There comes a time when repping your school colors can defy taste. On Tuesday night, while munching wings in U-City's famed Cavanaugh's Restaurant and Sports Bar, (By the way, those wings are banging...) I glanced up at TV and saw this man, who I later learned was University of Tennessee Basketball coach, Bruce Pearl, rocking this Sunkist orange blazer - and contrasting tie - H-A-R-D! Can we say pumpkin? Last October when people were all about Phillies Red, I didn't blink. Red is always hot. But sunset orange? As we meander into Final Four Season, I'm sure we'll see other style affronts in the name of school pride. Gladly, Philadelphia-area schools don't have too many color combinations that make for ugly blazers. Do you think school pride should bow to the rules of fashion?
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Orange Overkill
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The Mirror Image team consists of Inquirer and philly.com writers with a passion for fashion and an eye for the trends. We live to shop and shop to live, but always appreciate a good sale. We know that “What I am going to wear?” is a serious question, possibly requiring consultation and multiple outfit changes. We believe beauty treatments can be a necessity instead of a luxury, and consider awards shows required viewing. Above all, we strive to bring style into our daily lives – and have fun telling others about it.
Contributor Elizabeth Wellington has been the Inquirer's Fashion Reporter since 2003 and writes the Mirror, Mirror column for the Sunday Image section. She is a bargain shopper who hates buying pants and rarely meets a dress she doesn’t like.
Contributor Chris Gray is the editor of the Image section, and has been a reporter and editor at the Inquirer since 2001. She believes you are never too tall for heels and considers text messaging a vital form of communication.
Contributor Karen Heller covered fashion for several years, nationally and regionally, and has an enduring interest in style and fashion. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary, she reports on popular culture. Her column appears in the Wednesday Daily Magazine.
Contributor Kristen Graham is a Philly.com producer and columnist. She is still recovering from her mother dressing her in homemade cotton plaid bell-bottoms as a toddler, and regards religious Project Runway and What Not To Wear watching as the only way to make amends.
Contributor Jodie Chester Lowe is a Philly.com Entertainment producer and a member of the Great Expectations project team. By college, she knew she needed to expand her wardrobe beyond casual shirts and jeans. She’s branched out with the tops, but denim still gets its own drawer (or two) in her dresser.
Contributor Ellen Dunkel is the Philly.com Entertainment channel manager. She was almost literally born to shop, having grown up in Paramus, N.J., the No. 2 ZIP code in the United States for retail sales. She often serves as a personal shopper for family members who are missing the fashion gene.
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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on January 23, 2008 5:55 PM.
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Comments (2)
School pride vs. "the rules of fashion? It is a no-brainer!
School colors, as loud as some may seem, are an integral part of a school's identity. They symbolize the individuality and special nature of each and every school.
No matter where a UT fan or alum goes, when they see the orange and white apparel, flags, etc., they think Tennessee Volunteers, and it is something that is special for those people. (For others, its about stylin' in forest green and gold.)
The so-called rules of fashion are an ever-changing set of guidelines for dressing to blend in with everyone else. They are the ultimate 10 commandments for lemmings.
If schools followed these "rules", they would be changing colors every season. Based on the (seemingly) arbritrary annual declarations from the fashion police, will schools need to add a line item to their already inflated athletic budgets to cover the annual trip to fashion week and the events in Bryant Park?
Next year, every team may be wearing mauve, or chartreuse. When brown or gray are the "new black" I suppose Army's Black Knights will have to change their team name to fit the color scheme?
Would you consider changing the red, white and blue in the US Olympic team's colors to adhere to the rules of fashion? While we're at it, let's just change the flag. School colors are the same thing.
Look, I have no problem with dressing to a certain fashion standard when it comes to my everyday life (work and afterhours). However, school pride is something different. Even if you aren't part of the team, you're part of the institution, and the colors are a way of expressing that.
Besides, the way the fashion world turns, pumpkin will be back in style soon.
Posted by RJ | January 23, 2008 7:01 PM
Posted on January 23, 2008 19:01
I wore a brown-and-orange PLAID jumper with brown knee socks and a peach blouse underneath to Catholic school in Manayunk. Scarred me for life.
Posted by Citizen Mom | January 25, 2008 3:06 PM
Posted on January 25, 2008 15:06