By Kaylee Hayes | Reporter
Most days I walk on campus and am gravely disappointed by the outfits I see. I shudder at the athleisure apocalypse engrossing campus.
There is a lot to be said about what people wear and how they wear it. What you wear is a declaration of how you feel on a specific day. It’s how you decide to present yourself.
This is the primary reason why developing your style is not just an option, but a necessity. It is also one of the more enjoyable skills to learn within your personal development. Figuring out how to jump into the wide world of fashion, presentation and styling can seem scary. I promise it is not. Let’s take those joggers off.
As for the Lululemon or Athleta shorts, a lot more of you need to be purchasing the four-inch shorts. The crazy Waco wind and backpacks make the two-inch Hotty-Hot shorts super unforgiving.
As a young adult, you should be conscious that your professors, colleagues, recruiters and employers are on campus, and they too, do not want to see your cheeks. These are the people who are going to be writing your recommendation letters or offering you a job. Keep that in mind.
And specifically for Baylor students, you don’t need to be a sponsor for Outdoor Voices, Hokas, On Cloud, Alo, Nike, Adidas, Champion or Daily Drills. I know I’m not the only one who notices the brands that plague this campus.
Have some respect — they are not even paying you. Y’all look silly in the same uniform, and I want to see some individuality.
All of that being said, it’s OK to wear athleisure. I find myself in it at least a few times a week. But I fear that you all have forgotten that denim exists and that there is more to this world than this polyester and nylon hellscape.
The environmental impacts of these synthetic, Frankenstein fibers seem widely unknown to the general public. If you didn’t know that both nylon and polyester are not biodegradable, now you do.
It is empowering to educate yourself about the diversity and act of dressing because practicing holistic viewing of each item that you purchase may promote slower and more sustainable garment consumption, leading to less dire and intense environmental impacts.
Researching fabric and fibers is a great place to start in developing your style. By doing this you can learn how to better treat the clothes you currently own, develop a better understanding of textures, learn what feels good to you, and most importantly, begin to break down the walls you have built around what you think can and can’t be worn.
My favorite aspect of garments and garment making is the textile process, more specifically, the use of colors and shapes in creating interesting patterns. I know what my favorite colors are. If you don’t know yours, that may be a good place to start. You could even get a professional color analysis to see what colors look best on you based on skin tone, hair and eye color.
Clothing size is somewhat arbitrary. The best way to find clothes that fit you is to try on what looks like it will fit, not what the letter or number the tag says. A large T-shirt from Walmart is not going to have the same measurements as a large T-shirt from Target. They were probably made by different designers with different machines and have a million other minute details that make their sizing different from others’.
Approaching sizing with this mindset is important because it will allow you to reframe the way you see each clothing item. You decide how you want garments to fit you, not the other way around.
If you have a free Saturday afternoon, try exploring the second-hand shops that Waco has to offer, stop looking at the size on the tag and remember what you put on is supposed to make you feel good. Get out there and get dressed in a way you never have before — the sky is the limit.
