Letters & Opinion
Fashion: Not just for women, Part one
The Pointer
rking163@uwsp.edu
Now that you are leaving college and heading into the real world, there is one more thing that you need to learn before leaving the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
How a man dresses and looks is obviously important, but what defines a man’s style?
A man’s style is primarily defined by his confidence; some of us are born with it and others acquire it over time. This confidence does not simply come from what you wear; it is also part of who you are.
Too often, we look to celebrities and peers to define what our style should be. If you look around at guys in your classes (No, this does not mean you’re gay!), you will find that some of the guys seem to put everything together so well. Yet others look as though they just fell out of bed and put on the first thing that they saw- “clean” or not.
The million-dollar question, “What do your clothes say about you?”
Unless you have friends like my roommate Avra, most people won’t tell you that you smell funny, something is stuck in your teeth or ask you, “What the hell are you wearing?!“ So before you run into Avra on the street, let me give you a few basic pointers.
Building the perfect wardrobe does not have to be hard or cost you a lot of money. Just remember these five dress codes: corporate, casual, business appropriate, business appropriate casual and play clothes.
Let’s start with play clothes, since they are the easiest. Everything that you normally wear to class can be considered “play clothes.” Even though you get compliments and can wear them to a nice restaurant in Stevens Point, you need to realize that these clothes are not appropriate in the workplace at all.
Before we can tackle the other four categories, you need to do three things:
1) Assess your closet. Look at this like writing a paper: the better organized you are, the easier it is to write. Therefore, the better organized your closet is, the less likely you are to wear something that is inappropriate for your new workplace. Try to arrange your clothes in two categories: “work and play,” or if you prefer, “week and weekend.”
2) De-clutter your closet. Now that you have hung and folded all the clothes in your closet and can see the floor, see what you actually wear and what you don’t. Now, get rid of the latter. This includes sports coats that are too big, pants that are too small and ties with soup stains that just won’t come out.
3) Renew your closet. With all of the offending clothing gone, look to see what you are missing. Make sure that you have enough shirts, pants, plenty of ties - and don’t forget suits. Before you head to the mall to go shopping, there is one thing that you need to do first: go to a formal wear store and get measured. This will save you a lot of time and money in the long run.
Now you have one week to get through the above list and prepare for your final, and perhaps most important final exam: “shopping smart, on a budget.”
