I’m tempted to start calling my comparative lit professor “Ms. Frizzle,” but for reasons of gender identification and because an a cappella group has recently flooded the campus with other Magic School Bus references, I’ll hold back.
Even if he took me on my first Northwestern field trip last week.
It wasn’t to a frictionless baseball field or inside Arnold’s digestive system, but it was still a landmark. Too bad we weren’t all dressed as appropriately as Ms. Frizzle in her topical outfits. Or at least that’s what the concerned doorman and then the snotty manager of the University Club downtown told our group as we tried to attend a Q&A with the bestselling author in the Arab world.
I still don’t see what was so wrong with what one member of our class was wearing. The invitation said business casual. Since when does that exclude nice dark jeans? When did America turn against denim? Get Levi Strauss on the phone. Someone tell Congress to rename them Freedom Jeans.
To give you some perspective, the man I sat next to had on a collarless blue shirt and frayed Dockers.
But seriously, someone forgot to tell this club that clothes don’t make the man. Maybe we all need reminding.
In this, the season of the dreaded internship/job/career/desperate-last-ditch-attempt-not-to-go-home-for-the-summer fair, half the campus can’t decide between black pants and wedge heels, the skirt and the flats, the tie with stripes or the one with a huge NU insignia on it (in case the recruiter forgets about your $200,000 brain).
And then there’s swimming season and finding the suit that, well, suits. Don’t forget the appropriate costumes for 1,001 end-of-the-year Greek events. Better find the right dress/Napoleon Dynamite tuxedo for your residential college’s formal. Have you found something to wear to graduation yet?
Yikes. My wardrobe’s too small.
But before you melt your credit card at Old Orchard or sell your spleen on the black market for some Burberry, take a minute to get your head out of your shopping bags.
People now conduct business from home while still padding around in their pajamas. Designers take the time to create budget lines for Target.
No one expects you to look like the women on Cashmere Mafia. Remember how Carrie Bradshaw went broke when she spent too much on shoes?
How many people can really spot designer jeans at 10 paces? Unless you’re working for Vogue, I’d bet money your future boss won’t know if your pants cost $200 or $20, and we’ve all seen the Facebook groups mocking people who get too dressed up for class.
In a nutshell, what you wear is never as important as who you are and what you’ve done. (This message brought to you by the Free to Be You and Me campaign.) No one will care what label you’re wearing if you can’t get the job done, lack a personality or manage to offend everyone you meet.
And remember that snooty University Club manager? She let me pass right by her into the event.
Me and my $6 shoes.
