I watch a lot of What Not To Wear. I enjoy watching the quick transformations that people make on the show while getting some style advice on how to wear things that fit your body and lifestyle. One of the most interesting things that inevitably happens at the end of the show is that participants not only change the way they dress (with the help of Stacy and Clinton) but something inside of them shifts related to the way they feel about themselves.
Usually as the show progresses we as the viewer begin to understand that the way they dress seems to always come from the way they feel about themselves or view themselves. These are often women—which shows how much emphasis we put on the way women present their external and for whose view is that really for?
Many times along the story line we learn that either they are a caretaker and forget about themselves or they have body image complexes that disengage them from finding clothes that make them feel good mainly because inside they do not feel confident about their body.
Perhaps one of the most upsetting things to me is that Stacy and Clinton’s main mantra to these ladies are “you don’t look your part” or “you don’t look your age” or “what do you think people think of you when they see you dressed like this?” It’s upsetting to me because of the emphasis we put on dress and it’s not different in higher education. However, any of my qualms with this whole dress thing is just a tantrum because the REALITY of it is that dress is important to how we initially categorize someone and we rely heavily on symbols and indicators to create a picture about something or someone before we ever really know or understand them.
In one episode, one of the participants said she was feeling like she was hiding behind a style of her own that she tried to preserve for so long and wound up hiding from herself and once she knew how to dress she gained this understanding. Another participant talked about her disgust of how people put too much stock into clothing and that it should not define you….but in the end she talked about how sexy she felt in her new clothes and how wonderful it was to have this new sense of style. Many of the participants were concerned about bringing attention to themselves as a whole or to certain areas of their body and therefore would wear things like big sweaters or just jeans to hide behind so that no one would pay attention to them and they could fade into the background.
I say all of this to relay my views on clothing. As I said above, I think we put too much emphasis on it and determine how we will interact with someone based on the clothing that we encounter them in. That sounds tantamount to looking at a person’s skin color or features and making assumptions about their race, ethnicity or culture and predetermining things about them and how you will decide to interact with them. I kind of relate it to the number of times White women will use the word “girlfriend” with me because they perceive that if I am Black that I use that phrase when speaking to my women friends…I do not, but I won’t hear them use it with other women who are not Black.
Throughout my two years in my graduate program, I believe a lot of focus was put on image as it relates to dress. “Dress for the job you want” is a common phrase that indicates if you want an upper level administration job then you should be producing that image right now through wearing suits and other ‘professional’ clothing. I get it, I really do, we put stock into how a person dresses and if you see someone in a suit all of the time that speaks to how well they will succeed in life right? I don’t think so, I’ve seen some fools in suits. And, wise people in sweats and a tee.
So how do I dress for myself while dressing for others secondly? I don’t know, but if I want to be respected in some circles to a certain extent there are some things I need to take seriously (at least at first). My fiancés always says if you are doing things that are not fun to you then you need to be the one to make it fun. I thought about this in terms of dress and thought of hot pink. To me hot pink is the epitome of fun.
Power of Hot Pink: hot pink to me symbolizes fun, lightheartedness, and simplicity….it’s a way for me to realize not to take myself too seriously while maintaining my personality.
Whenever I am shopping for clothing for my business wardrobe I definitely try to find hot pink pieces to include, that to me makes it fun and bearable…for now.
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