Going back to school means meeting many new people, and seeing old ones you have not seen in a long time. Back to school time represents a major opportunity to decide how you want this whole new, or old, community to see you. For those of us in school, it is similar to what people experience after New Year, when they resolve to change themselves. Honestly, I think back to school is a better opportunity to start fresh than New Year's Day is. A person's resolutions to change just aren't that convincing when you just saw them the night before sloppy drunk at a New Year's Eve party. But when you go back to school you have the entire summer to let people forget all of the dumb or terrible stuff you did before. Even if you are no longer involved in school, the idea of a chance to reinvent yourself for a new community is pretty universal.
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| Maybe it is the plastic america number goggles, maybe it is the quantity of alcohol this man must have consumed, but something about New Year's Eve revelers just does not convince me of their ability to follow through on those New Year's resolutions. |
How you dress can play a key role in dictating how new friends, or old acquiescences perceive you. This is why people care about back to school clothing. Its a tool in helping them reshape how others see them. Certainly your personality should speak louder than how you look, but the way you present yourself can become something like a filter through which people perceive your personality, at least for first impressions. So no, despite what retailers and magazines will tell you, there isn't a specific set of clothing earmarked as back to school fashion. Anything they are pushing right now is probably just fall fashion and the same for people who aren't going back to school. Retailers are just trying to turn your insecurities, and your desire to be seen as likable into money. I know...shocking. So how are we supposed to approach this nebulous concept of back to school style if it isn't a real thing after all, especially if we want to decide how people view us? This September is my 18th back to school in my life. I have attempted to reinvent myself for a good number of those, and even occasionally succeeded. So I will offer my thoughts on the matter.
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| The fashion industry is preying on your insecurities to sell you stuff?! Patrick is shocked |
1. Decide how you want to be seen
The whole point of back to school style is to help people see you the way you want to be seen. You can't do much in this department if you don't even know what you want. For example, my senior year of high school started after a major break up that left me very unsure of myself. I wanted to feel attractive, so I ended up wearing a lot of short skirts and high shoes that year. In that time, I learned that I liked dressing well. So that became part of my reinventions in college. As I felt more proud of being different my goal became to present myself as unique, interesting and cool, and intentionally avoiding being pinned down to one type of style. So ask yourself how you want people to see you. Do you want to be taken seriously? To be seen as very clean and traditional? Approachable? Cool? Chic? Edgy? The options are endless, and any combination of them is fine. What is important is that you are still being true to yourself. You are deciding what about yourself you want people to see, not inventing an imaginary person to play dress up as. If you are super into makeup and you want a legion of instagram followers, go ahead and glop the make up on. If you don't enjoy makeup or have the patience for it, then this probably isn't a good way for you to try looking pretty. If you do not care about how you dress, then don't start pretending to. You will attract people with different values then you that you might not care for.
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| This child is not actually a shark, he is just pretending to be one. He is doing back to school wrong. |
2. Realistically think about how much effort you want to put in
Most of us work very hard to look good on the first week of school, and then look like sad potato sacks by finals week. I know, I do this too. Starting a new back to school look or routine is entirely pointless if you can't actually maintain the look once classes kick into full swing. For example, I do not have the patience to mess with my hair most days. I want to get out of bed, shake my head around, and have my hair look good. So I would be wasting my time trying to rock a hairstyle that requires fastidious attention, when I know I won't want to deal with it in a few weeks. There might be things you care about and are willing to put time or effort into caring for. This is great, but make sure you have something else you can be lazy about to leave time for the more intensive aspects of your routine. If you are ready to invest time in an elaborate look, awesome. If you are lazy, own it. You can look exactly the way you want to in either case, if you put some thought in ahead of time.
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| Me, attempting to look presentable at the end of the semester. |
3. Think about what your life actually allows you to wear.
Your look will implode if you can't simultaneously wear it and live your life. Think, what sort of constraints does your school or work life put on how you dress? Do you need to walk around a lot? Do you need to use your hands? Do you need to look professional? Maybe you are like me and have to take a short trek through the woods to get to classes. In that case, leave your heels at home (or in your bag). Maybe you work at a bank but want to look like you belong in a punk band. Then you may have to reserve the look for weekends. I am all for self expression, but not at the expense of comfort, practicality, or your ability to pay rent. Just be aware of the demands your life puts on you, and how these impact the way you can present yourself.
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| If you are really like me, you see these as a perfectly appropriate pair of hiking boots. |
4. Build an achievable a look that makes you feel good.
So you know what you want people to see when they look at you, and how much you are willing to or can do to make that happen. Now you have to put these ideas into action. If you are down to invest large amounts of time in how you look, you probably don't need my advice. But if you are lazier, or have a limited understanding of how to look the way you want, read on!
One of the easiest ways to transform how you look is with a hair cut, and/or change of facial hair for my hirsute friends out there. Simpler, neater, and sleeker cuts tend to look more professional, more serious, and more approachable. More experimental, textured, or complicated cuts look more cool, edgy and distinctive. Talk to the stylist about how much effort you are willing to put in, and how to give you a cut you want that you can actually still rock once school gets busy. For the men out there, if you don't have the time or patience to shave everyday, being clean shaven probably isn't for you. Facial hair tends to look less professional, so if you want to look professional and be lazy, keep a neatly trimmed beard of some sort. If you want to be lazy and look like a bad ass, just rock stubble all the time. If you do not grow facial hair evenly and want to look like a person who bathes, please clean shave.
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| LAZY PEOPLE UNITE! |
One of the easiest ways to transform how you look is with a hair cut, and/or change of facial hair for my hirsute friends out there. Simpler, neater, and sleeker cuts tend to look more professional, more serious, and more approachable. More experimental, textured, or complicated cuts look more cool, edgy and distinctive. Talk to the stylist about how much effort you are willing to put in, and how to give you a cut you want that you can actually still rock once school gets busy. For the men out there, if you don't have the time or patience to shave everyday, being clean shaven probably isn't for you. Facial hair tends to look less professional, so if you want to look professional and be lazy, keep a neatly trimmed beard of some sort. If you want to be lazy and look like a bad ass, just rock stubble all the time. If you do not grow facial hair evenly and want to look like a person who bathes, please clean shave.
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| Look! It looks like I am trying to be presentable. Secretly I am being lazy. YAY NEW HAIRCUT! |
You can take a similar approach with your wardrobe. First make sure your clothing fits and makes you feel good about yourself. Then, research the style that interests you, and put together outfits that fit this style. I mean this literally. Literally put outfits together in your closet. If you are not busy right now, you will be soon. It will be much easier to keep up your look if you have outfits ready to go and don't have to think about it during midterms. You may not even need any new clothing. You could just wear what you already have in a different way.
Finally, consider the details of your look. A pair of sunglasses can make you look cool, a watch can make you look professional. You do not need to think about extensive accessories to complete your look every day. Instead, make sure you have something that you can wear most days, will not take much effort to put on, and will round out your look. A pair of shoes that goes with your style is the easiest example of this. Most of us need to wear shoes anyway. They are a detail that can say quite a bit about you. If you want to look professional loafers, or low simple pumps are the way to go. For a preppy look, rock boat shoes or flip flops. For a cooler look, high top sneakers are always a good option.
In the end, there is no such thing as "back to school clothing." It is just the clothing you wear once school starts. What clothing stores and magazines try to sell us is the belief that if we do what they suggest we will become the person we always wanted to be. This isn't how it works. Like new year's resolutions and diets, any changes you make to go back to school will quickly disappear if they don't fit into your life. If you intend to change how you present yourself to the world, remember to make it easy on yourself. Get a haircut you can actually look good in after an all nighter, grab some shoes and accessories you can wear without maiming yourself (or others), and have outfits planned out so you don't have to think about matching colors when you wake up 10 minutes before your class that is a 20 minute walk away. The remaining details of how you build your back to school look depend on who you want to be seen as, and that's unique to you. Remember, you are reinventing your look to show the world your favorite parts of yourself, not someone else's idea of what you are supposed to look like. Good luck this year!
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| To look cool just wear sunglasses, at night, indoors, forever |
In the end, there is no such thing as "back to school clothing." It is just the clothing you wear once school starts. What clothing stores and magazines try to sell us is the belief that if we do what they suggest we will become the person we always wanted to be. This isn't how it works. Like new year's resolutions and diets, any changes you make to go back to school will quickly disappear if they don't fit into your life. If you intend to change how you present yourself to the world, remember to make it easy on yourself. Get a haircut you can actually look good in after an all nighter, grab some shoes and accessories you can wear without maiming yourself (or others), and have outfits planned out so you don't have to think about matching colors when you wake up 10 minutes before your class that is a 20 minute walk away. The remaining details of how you build your back to school look depend on who you want to be seen as, and that's unique to you. Remember, you are reinventing your look to show the world your favorite parts of yourself, not someone else's idea of what you are supposed to look like. Good luck this year!
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