Why does everyone at Menlo dress the same? Here’s my take.

Amanda Crisci | Spread Co-Editor

Photo by Creative Commons Zappos.com

Fashion is a topic on everyone’s mind in this day and age. From scrolling through Instagram feeds of your favorite designers to commenting on a classmate’s outfit, pretty much everyone at Menlo expresses some form of interest in the matter. What concerns me, however, is how our community has become so fixated on following trends that people will go to extreme lengths to fit in. This past week alone I’ve caught at least 2 people in all of my classes, everyday, wearing Birkenstock shoes. Two months ago though, everyone thought Birks were gross and smelled bad but now every girl and some guys are wearing them. My point? Students should stop caring so much about following trends and what’s “in” and focus on things more important to them.

I’d like to point out what I’ve observed about fashion at Menlo. A trend in our community becomes popular is by the ‘snowball effect.’ One girl will come to school one day with her ears double pierced and that weekend five other girls will get their ears double pierced because they saw their friend do it. This effect will sweep the entire community until everyone has their double piercings. And that is how the birth of a typical, and usually expensive, trend comes along.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think fashion or expression is bad. In fact, I think fashion can be a great means of expressing yourself and dressing the way you feel most like yourself. However, nobody these days looks like “themselves” because everyone is dressing the same. When people unintentionally conform to clothing trends and popular fashion we lose a quality of diversity and uniqueness that every person could express. Instead of looking like a school of diverse and unique students, the campus looks like a photo shoot for a Vineyard Vines magazine.

It doesn’t need to be this way though. People don’t have to spend 150 dollars on a Patagonia jacket they don’t need. In order to change this trend in behavior it needs to start with the people. If people can distinguish between whether they really like something or they are just doing it to fit in, then people can start forming their own senses of styles. If students each have their own personal sense of style, then everyone will feel less pressure to fit in and students can celebrate their uniqueness over the types of clothes they have.