Right so today I was minding my own business, trying to keep up w/my usual demanding schedule as of late which consists of getting up around 10, having some toast & coffee, working out, showering, eating some more, futsing around my new apartment, perhaps submitting my resume to a potential employer, cooking dinner, hanging out w/the bf when he comes home, and falling asleep around 12, when I read an awesome post on Suze Yalof Schwartz’s blog, “Suze on Style,” on the Glamour.com website.  It pertained to the preponderance of sloppy dressers that seem to have pervaded society at every level (whether you really think there are “levels” of society is a different discussion).  She rightly wonders where our standards have gone in terms of personal style and how we appear in public.  I guess somewhere after the 1960s, women were like hey, I don’t have to wear pantyhose every day, and I don’t have to wear those Pleasantville-style full-skirted dresses, or even…bras!!  Enter the 1970s.  Then came the power suit of the 1980s, I guess at which time women were like ok free love and getting high and listening to music and protesting the government via my inaction and apathy was fun and all, but now I need to like, make some money and hey- maybe pop music (read: Madonna) isn’t so bad after all!  Then the 1990s were upon us – essentially backlash from over-the-top 1980s style and lots of angst manifesting in the form of a ridiculously somber color palette: minimalism a la Narciso Rodriguez at best, oversized-everything-from-GAP at worst, in what I would call some type of existential crisis with the end of the bipolar system and the beginning of the US trying to stay relevant on the international scene.  OK maybe I overstate a little.  Anyhoo, after I got done leaving Suze a nice comment on her blog in which I empathized with her well-spoken sentiment, I read through the other comments, one of which inspired this here post.

Said commenter didn’t exactly relate to Suze’s sense of frustration w/everyone’s “non-style” as of late. In fact, she in her own disdainful way applauded those who don’t care how they look.  She apparently works doing research at a university, where apathetic dressing is the norm, and from the way she put it, no one who works there would no what “style” was if it beat them about the ears w/an Hermes Berkin bag (but who would ruin a $20,000+ bag by doing that anyway??) b/c they are so heavily immersed in their work – work that will in her words, “shape the world to come.”  While I would never belittle groundbreaking research and those dedicated to its pursuit, this commenter goes so far as to say that “the more sloppily dressed [researchers] are the bigger geniuses.”  Ok, perhaps this is the way of the scientific world, but personally, if I were to encounter one of these such sloppily-dressed individuals outside of their work environment, what would indicated to me that they were so intelligent??  Um, apparently nothing.  

To me, this type of mentality is a residual effect of the ’90s mentality that looking good when you go out (and by go out I mean leave your home) is to exert extra effort in order to satisfy others, to somehow seek their approval, and that to dress well detracts from one’s real passion or “mission” in life (groundbreaking research, family, school, etc).  While some people certainly do dress well for approval (like, hello, those trying to meet someone special…or maybe not special?…for example), I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard women say now that I look better, I feel better, too!!  For some reason (read: this existential crisis of the 1990s I referred to earlier), us smart women have let ourselves believe: ” If I dress well, I won’t be taken seriously for my intellectual prowess, and will only be perceived as superficial.”  I think however, that the problem comes w/a lot of women’s perception of what constitutes “dressing well.”

Dressing well DOES NOT amount to dressing provocatively, or head-to-toe in of-the-moment trends.  Rather, a woman who dresses well is mindful of a few things:  Where she’s going/what she’s doing that day (running errands? going to work?  meeting friends for dinner?), her body type (bottom-heavy? short? chesty? lanky?), and what clothing shapes flatter her best (for us below 5′4″, capris need not apply).  Knowing and appreciating these factors about oneself does not make one superficial or detract from their qualities that aren’t apparent at first glance.  This commenter on Suze’s blog seems to think the opposite, that because her colleagues show up to work as though they dressed in the dark, they are clearly more dedicated to and serious about their work, and doesn’t that speak volumes about them??

To be clear, I have friends (you know who you are!) with budding careers in the sciences, where professional work attire isn’t a priority for a few reasons; for example, the lab is not the place for your cute new heels.  They’d look ridiculous and would be unsafe!  Similarly, the thought of working that awesomely flattering, well-fitting (and perhaps on-trend?) wardrobe is not super appealing when at any moment some…specimen (human? chemical? bacteriological?) could find its way onto your clothes.  Or perhaps no one can even see your clothes if you’re clad in protective gear or out in the field all day.  I got it.  I see where this chick is coming from.  Where we part ways though is after one clocks out of the lab and is living amongst the rest of us at the mall, at the park, at the theater, at restaurants.  While our commenter assures us that her colleagues aren’t out at the stores, reading magazines, or apparently doing anything social, I happen to know several women devoted to the sciences, but who also like to go grab a coffee once in a while, and thus must be seen in public, and who also happen to know that what they wear in the lab all day is not what they want to wear when out at night.  That’s right, “what they want to wear.”  This commenter implies that intelligent women (at least the ones she knows) don’t care a lick about their appearance because doing so implies caring about what others think of them.  To me, her sentiments do an injustice to all intelligent women who want to feel good about themselves both in and out of the lab/school/office/home/aircraft carrier, who enjoy putting on some mascara, perfume and dark jeans before going out to dinner, and who know that doing so doesn’t make them any less intellectually competent, but a confident ambassador for their life’s work.