“It’s important for students to dress up for school because school is our job!” says sartorial sophomore Violet Kacergis. “When we get older, we won’t wear sweatshirts and yoga pants to work, so we shouldn’t wear them to school either.”

Dressing formally for a job, or school, gives off the impression that you are serious about what you do, because what we wear can actually have a subconscious effect on the way we act.  When wearing formal clothes, we tend to positively shape our behavior to fit into the mold of a person in a business suit: cultured, articulate, and suave.

If you wear a blazer to school, you are less likely to doze off in math class than if you had thrown on sweatpants that morning. Some people, when dressed up, might even find that their postures improve, and their strides lengthen with an extra boost of swag and confidence. But as most high school students only care to dress up for formal presentations, does that say anything about students’ attitudes on the sweatshirt-and-yoga pants-days when they have no presentations?

Dressing formally isn’t all work and no play. Conservative and casual pieces scramble together into a lively concoction. Annie Rusthoven, sophomore, pairs a prim blazer with a de-structured t-shirt for a cool uptown meets downtown look. And, as demonstrated by sophomore Rebecca Quinn‘s Parisian-chic knit sweater, formalwear doesn’t have to be uncomfortable or restrictive. So, go ahead, wear your best formal piece to school. Make your mother proud!