Welcome to another week of academic outfits! This week, Frédérique, a soon-to-be marketing PhD student and instructor, shows us her outfits!
Frédérique has just completed her master’s degree in marketing and is currently teaching courses while applying to PhD programs. She lives in Canada: “First of all, I’m French Canadian (you know, the folks who invented poutine) and I am 27 years old. I’m currently in-between finishing my M.Sc. and (hopefully) starting a PhD in marketing, with a focus on consumer culture.”
Style for changing temperatures: My style is hard to describe because I feel like a very eclectic person in general in my life. My tastes and interests are varied, and that very much reflects in my style. I also live in a climate with massive temperature changes depending on the season, so while my personal summer style hovers between feminine flower print midi dresses and margarita-ville worthy hawaiian dad shirts, in the fall and winter I tend to lean more into my old alternative comfort zone, Dr. Martens and all.
Style inspiration: I love the challenge of evolving my personal style into something more refined that I can wear to teach and do research in for years to come, without losing myself in the professionalism of it all. I’ve never been a “real” alternative style person, but I’ve dabbled in vintage, some goth stuff, and emo style when I was younger, and those aesthetics have always been where my heart kinda pulls me.
My fashion inspiration comes from TikTok and Instagram a lot (shocker). People like Rebecca, but also other awesome accounts like ReadWriteThrift or Old Loser in Brooklyn. I’m not as adventurous with my style as I’d like to be, but I am trying to push myself out of that comfort zone.
Business school norms: One thing about a business school is that the students sometimes overdress, especially for presentations, so a kind professor advised me to avoid teaching in jeans when I gave my first few classes last semester (thinking back, I saw very little jeans in the university and department). I think she was right, it really did make me feel more like the adult in charge of the class (considering most students were barely ten years younger than me, if that), and I enjoyed having to dress up more anyway. People do not wear a full tailored suit; it’s not that intense, but the vibe leans very much smart and preppy, while letting everyone express their individuality.
Why you should document your style: I feel like these two teaching outfits really encapsulate my teaching style. I actually made a conscious effort to document every teaching outfit I wore for my first semester in front of a class, and I’m so glad I did. It helped me figure out what I was comfortable in – both physically and mentally – in front of a classroom. They both feature my trusty Dr. Martens, which I probably wore for half the classes I taught.
Finding clothes that fit: One thing about me that has always made fashion somewhat challenging is that I am tall and on the curvier side, and I was pretty self-conscious about my size for many years. I’ve only recently allowed myself to wear tank tops without an overshirt for the first time since I was a kid, for example. So for a while, I was working under a lot of restrictions that were mostly in my head, planted there by the general body shaming vibes of society.
This one is a bit of an outlier – I attended a presentation about integrating AI tools to teaching, given by the coordinator of the course I taught last semester. I knew I was going to be surrounded by more experienced instructors, so I might have overdressed slightly, haha. Anyway, I still love this outfit (especially the bright pink blazer) and I would absolutely wear it teaching (I did not have the chance last semester, as the Canadian winter is not super friendly to linen blazers and faux-snakeskin ankle boots).
Thank you so much for sharing your style with us, Frédérique! You can follow Frédérique on Tiktok and Whering (@thefred).
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