<p>If you don’t think hippies out effort into their attire you re mistaken. It was all about not looking like the establishment. Tie dying Tshirts, sewing on patches, braiding the hair, shopping in thirft is no easy task…and as stated making jewelry, hand sewing dresses, altering clothes… was all about presentation, and nothing wrong with that</p>
<p>Pizza girls point is right. When a person couldn’t be bothered to even try, to have an change their clothes if they can. Of course there are circumstances, busy college student, working on the house etx</p>
<p>But when a person who normally keeps themselves up, dresses, wears clean clothes suddenly stops, it can be a sign of depression, illness, etc</p>
<p>cobrat: Those neo-hippies are just as purposefully creating a certain personal presentation as pizzagirl. It is just a different presentation. Those involved in saving the world dress in a variety of ways. I think pg is correct when she keeps saying it is just as easy to dress as she does, as in a way she sees as less appropriate for a particular occasion - like the campus tour. Everyone makes a deliberate decision every morning as to how to dress. The decision may be to spend less time and energy (and money), but that is still a decision. I think it is pretty easy to dress like pg without breaking the bank. All dress is costume.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s so bourgeois to be conformist to upper-middle-class style norms, but not at all bourgeois to be conformist to “hippie/countercultural” norms. Give me a break. Either way, your clothes are signaling where you belong, or intend to portray where you think you belong. Whether that’s a sweater set, pearls and Lilly Pulitzer, or dreadlocks and a Bob Marley t-shirt. </p>
<p>BTW, the people who think that looking stylish is incompatible with being smart, or that being smart can only accompany sloppy or counterculture dress, are the ones who don’t really have critical thinking skills at all. How prejudicial and narrow-minded of them to think that way. To be fair, I don’t REALLY think Oberlin kids “uniformly” think that way. I bet there are some very creative people there who like playing around with their personal presentation and express themselves in that fashion.</p>
<p>I’d certainly like to think of myself as a joyful hippie (Antioch 1969) and also as someone who thinks about peace and justice before clothing. I do have some nice clothes too. A pretty dress from Senegal and one from Kenya.</p>
<p>EXACTLY. Well said. The very fact that there are such markets serving all kinds of personal styles from preppy to bohemian says that people DO care about their appearance and personal presentation beyond merely “clothing that covers my body and protects me from elements and arrest.”</p>
<p>So, is wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts appropriate and suitable on campus? Sure.</p>
<p>Will people make judgments about you - rightly or wrongly - based on your clothes? Of course they will. As PG says, clothing choices are a powerful signaling device.</p>
<p>Right now I have on custom made deliberately tattered clothing. I could write pages about what that means.</p>
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<p>The interesting thing, to me, is that depending on who we are the judgement will be very different. My judgement will not equal pizzagirl’s, so it depends who individuals want to impress what they should wear. Who wants to talk about queer theory and dress for a while? ;)</p>
<p>Obies in my day tend to be the opposite regarding judging others’ academic/intellectual acumen…sometimes to unhealthy overly PC terms. </p>
<p>In college, the idea was that being judgmental about clothing choices which deviated from upper-middle class conventional norms was wrong because it was oppressive to those who rejected those norms…not because they were overcompensating for lack of academic/intellectual acumen. </p>
<p>In short, HS culture rejected stylishness due to STEM Nerd chic to extremes…college culture rejected stylishness of your preferred type because it was “too establishment”. Very different reasons.</p>
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Right now I have on custom made deliberately tattered clothing. I could write pages about what that means.*</p>
<p>It reminds me of when the upper socio economic group went to great lengths to maintain their pasty skin tone, because a tan indicated that you did physical labor.</p>
<p>Then a tan ( especially in winter) indicated you could afford to go elsewhere.</p>
<p>Now with increase in knowledge about skin cancer, a tan is about as stylish as smoking in public.</p>
<p>Bay, that’s an opinion. I really don’t know of anyone irl who takes offense to someone’s sweats in a classroom. I’m sure you do, but I just don’t.</p>
<p>Plus, it seems that dressing up too much is offensive to some as well. I prefer to look at actions and words rather than dress. Luckily, I live in an area where the majority seem to do that too.</p>
<p>Actually, I don’t know of anyone else who does, either, romani, but that may be because people who care about those things tend to be polite enough not to say anything to the offending person.</p>
<p>You enjoy putting in the effort. More power to you–seriously, no sarcasm. Not everyone is going to choose similarly, or make the same judgements you’re making. </p>
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<p>Entirely agreed. The sentiment applies to people dressed stylishly or not.</p>
<p>Returning to the original post–D1, a sophomore, decided that this year she was going to make an effort to up her fashion game. She’s very much enjoying putting together great outfits for the day. Won’t be as easy to do as the weather turns towards winter.</p>
<p>I do agree that it’s important for students to know how to dress appropriately. Career services at my campus back in the 1980s did workshops where they would explicitly say things like men shouldn’t wear sneakers with their business suits, and women should check their pantyhose for runs. I remember senior year of college going to the symphony with a close friend. He showed up wearing a dark suit, white dress shirt, tie, and black lace-up shoes–perfect. It was only when we sat down that I saw he was wearing white athletic socks. :eek: :)</p>
<p>There is the same amount of effort used in pulling on a pair of dirty sweats and pulling on a pair of Jean or pants. Oh maybe having to be a grown up and do laundry sometimes might be strain, but not that hard. There may be some effort in actually shopping, and spending wisely, but deals are to be had. </p>
<p>The college finals period aside, there really is no excuse to go out dirty. Yeah yeah going out in pajamas is cute and funny and oh look how hard I am working, thus sending a very clear message. It takes all of three minutes to switch from sweats to pants. I can even do it while typing this post. </p>
<p>There is a deliberate message sent out via our attire, whether it be the last tour guide at a college who sends the message I would rather be doing something else, to the overly dressed girl in heels in class…it’s all a message, the jocks in their sports gear, the girl in a pencil skirt and blouse in class who has to head right to work…to the kid in dirty holey Raggy Tshirts the message being I’m so busy I can’t do my laundry or even change, to i don’t care. </p>
<p>It’s not about having a vast wardrobe. I knew a young man in mymold office who had two pairs of slack and eight shirts. He mixed and matched with goodwill ties. He was always pressed and neat. He made an impression of caring about himself and the job whether he could afford lots of fancy clothes or not. Oh he had two pairs of shoes, and one was sneakers.</p>
<p>There is comfort and there is couldn’t be bothered.</p>
<p>Why was there just “one culture” in high school and just “one culture” in your college, to which the only appropriate responses appeared to be “conform at the risk of being ostracized” or “deliberately flaut just to tweak people”? </p>
<p>Why is there no post from you that is ever about what YOU think and YOUR opinions – why do you always cite what OTHERS in your hs and college allegedly thought about everything? Why do you give what others think so much weight in all of your posts? It’s like you define yourself through what others think of you.</p>
<p>Or they know in their own hearts that their judgmental attitudes in the context of a venue are busybodyish, wrong, and don’t want to risk possible social criticism and ridicule when called on it by those who disagree with such attitudes. </p>
<p>Way I look at it, on a public street…no one has greater standing than anyone else. </p>
<p>Ergo, feeling “offended” by what someone wears on a public street due to offending personally held fashion sensibilities exhibits an attitude that the offended have greater social standing than the offender. A very un-American attitude IMHO. :)</p>