R: The Devil Wears Prada

Let's not fool ourselves: good fashion sense can take us a long way at Yale—and in the world at large. Few men have been criticized for looking too sharp, and few women have been censured for donning an aptly chosen dress. It is by no means easy to look good all of the time, so those who pull it off deserve the credit (or the envy). But dressing to impress says painfully little about one's character. To the contrary, many people who go out of their ways to perfect their physical appearances are in a sense compensating for what they lack underneath the guise. And yet conservatives are often the first to promote respectable dress in what is becoming a largely apathetic society. Is this hypocritical? Does a commitment to fashion perpetuate our culture of materialism and consumption, which conservatives (for the most part) abhor? But consider fashion's status as a form of art—after all, high fashion emphasizes aesthetics above functionality, and it's about as old as any other art. So, if we're willing to discredit good dress because it doesn't concern the "life of the mind," should we do away with painting and sculpture as well? Maybe there's a fundamental difference between art on walls and art on people; perhaps the former is insightful, while the latter is deceitful—some would even say, devilish.