Attempting to Dress like a Grown-up

Starting October 1st, my job overseas will entail being in a classroom four days a week, imparting knowledge and wisdom to impressionable Austrian High Schoolers. One challenging component of this apart from planning lessons and holding a class's attention includes dressing the part.

For some TAs this might not be so difficult. Me? Not so much. My past four years were spent studying anthropology at New College. Its a wonderful public liberal arts college in Florida. I learned a lot, had memorable experiences, and met some fantastic people. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

During my time there I guess I grasped conceptually what sort of power choosing certain apparal can have or project. You can perform gender or index certain groups whether meaning to or not. If I wanted, I can talk to my classes about American school dress codes and all the different ways they intersect discourses of race, class, and gender in the states. (Actually.... now I really really want to do this lesson.)

But actually applying these musings to my own life and projecting the role of a teaching assistant?

Me, my second year at New College. "Special" top courtesy of the school's "Free Store"

That needed work.

Luckily I was fortunate to find a summer job that would help me with just this. For three months I worked at the Habitat ReStore' clothing boutique in my town. In addition to a reliable schedule and enough funds to get me to my first paycheck in Austria, it also gave me access to new (used) clothing. LOTS of it. And a dressing room.

Since summer is my town's slow season, I had some time to try on various outfits and see HOW different clothing fit on me. The clothing from there was also CHEAP. While I didn't find everything there, it gave me ideas on how to prepare. And I ended up still finding most things second hand.

I figured out:
-I don't know how to coordinate patterns yet, so ALL THE SOLIDS
-Lots of neutrals + bold, cool colors is what I LIKE to wear
-Scarves are the best things ever--especially since I can wear them more than 10 days a year
-Sweaters (errr, one so far) + waist belts= definite pulls things together
-I need to wear petite pants AND  tops (especially the more professional ones) as much as possible. Since petite tops are usually only found with higher-end brands, scouring thrift stores is an important skill to have

If any future TAs are stalking this blog, hopefully my recent knowledge can be of use to you.

Now for narcissistic pics of  sample teaching outfits!