Ailee Jones

Ever been dress-coded? Not, like, been suggested to dress formally for a black-tie event but ostracized for your clothing choices? Were you wearing a spaghetti-strap tank top or a pair of shorts a couple inches too many above the knee? Maybe it was a religious garment of some sort and someone profiled you, telling or forcing you to take it off based on their own prejudice or the state’s. You can never please them all.

What I consider one of my biggest life achievements thus far was being on a committee of students at my high school who worked with our school’s administration to rewrite our dress code, which mainly targeted female-identifying students. As someone who is passionate about both clothing and feminism, having the handbook’s print that formerly upheld narratives of rape culture vanish over time was empowering.

Instead of certain clothing choices being considered an invitation for other students’ harassment, people who couldn’t handle themselves in the vicinity of their peers would be dealt disciplinary consequences. Dress that was considered to deter other students’ learning through actual forms of hate speech or indecent exposure was to be addressed by two administrators who completed a professional development program.

Still, months later, our vice principal berated me in the hallway one day for wearing a cropped black tank top I bought from a boutique, “Emma” in Petoskey, Mich. (shameless plug for a small business). She told me, verbatim, to “cover up” and pointed at my chest, which was not exposed whatsoever. I had no sweatshirt, to her chagrin. It was August and our building still had no air conditioning. Why should I have layered?

So much for “training” and female solidarity. It was already difficult enough to be one of the only girls in my first period; her words that brought me to tears were more of a distraction in the classroom than my little shirt-big pants combo was.

Clearly, the decision to layer, or not, is charged with assumptions about one’s character, whether modest or braggadocious, virtuous or immoral.

This controversy does not solely apply to the female body. The whole precept that tattooed people, who cover their skin with artwork, are more impulsive or dangerous and thus less likely to be hired by employers, also pertains.

Also worth mentioning, the trend of sagging pants to show one’s underwear in mainly Black men’s fashion, originally pioneered by prisoners and later hip-hop artists, has been policed extensively in the United States with fines, community service and occasionally short jail sentences for “offenders” in some localities.

I say, if you paid the extra money to have that Calvin Klein waistband, why hide it? Bring back peacocking!

Besides being polarizing, whether to conceal or reveal, layering is a versatile method that, considering addition being its defining practice, is informed by a quantity over quality rule. The more the merrier!

In other words, you don’t need to put as much emphasis on each article’s individual structure, rather, the way garments interact with one another produces an original end product. Teamwork makes the dream work!

One method is to invest in a “staple” piece in an agreeable color and model, like a black turtleneck, that can be paired with a variety of other “statement” pieces. Ribbed or smooth, the black turtleneck’s unique namesake characteristic is almost guaranteed to protrude from the silhouette covering it. With a colorful, vintage mock or crew neck (guaranteed thrift store finds), the black turtleneck adds slight dimension. If you’re seeking to emulate Steve Jobs chic but still stay warm in the winter, an added “Johnson Family Reunion, Cincinnati, OH 2008” sweater does the trick.

Accessories are not exempt from the upgrade that is layering, such as bracelets. Whether a woven pinstripe pattern friendship bracelet or the Ebay-famous Gucci interchangeable Bezel watch, the interaction of the stacked components tells an interactive tale. Hell, combine some Silly Bandz with a family heirloom or mix metals, if you’re feeling especially eccentric.

I personally love to create a narrative through a good charm bracelet. Mine has a caterpillar, evil eye, angel, passport and glass bead on it. Come to think of it, even the clacking sound of bangle-like bracelets colliding has always given me goosebumps.

Highlighting the lower region of the body, the same principles of creating dynamic texture through appearing and disappearing forms are a must. In the K-pop scene, for instance, idols have adopted the custom of wearing fishnet tights beneath baggy, ripped jeans. The skin-tight fit of the alternating diamond-textured spaces in the leggings, veiled by the loose, frayed gaps in the denim, is a point of visual interest through its simultaneous repetition and demonstration of a proportional difference. Also, you can give an extra headache to Baby Boomers when they witness you wearing not one, but two garments you “paid to have holes in.”

In aspiring to live life as a multi-faceted individual, embrace the benefits of literal self-fashioning in accordance with principles of plurality. Whether you want to feel like the human embodiment of an onion or a Matryoshka doll, abandon black and white thinking and, for once, live in the gray. You don’t always have to choose; you can really have it all.

Folks, this is the third pillar of “Stepping Stones for Style.”