If you know me, you know that I always dress up for just about anything. Anyone that was in any of my classes in grad school know that I always tried my hardest to look presentable. I very much believed in the ‘dress well, test well’ mentality. The manager at my apartment complex told me that he’s never even seen me in sweatpants. I’ll take that as a win.
But honestly, why do I take the time to get ready every day? It’s a question that I get asked a lot. It’s not like other people care. It’s not even like other people notice.
I didn’t used to dress up. In my freshman and sophomore years of college, I did the whole frat tees and gym shorts thing. I put my hair up in a bun and occassionally wouldn’t even wear a bra to class.
I guess it really started when I studied abroad. I was a little unprepared for how dressed up everyone on the University of Sydney campus was in comparison to the University of Arizona. In a way, it gave me the opportunity to dress up without feeling like I was straying from the norm.
When I got back to the U of A, I tried a little harder. Maybe, I just wasn’t about the whole gym clothes look anymore. I started to realize that I did like dressing up and came up with reasons why I really loved it.
I felt better.
You know that whole ‘look good, feel good’ idea? It’s a real thing. I felt more prepared for the day by spending 15 minutes getting ready. It was like the time I spend getting ready helped me wake up and led to me feeling better throughout the whole day.
I wore more of my clothes.
This was huge. When I first started dressing up more for class, I realized how little I wore some of the clothes in my wardrobe. Dressing up challenged me to come up with more outfit combinations (I don’t want to be an outfit repeater), and made me feel better about my closet. It also helped me to start clearing out my closet, when it became obvious what I no longer wanted to wear.
It became my personal brand.
Soon, it became my personal brand. I felt like, if I wore sweatpants, people would notice. Even though they didn’t notice that I dressed up, they would notice if I didn’t dress up. I realized that I liked being the girl who dressed up for class every day and it helped me appear more professional in a lot of situations.
It also helps to look cute, you know, when you tell people you run a fashion blog.
