Everyone knows Jenny Humphrey’s iconic line from “Gossip Girl”: “But Dad! I want to go to fashion school!” For me, Emerson is my fashion school. I wake up each day with a closet full of possibilities and almost as many clothing items.
Students were not allowed to wear jeans, show their shoulders, have graphics, or effectively express themselves through clothing at my high school. The dress code boxed our personalities into neat little rows of acceptable clothing, restricting our ability to look like ourselves.
I’ve been passionate about fashion for as long as I can remember, and I use clothing as my primary form of self-expression. It’s how I tell the world who I am and what I like. I felt a heightened sense of insecurity when I began my freshman year of high school in black jeans and a plain t-shirt because I wasn’t allowed to be myself. In addition to not knowing where my classes were or who I’d sit with at lunch, my main source of confidence had been taken away from me.
Not only do dress codes restrict self expression in students, but they also demonstrate disparities in regard to sexism and forced conformity to gender binaries. Dress codes create a limited understanding of personality and force students to be conscious of what they’re wearing in a negative manner.
I brought these issues to my high school’s student government association several times, but each time faculty found a reason to resist change. We were told that these “beloved traditions” were what made our high school the respectable institution it is today. It is beliefs such as these that prevent students from reaching their full creative potential.
Not every outfit is school appropriate, but a pair of blue jeans never hurt anyone. Living in fear of being punished for self expression breeds a hostile environment.
Faced with belittling restrictions for my entire high school career, I wrote my college entry essay on style and its importance to me. I spoke about the confidence and joy it brings me every day, and how it encourages me to stay true to myself. This is the essay that got me accepted to Emerson College.
Emerson is an inclusive, inviting space that does not support antiquated ideas like dress codes. When I was applying for colleges, I took the environment just as seriously as the academics because I knew I needed a progressive school. I couldn’t imagine myself at an institution that did not reflect the uniqueness of its students and their forms of expression.
My experience now on campus is the polar opposite of what it used to be. I started freshman year wearing whatever I liked and feeling confident in myself. I’m liberated with the knowledge that no one will police the length of my skirts or depth of my neckline.
Not only is fashion vital to expressing oneself, but it’s also a way to build relationships. Being comfortable in your own skin shows and allows people to get to know the real you. I’ve made some of my best friends simply by complimenting their outfits. The freedom to experiment with aesthetics and personas creates a carefree, artistic campus that accurately represents the students it houses.
Stepping out every morning to an array of styles, colors, and individuals inspires me more than anything else. Seeing the restrictive rules I’d grown up with being broken sparked a confidence I had never fully experienced. I feel pushed to explore my personal sense of style, which in turn motivates me to think more creatively and builds my self-confidence.
Clothing is how people choose to present themselves to the outside world. Dress codes simply perpetuate old, harmful ideas of how society “should” look and hinder students’ development. The self-expression that comes with fashion is vital on a campus because it fuels people’s inspiration and heightens their individual identities.
