That time I completely re-thought what we wear on campus

Looking around campus, listening to casual conversations at dinner, and evaluating my own clothing decisions at face value, it has become more and more apparent to me that our wardrobe choices have been infiltrated by social branding, specifically athletic wear.

This is especially true among the young, female, college demographic.

What was once a way to express individuality or represent cultural differences has become rooted in causeless foundations that prey on the hottest trends of the majority.

It isn’t news that what you wear can be important, and some might fully endorse the brands that they adorn. However, I find that a lot of our purchasing, wearing and ultimately marketing brands is done on a whim. We attribute little to no forethought to the possibilities of these actions.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with lugging around your favorite (and sturdy!) Lululemon Athletica bag, covered in invaluable life advice. In fact, I would also recommend becoming a Fabletics VIP member if you truly believe that “friends are more important than money.”

But I am going to tell you a story in which, ironically, my personal values were compromised by my initial wafty attitude towards what I choose to wear and represent and why.

It’s 6pm on a Thursday night, and despite being bogged down with a midterm, multiple meetings, and an interview within the next 19 hours, I’m sitting in my dorm hallway on the phone arguing with a sales rep in Thailand about how Kate Hudson’s new fab athletic line has literally been stealing money from my supposed “terminated” account every time money is deposited into my card.

And no, this is not referring to the monthly charges everyone knows about when you sign up for “VIP membership.”

Disregarding the frivolousness in my decision to pay exclusivity charges for something as menial as yoga tanks and pants, or even the fact that I had discarded over 10 hours of my working time over two weeks disputing obscure and phony charges with women in Thailand who were likely only performing their instructed jobs for corrupt management forces, I could not help but completely reevaluate my initial intentions in wanting to join and wear Fabletics clothing in the first place.

Like many other occasionally aesthetically-conscientious yogis and Pilates and gym enthusiasts, I joined the clan, disregarded its absurd name, paid my fees, and voila, began my transition into a girl who could look my best while working out – because we all know that’s why women workout, right?

If it weren’t for the phony and unwarranted charges, I wouldn’t even had thought of things such: Why is Kate Hudson (not a professional athlete, but an actress) the spearhead for one of the most trending and prominent athletic clothing lines for young women?

Is this really goodbye?

And why, despite my own uneasiness with what the brand might actually project for the face of feministic value, I went along with the idea in the first place?

The majority of us, myself included, don’t typically have an idea of the exact origin of our words or actions for every single one of our menial daily tasks or their potential projections.

In choosing to “sign up” and even advocate to other young women on campus this brand, style, or look, I had engaged with and propagated a movement for which, after the fact, I only suffered and experienced ample regret and shallow evaluative worth of my initial decision.

Although we have no choice but to present ourselves to the world in how we dress, what we say, how we act, colloquialisms, and natural and unchangeable extroversions or introversions, we can always do our best to be active in and conceptually familiar with our decisions.

Upon ending my reign of marketing for the line, I can only look around campus and wonder how many young women really know and are aware of one of two things:

1. The substantive values of the brand or image they market and,
2. The true price of their Fabletics outfits, and just how much of it they are donating to the best of Kate Hudson’s charity funds.*

*Fabletics does not actually mention having association with or any of their profits being donated to charity, and I know nothing about Kate Hudson’s unrelated, personal charity funds.