Choo and class don’t mix

Manolo Blahnik. Jimmy Choo. Dolce & Gabbana. Class?

Not the typical ensemble of fashion footwear. However, thenot-so-new trend of wearing your fancy footwork to class has becomeincreasingly popular.

I have now made it my job, at least for the week, to stop thisinsane and tortuous trend before another girl trips down the stepsof Dallas Hall.

SMU students have the luxury of spending (possibly) thousands ofdollars each month to add to their already overwhelming closets. Itis common to adorn ourselves in Prada, Channel and Christian Dior,all to have a cheap beer at the Elephant. We are lucky to all comefrom such adoring and wealthy families, where they cannot only payour grandiose tuition, but give us an overwhelming allowance.

However, the trend has gone over that little line of”fashion do’s” and, “dear God,no’s”. I know, the line is small and sometimesyou’re not sure exactly where it is. Sometimes it even movesaround, transforming itself into the once unthinkable.

Let us compare the line of fashion at SMU to that of thecomputed yellow line on the football field that at-home viewers seeto determine the distance needed for a first down. Of course,players and fans at the game cannot see this line. A receiver doesnot see that “yellow line” as he makes his way down thefield. But television viewers know exactly how many yards areneeded to make that first down.

Similarly, you cannot see the line of fashion faux pas at SMU ifyou have failed to recently remove yourself from the SMU scene. Ifyou have only been to bars, restaurants or shopping malls that areprimarily SMU-student based, than the popular belief of what isfashionable or not is skewed. We are a rare breed of students.Colleges nationwide consider “dressing up” what many ofus wear to class.

But sometimes, even we take it too far. This is what brings meto the lingering question of why designer shoes are being worn toclass. I have a major problem with this. Let me remind everyonethat designer shoes are expensive, just in case you had forgotten.Shoes that cost almost as much as my semester books should not beworn daily to class, simple as that. There is no way that teeteringaround on stilettos in the middle of the day with a heavy book bagcan be comfortable. And we all know it. There are only two reasonswhy you would be dressed in stilettos for class: either you try toohard to impress everyone as you’re miserably walking aroundcampus, or you shacked at some guys house the night before anddidn’t have time to change. For your sake, I hope it’sthe latter.

Often, we are so wrapped up in our own competition between oneanother; we fail to see the idiosyncrasy of our behaviors. We nolonger dress to impress the opposite sex, but dress to impress thesame sex. Girls are always trying to one-up each other, spendingmore money than the next on clothes, shoes and, what has become, alifestyle. Amanda Ford, author of Life Lessons Learned WhileShopping, wrote, “Underneath all the excitement andluxury and novelty of shopping, often there is sadness andinadequacy inside me. I never feel good enough.” That is whathas become of each and every one of us. We have all becomeshallower, more needy and more materialistic. We are neversatisfied with what we have, but what we could have.

Wearing your incredibly beautiful but ridiculously expensiveshoes to your introductory economics class is ridiculous. Similarto what Ed Board pointed out in Tuesday’s opinion, girls areable to use attire to distract even the most otherwise-distractedmales. So keep the heels at home for class. If continuing to beclad in heels, I hope no one is shocked at my brutality of pointinga finger at these girls and laughing out loud.

Hill Fischer is a senior english major. She can be reached [email protected].