Style is serious business

Angie

This is interesting. A very serious thread by very academic women on the way they dress. It really brings home that style isn’t frivolous. And youlookfab is referenced twice.

http://artisanssquare.com/sg/i.....178.0.html

Angie
xxx

17 years ago

General

13 replies

Latest reply was from Tanya

Kristen

(website)

Veteran

Thanks for the link, Angie! It was a great read -- and it reinforces what I see in the non-academic, 9-5 working world: what we wear and how we wear it does have meaning, even in the "business casual" world we have now. To be taken seriously, you have to dress seriously -- but that doesn't mean dour or solemn. You need polish, maturity, confidence, and grace -- and however you make that translate into an outfit is up to you. As professional women, it's important to have a space where you can discuss making that happen for you; the styles shown in most fashion magazines are either too frivolous or too "cutting edge" chic to help women like us. That's what I love about YLF, frankly; it's shown me the middle ground between being a frump and being too trendy.

17 years ago

Mellllls

Veteran

The above post pretty much captures my thoughts. Makes me realize that what I wear really does matter even though we technically have no dress code at work. (Technically, the federal government has no dress code...you can wear whatever you want unless you are in court but the unofficial dress code in my office is business casual)

17 years ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I thought this might resonate with some of you. You have put it so well Kristen. Can we clone you?

17 years ago

tarzy

Veteran

Thanks, Angie. That was a very interesting thread. We're all trying to figure the same stuff out!

17 years ago

hanna

(website)

Active Member

i think the entire discussion really hammers home the idea of "appropriateness," a concept that has gotten so lost in our current work environment! so many people equate the creative dress code we have at work with "sloppy," so i've seen too many hoodies, trainers and flip flops at work than i really ever wanted to. and now that summer is coming up, the men are talking...shorts. yep, that's right. shorts. at the office. now, tailored walk shorts on a woman - provided the rest of the outfit, and the shoes, are totally right - i can deal with. but you can bet these guys will come shuffling in with tatty khaki cargo shorts and rubber flip flops. KILL ME NOW.

17 years ago

crwilson

Veteran

As an academic, I really related to the thread you posted - thank you for posting it! As I said in the post introducing myself, I find it difficult to balance work-appropriate clothing with non-work appropriate clothing. In fact, all too often, there is no distinction for me. I wonder, now, if the way I've been dressing undermines my authority as a professor. Because most people around me dress in jeans and ratty old button-downs (almost entirely a male faculty), I've worn jeans a lot too.

I would like my professional look to say: professional, intelligent, serious, approachable (but not too approachable), put together. All of this without looking boring or frumpy. I like the idea of cultivating a "scholar chic" look, though I have little idea about what that would actually look like.

I would like my personal wardrobe to say something quite different: natural, calm, feminine, creative.

The whole thing makes me want to get out my credit card and make sure that i'm dressing appropriately.

This post made me think that it actually goes beyond "appropriateness" and speaks to the idea of what impression you want to create. I have dresses, for example, (not the bad ones that I posted!) that are perfectly appropriate for work, but don't necessarily exude seriousness or authority.

17 years ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

It’s a long thread and I’m happy that some of you took the time to read it. Thank you.

Your comments are astute. CrWilson (may we call you by a name?), it’s interesting how you’d like to send different messages for both aspects of your life – work and play. I’ve thought about that a lot and I’d prefer to keep the message the same. That’s interesting too.

I’ve also thought a lot about how intelligence is communicated. I might surprise you with my answer. Brianna brought it up in the individual style post and I responded in this way:

“Conveying intelligence is an interesting point. This is not something that I feel is overtly reflected through your style choices. I think that intelligence is implied through the combination of your style qualities and hopefully automatically assumed once you open your mouth. I can take this point even further. What actually constitutes intelligence?”

17 years ago

Ariadne

Veteran

Angie, I missed that you replied to my comment in that blog post. I'll go back and look for it.

For me, personally, when I said "intelligence" I was thinking of a fairly rigorous, academic, intellectual form of intelligence--scholarly intelligence, or book smarts. This is obviously not the only type of intelligence a person can have!

For me, in terms of clothing, this translates to intelligence and rigorousness in design, and a strongly individual, independant, even renegade aesthetic (I'm often not drawn to what's trendy because of this, although if I like a trend, I'll wear it. I'm just not concerned with being on-trend). It also usually translates to clothing I can't afford! I like clothing items that look like they required some real thought to produce, and I like this to be expressed in sharp, unusual details. That's why I'm drawn to items with clean, strong, unusual lines and origami-type detailing. To me, they express intelligence, and they make me feel intelligent when I wear them. Actually, that helps me think of more specific adjectives: clean, strong, sharp, detailed, original, stubborn, unusual, elevated.

Dries van Noten, Yohji Yamamoto, Ann Demuelemeester, APC, Obakki, Kooba, and Evan Biddell are all designers that express this for me (not that I own anything by them, at least not yet). That's partly why I'm doing a lot more wardrobe purging than shopping right now--I'm working clearing out the stuff I own that isn't me, and on figuring out how to work items like the ones I admire and enjoy wearing into my wardrobe on my budget.

I enjoyed that thread that you linked to, especially since my ultimate goal is to be a professor--thanks!

17 years ago

Anonymous

The thread was helpful - thank you for posting it, Angie! And I'm right there with you, Kristen and Hanna about dressing seriously and appropriately!

What resonated with me the most was the post from the woman who talked about how you can't look too approachable with students. It can be a struggle to be separate from students when I work so closely with them (and I love working with them, so I want to be as approachable as possible!), but as a person in authority it is important to say that I am in charge within the five seconds of a first impression. I also work with students whose cultural expectations of authority go hand in hand with body language and clothing... it has been an eye opening experience!

I've said this before but I feel I am treated better by students and other professionals if I am in a professional outfit I've spent time putting together, such as slacks, a dressy blouse, accessories and good grooming. While WNTW shows helped pique my interest in dressing my best all the time, YLF has helped give me tools and support in accomplishing this!

I agree with CrWilson to a point about dressing differently for work and play. For me, it's more of a mental shift of who I am at work and who I am at home or with friends. My work environment brings out different aspects of my personality than I might exhibit at home, and I'm now realizing I dress to enhance traits I want to show! At work I am tenacious, direct and an efficient worker, and I must have the ability to defend myself (it can be cutthroat!) so I tend to wear heels, dress in bold colors, current trends and classic fabrics. Away from work I am more free-spirited, spontaneous, and in-the-moment. I dress more casually, but I wear softer colors, flat shoes, scarves draped around my shoulders and a well-loved pair of jeans.

Whew! I hadn't really thought about how I change how I dress depending on which environment I'm in... interesting!

17 years ago

crwilson

Veteran

Like Brianna, I was thinking of a fairly traditional scholarly sort of intelligence, mostly because of the profession I'm in. I've thought a lot about the dichotomy between work/play in terms of clothes, and I go back and forth on it a lot. Mostly, I haven't had a clear sense of style in either arena, so it hasn't made much of a difference either way. But now that I'm trying to approach my wardrobe more systematically, I'm trying to make a clearer plan. Brianna - I like how you've translated all of this into very clear characteristics of clothes (such as sharp, strong, geometric). Part of my problem, I think, is that a) I don't have the body type to pull off elegant classics, and b) I really love feminine clothes and shapes and those, unfortunately, don't always translate into "professional, serious, etc."

Angie - I think I would rather have a coherence between my work/play look, but I think that maybe that will come later in my style evolution. Ultimately, I think that's the better choice, in lots of respects.

My name's Christine, by the way.

17 years ago

Mellllls

Veteran

Angie, I think your profession is more conducive to conveying the same message in work and play. I am a lawyer. While I have certain latitude in what I wear to work on an everyday basis, there are certain days that I have to dress incredibly conservative. Which is not the image I try to convey outside of work. I love my job and I don't mind dressing the conservative part occasionally but it is not ME on an everyday basis. But I think, as a stylist, the message one would want to send is more likely to be the same though I'm having trouble articulating why.

17 years ago

Anonymous

Thanks for the link Angie. I can see I will be spending plenty of time searching there. You really do leave no stone unturned. Isn't that your motto?

17 years ago

Tanya

Veteran

I have also really enjoyed reading this Angie, thank you for posting it.

You can also add me into the group of women who would like to convey different messages at work and outside it. At (future) work, I would like to be perceived as intelligent ( in a scholastic way), precise, organized, and serious. Outside of it, I can indulge in more feminine clothes.

17 years ago

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