SAMHÄLLE
Dress to IMPRESS
Dress to Impress TEXT AYANA MUSAEV PHOTO VICTORIA ROHRER
The impressions you make with your appearance is an interesting topic to put forward. Many students that graduate from KTH end up in influential positions in their respective workspaces, and even if they don’t, they find themselves in impactful environments. Dressing for power makes parts of your life easier; instead of trying to get attention and establish authority with rhetorics, let your style speak for you instead. The European cut of the blazer will seem to prevail as the piece of clothing that gives off authoritative vibes in our modern age. Even if the work setting here in Scandinavia has evolved to a rather casual business setting in most places, is it possible to get the professional aura by curating your outfits accordingly. We will share some tips on how to elevate your style and wardrobe in a way that empowers you. If you know that a piece of clothing you own is more ethically manufactured than for example something bought from Shein, or even better: if you have bought something second hand, well it could bring a special kind of joy to you. This can be seen as a sustainable way of looking at clothes, but there is actually more to it which involves class and privilege. Everyone should have the privilege to still be able to practice a hobby (fashion in this case) and not be seen as a worse person if they aren’t as sustainable in comparison to others that have more money. Something that is useful for most people is the equation of ‘cost per wear’: the cost of the clothing piece is divided by the amount of times worn. This could amount
to some pieces initially being pricier and more sustainable, being cheaper than the cheaper alternative to it. The cheaper one presumably being made in worse quality, hence resulting in that you only wear it half as many times as the one with higher quality. For getting the empowerment the superficial way is there a term called ‘Power dressing’ that is coined for dressing in an androgynous way to receive authority in professional settings. An important part of it lies in accessories. Hence you can achieve allure and get a powerful upgrade on a simple shape or outfit by combining different both masculine and feminine elements. Dressing after your body type is another powerful tool. When followed, it is not thought about, but when dismissed, is the biggest authoritarian turn off. This is a point that is often brought up in ‘the French girl’ fashion guides, but is just as applicable for all genders. When things fit together well, we see the whole person as harmonious, and many of us associate harmony with put-togetherness, which is a given signal for authority. Other things that the fashion guides focus on is the lack of showing off of the brands’ logos, but rather focusing on the material and shape.
OSQLEDAREN #4
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This goes back to the importance of long living materials which you can enjoy and be proud of for an extended period of time. Maybe even please different versions of yourself as well, if you chose the clothing piece wisely. Some of us change up our styles throughout the years more than others, especially between the transitioning years from teenager to adult. So being mindful when buying clothing really pays off. Only after empirically studying peoples’ styles out on the street did I and Victoria come to the agreement: the tipping point to when an outfit expressed power was when there were details which caught our attention. Which most accessories do. Other things that made us interested in an outfit were the assembly of different qualities and shapes, and how some people who had clearly given their clothing some extra thought were able to radiate harmony. We asked a few students on the street: 1.Thoughts when assembling the outfits? 2.Thoughts of what your clothes are expressing about you? 3.Favorite way of getting new clothes?
