Does it Really Matter what you Wear to School?

By: Lilia Holdyn

It's a Saturday evening, walking with you are some of your friends, in the background you hear the greatest pop hits of the year. You are inside the Valley River <all. Your friends mention a new shop that you haven’t been in before, so you walk inside. They all pick out some clothes that they absolutely adore but you can’t help but hate. Everyones seem to be wearing that kind of stuff at school. Do you give in and buy yourself a pair, or do you stand your ground and buy something you actually like that other people might judge you for wearing?

Does this remind you of anything that’s happened to yourself? One thing you're told will change when going into middle school is the development of your personal style, but what happens when your personal style is the same as half the school? Most everyone wants to wear what's popular, because they want to fit in with their peers and look “cool” (ignoring how lame and old that sounds). But it's easy to fall into a hole where you’re only wearing things that are popular, and you’re wearing nothing that you actually like. It can start to feel like you are dressing only for other people, and not for yourself.

When talking to Reese Dame, I asked her if she believes her sense of style has changed a lot since starting middle school, “...I feel like I’m easily influenced by my friends and stuff. Like when I see something I like, I want to buy it for myself. Whatever's popular I guess.”

But this information doesn’t mean that Reese doesn’t like the clothes she wears. “...I do like my style, but I wish I had more of the clothes I see online.” This is a prevalent feeling for a lot of the students of Cal Young, or any school for that matter. No matter how much we wish we could, you cannot logistically buy everything you see online, otherwise you probably couldn’t afford anything else. Many feel there will always be people with cooler outfits online than them, so it’s hard to appreciate what you have already. 

A great way to both make your style more unique and more to your liking is to adjust them yourself, with skills like sewing or knitting. Another easier way to quickly update a boring shirt or tank top is to cut it. Bleaching black shirts and tie dying White ones also work great.

Lots of teens can be found shopping at the mall, places like American Eagle, Pacsun, Zoomies, H&M, and others stores are popular choices. But when these stores as well as the ones online start to take a big bite out of your budget, a good option for cloth shopping is thrifting. 

Thrifting is a popular choice for lots of teens for numerous reasons. If you have a more unique style already, stores at the mall won’t always have what you're looking for, since those stores usually only keep up with fast fashion, so thrifting both online and in person is great! This also means when you are looking for a distinct style, and not necessarily a certain item, thrift stores will be good.  Ross doesn’t really count as a thrift store, because they get their clothes from when mall stores have failed to sell as many clothes they thought they would, but it's still good for when you're trying to keep your shopping on budget. But thrifting can take a lot more work and patience than regular shopping. Your typical thrift store won't have a lot of stuff on display, so you have to go through rack through rack individually until you spot something you like. “I love to thrift,” says Reese, “25% of my closet is probably thrifted. But it can be pretty hard to find good places to shop when thrifting.”. An important thing to add is that because thrifting has gotten more popular over the years, thrift stores have taken advantage of shoppers by unfairly raising prices on their clothes, and a big debate at the moment is if you should only be thrifting if its your only option. Please take this information with a grain of salt as you thrift.

From the research I’ve collected, I’ve come to the conclusion that Cal Young students should feel free to wear whatever they please, just as long as they are happy with what they wear. Just because you wear more popular clothes, it does not make you any more boring or basic. Opposite applies if your style is more unique and individualistic. Please never make fun of anyone for how they dress.