better than if they were just guessing how loony I was.
My peers joked around every time I tried to talk to them. One time I was trying to have a conversation with my friend Chris in the cafeteria of Davies and he simply said, “Who is this crazy girl talking to me, do I know her?” They really didn’t treat me different other than cracking a lot more jokes than they usually do. Professors treated me the exact same, however I participated a lot less in lectures and discussions for fear of attracting people to look at me.
Only those who really knew what I was doing commented on my clothing. They commented the most on how crazy my outfit really was.
“Wow. Just Wow. I can’t believe you managed to get all of those clothes to go together so well,” my friend Drew remarked.
I was shocked to notice that others around me gave me weird, judgmental looks, but they never straight out asked me why I looked the way I did. It made for an extremely interesting day hearing whispers amongst friends as I walked past, and the jokes made by my friends made the day even more memorable.
Now that I have been on the other side of perspective to the phrase “clothes make the person,” I definitely agree with it. The uncomfortable feeling I had in the gut of my stomach the entire day showed me how important it is to dress to impress. Granted, I left a big impression on others as a “70’s GoGo Girl Fashion Disaster,” I do not want to ever deal with the looks and laughs from others after that day. Looking your best and dressing to impress makes you feel good about yourself and it even makes you behave differently. Like I said before, I did not participate as much in my classes on this day because I was too afraid if I started talking people would look at me even more. I figured I would just fade into the background and no one would notice. The experience of dressing up was fun and interesting, but I now understand how important the way you dress is to others. People will judge you no matter what you do, and we all have to learn to deal with it because it is just a never-ending fact about our society.