https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/historical-food-for-thought-on-appropriate-dress Style Advice for Fashion Lovers en-US Sun, 10 May 2026 20:57:10 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/search.php https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/historical-food-for-thought-on-appropriate-dress#post-55367 Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:59:12 +0000 Kari 55367@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Maya, at least you had potential wardrobe hazards of art classes as an excuse! And even though it wasn't ideal, it sounds like you at least had a style aesthetic.</p> <p>I'm embarrassed to think of what I used to wear in public... my senior year in high school many of us wore flannel pajama pants or scrub pants and flip flops to class sometimes. Yeesh. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/historical-food-for-thought-on-appropriate-dress#post-55330 Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:54:43 +0000 Maya 55330@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Very interesting, especially when one considers how college students dress today...</p> <p>For the first year that I was in college, I would often wear knit pants, thrifted/vintage "ironic" tees, paint-covered jeans, and all kinds of weird and silly jewelry (like rubber bracelets with glitter). I can defend the paint jeans because I took a lot of messy art classes and did not want to get paint or ink on my nice clothes, but my standard of "nice" clothes was very low. What I thought of as "nice" then would probably count as my painting clothes now (if I painted).</p> <p>After that I started trying to dress better and more like an adult and my confidence shot through the roof. It was seriously life-changing, even though it wasn't quite perfect at the time. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/historical-food-for-thought-on-appropriate-dress#post-55326 Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:40:06 +0000 Kathleen 55326@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>That is really interesting! Thanks for sharing. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/historical-food-for-thought-on-appropriate-dress#post-54611 Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:57:42 +0000 kh 54611@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Geesh, when I think about how my sister dresses as a college student.... </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/historical-food-for-thought-on-appropriate-dress#post-54601 Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:48:21 +0000 Kari 54601@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>My college experience was very casual (I wore a lot of sweatshirts, jeans, and flip flops until the last couple years when I started to adapt a smart casual look). I was amused when I read these rules for dress from a 1960s-era residence hall handbook from my former university.</p> <p>(These are rules for within the women's residence hall only - not going to class or walking around on campus)<br /> "1. There shall be something on a person's feet at all times.<br /> 2. At breakfast:<br /> a. Hair can be in rollers with hair bonnets etc.<br /> b. Bathrobes are necessary.<br /> c. Slippers or shoes must be worn.<br /> 3. At dinner:<br /> a. Casual clothes every day but Wednesday and special occasions. Includes cutoffs, mumus, but not bathrobes.<br /> b. Wednesday evenings there shall be a house meeting. 1) Dress will be school clothes. 2) This includes shoes not slippers.<br /> c. No rollers in hair on weekdays. 1) Special permission will be given by House President if she is asked beforehand: for concerts, etc. 2) Rollers may be worn to dinner on Friday and Saturday."</p> <p>For the co-ed commons:<br /> "Men will not appear in T shirts, sweatshirts, unclean jeans or any other attire that is inappropriate for dining room situations. Women will not appear in robes, slacks, or with their hair up in curlers. The Sunday noon meal will be considered as a dress-up affair. Men will wear suits or slacks and sports coat. Shirt and tie or buttoned sports shirts are acceptable. Women will wear heels and afternoon dresses. Exceptions are Friday evening and all day Saturday when women may wear curlers. All day Saturday and Sunday morning, women may wear Bermuda shorts, toreadors, or pedal pushers and men may wear Bermuda shorts or clam diggers."<br /> "Appropriate dress for women usually means dresses or skirts and blouses. Slacks (including all types of Bermudas, Jamaicas, jeans, shorts, toreadors, and the like) are appropriate only in certain types of casual situations. They may be worn in your own room or upstairs study rooms."</p> <p>(I got this info from a former landlord who had been a college housemother in the 60s. She also said that on cold days, the dean of women would call her to let her know that the girls were allowed to wear pants to school as it was too chilly to walk to campus in a skirt.)</p> <p>I know a lot of these rules were based on changing concepts of gender-appropriate clothing, but I'm always amazed to see that appropriate dress was required even within one's living quarters. Reading these passages make me think much more critically about days when I lounge around in scrubby clothes at home. I also wish that in my early college years I'd given more thought to how dressing more smartly could convey something about my intelligence or initiative to learn. </p>