"Ally's" alarm goes off two hours before class begins. She showers, blow dries and straightens her hair, smears some makeup on her already flawless complexion, slips into her designer jeans and pulls a $60 sweater over her bare shoulders as different pieces of Tiffany's jewelry dangle off her wrists and neck. \nAfter a quick once-over in the mirror, a faint smile appears across her face. "Ally" might not be ready for a day full of tough courses, but at least she looks good.\nAccording to Evelyn Brannon, author of "Fashion Forecasting," fashion is a style popular in the present or a set of trends that have been accepted by a wide audience. Clothing choices express individuality, but they also serve to manipulate the public image and the expectations of others.\nDo college students use clothing to assimilate into mainstream standards? And if they do, are students more or less concerned with their fashion sense in college?
Fashion and Self Esteem\nAccording to "Appearance and the Self" by Gregory P. Stone, appearance is an extremely important part of the concept of self.\n"Through personal appearance -- dress, cosmetics, fashion expressions, body movements ... ," the article stated, "an individual presents personal identity, attitudes, moods, and value or self-worth." \nFrom the statements made in "Appearance and the Self," one would assume fashion is a direct reflection of the personality. \nMatt McGinnis, a former IU student and member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, begs to differ. \n"I probably wouldn't notice what a person was wearing unless it was really, really out of the ordinary," McGinnis said. \nHe also said he thinks people really do not pay a lot of attention to clothes and unless you're going somewhere important, you're just getting dressed for comfort. \nDenim jeans, jackets and skirts are a part of the college culture, said Meenal Mistry, a fashion editor at Women's Wear Daily. Tennis shoes of all types are also worn by college students walking across campus or through town. T-shirts and sweatshirts of different sizes and logos are also a big hit in college. Generally, college bookstores will carry a wide variety of T-shirts and sweatshirts bearing the college name and logo on them. The easy accessibility is convenient when students are pressed for time. McGinnis also said the popularity of the more laid-back look reveals little to nothing about a person's personality. \n"Pretty much all your clothes are saying is, 'I'm dressed."' he said. \nProfessor Jerome R. Busemeyer of the IU Department of Psychology said college students are not so concerned with their fashion sense. \n"I think that their self esteem is stronger and more under control in college," Busemeyer said in response to students' "letting go" of their self-esteem issues.\nClaire Colvin from WomenToday magazine said she believes self-esteem is a concept that is hard to grasp for many young men and women. \nColvin wrote an article titled "Restoring Your Self-Esteem." The article started with the sentence, "It is amazing what we accept as truth if we hear it enough times," in bold letters. \nFashion icons are celebrated in American culture as well as around the world. Certain icons, such as Twiggy, Britney Spears, Audrey Hepburn, Jennifer Lopez and Gwyneth Paltrow, have set current standards of beauty in society. These standards have been widely accepted as fashion rules. \nAllie Cooper, a sophomore and member of Alpha Epsilon Phi, labeled the most fashionable sorority at IU by Mistry, said their styles are an emulation of American fashion icons. She said the most fashionable people in the house dress very trendy, meaning they have looks like celebrities and are into styles that come from from popular fashion magazines. \nCooper said though the members of the sorority tend to dress alike, it isn't an intentional conformity. \n"A lot of our members come from big cities and the same backgrounds and that is why we end up dressing alike," she said.
Fashion and Expression \nEvelyn L. Brannon describes fashion as a machine with different functions in "The Fashion Forecasting Process."\n"The engine of fashion is sparked by dual goals of imitation and differentiation, of fitting in and standing out, of following the leader and being distinctive," Brannon wrote.\nBrian Dillon, a 2002 Purdue University graduate, wrote an article for The Purdue Exponent Online about his own attitudes toward different fashions on campus when he was a junior. In the article, he stated he believed clothes were part of a person's image and personality. \n"If we walked around wearing sweatpants all the time, most people in this world would be lonely and single," he wrote. "Clothes can express an appearance of power, indifference, or they can just plain make you look damn sexy." \nDillon said he believes fashion is used as a subtle way to express yourself. \n"Now more than ever, people are using fashion as a form of expression," Dillon wrote. "And as long as it looks good, they don't care how expensive, repetitive, unoriginal or revealing it is." \nFashion may reflect people's personalities to some degree, but for many, appearance is a tool used to add more to their character. That's why people "dress up" when they have job interviews, attend church or go on a date. \nElizabeth Bahra, a sophomore at IU majoring in apparel merchandising, believes fashion not only adds more to her character, but also is the most obvious and furthest-reaching expression. \n"Even if you aren't talking to someone and (are) just walking by them in the street," Bahra said, "they've probably already formed some sort of opinion about you based on how you're dressed." \nBahra also said fashion may not be the clearest form of expression because everyone's perceptions and opinions are different. She admits because it is a visual representation, it reaches the most amount of people. \nBahra said a variety of fashions can enhance the appearance and clothing choices students make. \n"You are catering your wardrobe to how you are feeling at that moment," she said. "They're just like facial expressions -- something visual to symbolize an attitude"
