When I was planning to move to Arizona, all my friends who were exchange students kept saying that I should be prepared for the way people talk, act and dress in the United States. For me it was really hard to understand, because I have been traveling for my whole life. I’ve been in 15 different countries in the past 10 years. I had 7 flights across the ocean, but I have never seen as many bad fashion decisions as I have here. I wasn’t prepared, even though my friends told me to be. Only here, in the U.S., I understood the real meaning of the phrase: “Fashion is my profession”. There are five main categories that I can highlight:
Dress to impress. Most of the time, people from this category are foreigners. It is a common thing in European countries to dress like that. There is no way you can see a Russian girl without makeup in a public place. Even here, when I need to go to the grocery store, pharmacy or just for a walk, I will never leave my house without simple makeup and wearing nice clothes. It is really rare to see a girl (even a very short girl) wearing heels, which surprised me, because in my country every second female wears heels every day. Unfortunately, I had to give up on them here, because I have to use public transport, and it is hard to do wearing high heels especially here, in Phoenix. Sometimes I see American girls on campus who dress nicely and appropriately, but most of the time it is an exception, not a rule.
Second category in my list is - Baby, it’s cold outside. This is probably my favorite category of all of them. Have you ever seen a girl wearing winter shoes on campus? Here we are! Every time I see a girl wearing winter clothes when it is 85 degrees outside, I cannot stop laughing. I just stop for a second, take a picture and send it to my friends in Russia. And I have only one question in my head: WHY? Why would you wear extremely warm winter shoes when there is no snow outside?
I haven’t found the answer yet, but as soon as I do, I will let you know.
So what can be funnier than girls wearing winter shoes in the middle of the dessert, you may ask. Oh, I know the answer: GIRLS WEARING WINTER SHOES WITH EXTREMLY SHORT SHORTS! Which brings me to another very popular category.
Best pants – no pants. Yes, people like that actually exist. I totally understand when it is almost a 100 degrees here you want to wear the fewest possible clothes, but when you see young girls wearing extremely short dresses which barely cover their private areas and it is raining outside, or when it is actually cold, you want to ask their parents: what were they thinking about when they let their kids dress like that. I’m not talking only about the health part of the question, but more about moral standards. Most of the college students are not 21 yet, but because of the way they dress you can assume that the only things they have in their heads are parties, alcohol and sex. I understand that girls in America don’t care about their reputation, at least most of the time, but it doesn’t mean that it is a right thing to let them dress that way. I believe colleges have to have a dress code. It also will help us to evade another popular category.
Because I’m all about that bass. Since I moved here, I tried to avoid this type of person. I totally understand that most Americans suffer from obesity, but just because a lot of people have that problem, it doesn’t mean that no one cares when you show your “muffin top” to everyone. Yes, it is totally cool to be proud of your shapes and extra pounds, but It doesn’t let you wear t-shirts 3 sizes too small, or jeans which goes down every time you move (that’s why people created belts). There is a huge difference between wearing clothes that emphasize your curvy shapes and dressing like “I will show all my extra pounds because we live in a free country”. I don’t have a perfect body, but I know how to cover my fat. And I do that not because I am embarrassed, but because I know that people around me probably don’t want to see that. It is very easy to do, you just need to ask yourself: would you be happy to see something like that on street every day?
Last but not least - Keep calm and be a nerd. This is probably the biggest category. It happens that I spend a lot of time in the “nerd cave” at SCC. It is a small corner in the cafeteria where are a lot of students play video games 24/7. I have a lot of friends over there, but I have never paid attention to their looks, but if you do, you may notice that they all look the same: nerd t-shirt with cartoon or game character, long shorts and sneakers or flip-flops (sometimes even flip-flops with socks – never do that). A lot of them have different hair color – pink, blue, super blond and etc. My favorite part about them is that they are not of afraid of experiments, and they don’t care what people think about them. They can easily change a haircut or dye their hair; they can wear an anime costume or funny hat, and they can dress in the same clothes and be happy about that. Isn’t that awesome?
While I was writing about these categories, I realized that having a dress code is not a bad thing. It teaches us how to dress properly in society, especially in places like school and work. I just want American girls to be more careful with what they wear and where they go like that, because they definitely don’t want to see their picture a few years later with a hashtag: fashion is my profession.