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Dress to Impress: Despite trend of casual style, some students choose to wear professional clothing

MIRROR, MIRROR: Junior Reid Watson fixes his tie in a mirror. Although he said he started dressing up when required by his job, he said he does so now because he enjoys looking more professional.
By Amanda Nguyen
<[email protected]>

Juniors Reid Watson and Elizabeth “Betsy” Fuson defy what they say is a growing trend of going casual; on the contrary, Watson and Fuson dress to impress.

“People nowadays dress very, very, very casual. It doesn’t bother me, but it’s not me. It’s not how I prefer to do things,” Watson said.

Watson said he started dressing up early junior year because it’s more professional and, to some extent to impress girls. He started dressing up after working at a Web company that required him to dress nicely. He said he thought it would be easier if he just wore nice clothes. The side effects of that decision were a good perk, too. Watson said, “People treat you differently. Adults are nicer to you when you dress up too.”

Like Watson, Fuson said, “I have been dressing nicely for quite a long time. I dress nicely to feel good and confident at school. When I do this, I feel better about the day and I’m more likely to have a better attitude at school. Most often I get nice compliments from friends who dress up as well and appreciate the time to look nice and presentable.”

When Watson first started dressing nicely, he said people noticed. He said, “For the first couple of weeks, people would ask me why I would dress up, and I would tell them no reason. After a while, it sunk in. It was strange at first, but people just got used to it.”

Watson said he buys most of his dress clothes at G by Guess, Tommy Hilfiger, H&M, Goodwill and other thrift stores. He doesn’t go for a certain type of clothing when he shops. He said, I don’t really have a style inspiration, but I wear a lot of sweater vests.

It started as a joke with my friends. We were trying to find the most ridiculous thing, and I just ended up wearing them a lot.”

Although Watson said he thinks fewer people are dressing up, social studies teacher Karen Taff said she thinks differently. She said, “I think more people are dressing up now. The styles have become less bare, which is good for everyone. We had problems with the bare bellies a couple of years ago, but there are a lot of layers now.”

Because Taff graduated from Carmel in 1977 and has taught here for 25 years, she has seen many styles pass through the halls of Carmel. “The style trends have gone through phases. It looks like the ‘70s now. People didn’t dress up more back then because the ‘70s was the great relaxing of styles,” Taff said.

Author Tracey Turner wrote a book titled, “The 1970s: The Decade Style Forgot” because of all of the fashion faults. Since there were a variety of styles, some combinations of different clothes didn’t turn out so well.  According to 1970-clothes.com, there were many influence of fashions such as hippies and disco music. Women could wear a variety of clothing including miniskirts and full length skirts.

Like Taff said, many styles from the 1970s still exist today. The Web site also stated that people in the ‘70s aimed to look as cool as possible and show off their bodies by wearing tight pants and shirts. This trend seems to be resurfacing once again through form-fitting shirts, skinny jeans and leggings.

Although form-fitting clothes may be in again, Fuson said, “I enjoy the very classy, conservative style. I like the styles of the ‘20s to the ‘50s. I like full skirts and nice knee-length dresses.”

According to Fuson, although not as many students dress up, some students at Carmel participate in “Stay Classy Thursdays,” a tradition started a few years ago here, including herself. She said, “I always try to wear a skirt or dress at least once a week.”

In participating in “Stay Classy Thursdays,” Fuson said, “I actually think the number of people who dress up has been pretty constant. Especially on the social scale, not many people want to look like a slob, especially when trying to make friends or flirt. We all want to look our best in case that one special opportunity comes along.”

When it comes down to it, people want to look nice. Taff said, “People dress up because we’re creatures of style.”

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