Dressed to Impress

When I was younger, it never really mattered what I wore each day as long as my clothes looked nice and were in style. But over the years, I felt that I sometimes wanted to express myself through the different types of clothing that I wore and hopefully catch the attention of others. So while I may have my own preference of what to wear for certain occasions, I still like to dress to impress.

This was a picture that my friends from high school and I took after they won one of their biggest track meets of the season. The picture was taken around the end of May, a few weeks after I came home from my first year at Western New England. My idea of a summer outfit is simply a t-shirt, preferably a V-neck, shorts, and boat shoes. I’ve gone with this style on many occasions during the spring and summer, just like the picture on the right with my suitemates from my sophomore year, and it’s always one of my favorite outfits to wear. It’s simple, comfortable, and shouts out labels like “preppy” and “classy”.

Because I work as an open house associate for the university, dressing up is a huge part of my life as a student. There were only seven open house sessions that happened this year, so this was an opportunity to try out a new look each time. Perhaps one of my favorite outfits that got the most positive reception from my friends was the one shown in this photo. The combination of the bow tie with the plaid dress shirt was something that other open house associates described as original. Open house is always something that I look forward to since I love to show parents and students the clean-cut image that students here at Western New England can have, along with expressing my love that I have for WNE.

This next picture is a throwback. This was me during my senior prom back in high school and my second time wearing a tuxedo. I had the opportunity to pick any kind of tux that I saw in the catalogue at Men’s Wearhouse. The only thing that I had to make sure to do was make sure that my vest and tie matched the color of my date’s dress. The color that we coordinated with was described as tan and we were actually the only ones to have a color like this on prom night, so we both looked original and amazing.

 
























I chose this next picture because school spirit is definitely something that runs in my blood. In fact, I recently won a superlative for “Most Golden Bear Pride”. At any kind of sporting event, I always like to sport some blue and gold to show support for our Golden Bears. Most of the time I like to take an even further step and add a few other blue articles of clothing that most people might not wear to the games. Some of these include blue mid-calf socks, shorts, and sneakers. If I’m going to bleed blue, then I’m going to do it with style.

This was a picture that I took of an outfit that I wore for a family Christmas party. Aside from the khakis and boat shoes that I wore for the family event, I liked my idea of choosing to wear my cardigan, which was brand new at the time, over my checkered dress shirt. This outfit was favored by so many of my relatives, that I decided to try it out again when I came back to campus for the spring semester. Even when I didn't have a presentation or an interview to dress up for, I would just casually wear this type of outfit just to look nice. I would even receive compliments on my dress style from my friends and professors around campus. This has by far been one of my favorite outfits because it shows how it doesn’t hurt to dress up nice at least once a week and it can also prepare you in the future when you may have to dress up for internships or job interviews.

While I do have days where I’ll dress my best and even some days where I might “bum” it and throw on sweats or athletic clothing, I always like to make an impression and adopt something that could be considered preppy or hip. Whether it’s a bowtie, cardigan, or an uncommon color scheme for a tux, I always like to try on a certain clothing style that my friends or roommates might not regularly associate with and hopefully inspire others to try to dress like me at least once. That’s what the term “Dress to impress” means to me.