grad school style – PhD in Clothes

Professional Bags for Graduate School: 2022 edition

I have never met a purse, or tote, or backpack I didn’t like, so when people ask me “what kind of bag should I carry as a grad student?” I tend to have Opinions. Picking the right bag in grad school can also feel a little stressful: you carry a lot of books and snacks. You don’t want to be mistaken for a student (I remember so distinctly wondering if grad students wear backpacks??). And you need a bag that is high quality enough to survive multiple years of wear and tear but still affordable. Here are some options if you’re looking for a teaching or school bag this year!

What I wore this week

May I suggest: silver cowboy boots.

What I wore this week

Searching for contrast in outfits, dressing for July temperatures…

The back to the office cheat sheet: Outfits with skirts

I love a good midi skirt but I just couldn’t bring myself to work from home in them. Here are 3 easy summer and fall midi skirt outfit ideas for returning to the office in 2021! Do you need outfit ideas for skirts? Maybe not. Do I instantly forget outfits I like when it’s time to make a decision? Yes, of course. Here we go!

What’s on your back to school list?

The office is calling! In person classes are calling! What are you going to wear?

Outfits with Sam

A new series where I show off what other stylish grad students are wearing (if you want to be featured, message me!). This week I asked my friend Sam, a MA student, to show us what she wore.

Monday

I never wear my hair up because I don’t like my chipmunk cheeks, but I think it’s always good to stretch yourself. As a curvy woman, I love a set of good fitting jeans. These jeggings are from American Eagle, one of the only store that fit my wide hips and smaller waist. I thrifted the boots from Goodwill.

My choices for the Summer 10×10

The Summer 10×10 starts Friday, so I’ve picked my 10 items of clothing out to get ready to make my outfits. Here are my picks (some not pictured):

-4 tops (boho, knit tank, tie t-shirt: all thrifted, and chambray: J Crew investment)

-3 bottoms (linen pants, white midi skirt: thrifted, jean cut offs: here)

-1 dress (here, on sale for $40)

-2 pairs of shoes (converse, sandals thrifted)

No black clothes!

I tried to pick lighter colors this time around and gave myself the challenge to pick no black clothes. Black is my go-to neutral color and I’m trying to move toward tan and white in the summer.

On my agenda

My 10×10 this time consists of nothing but dissertation writing and social time. I need outfits that are appropriate for field work (I am doing qualitative research in a casual, but masculine, environment–I usually opt for muted colors and pants in that situation), but that’s my only constraint. I tried to pick fun items to remind me to go outside, downtown, and away from my laptop in general.

The other challenge of my 10×10 is that it’s so hot that all clothes seem like bad options. I picked linen and other soft, breezy items for that purpose.

That’s my 10×10 kick off–see you on Friday with the first outfit.

Power outfits for defending, pt. 2

I’m so excited to say I passed my prospectus defense yesterday–I wrote 100 pages about what my dissertation will be about (1/3rd of the length of the full product!) and had to defend that before collecting data. Here’s what I wore…

Defenses are really weird. The build up is big and then the let down can be…like nothing even happened. As one committee member likes to remind me, a defense is just another meeting for professors. Fair, but it also DETERMINES MY ENTIRE FATE so yeah it’s a little scary.

This defense was also downright weird–we talked for 1.5 hours and then were running out of time, so everyone was just like “yeah, good meeting!” and left…but usually at the end of a defense in our dept committee members meet without the student and then announce to you if you’ve passed or not…and they just…didn’t do that?? So I left the room like “ok! that’s over!” and then got half way down the hall before I was like “wait did I pass?” I spent the next 2 hours on an emotional rollercoaster about that before my advising meeting, where I asked my advisor, who replied “yes, wasn’t it obvious?”

Um, no. I am in grad school. Validate me always. Thanks.

So with that flood of relief, I promptly changed outfits and went out looking for wine and a patio.

All in all, a fine day. Weird, but better than the time the department lost my comprehensive exam answers. But that’s a story for another time. To anyone else defending as the semester ends: good luck! 😀

A bunch of adult things no one told me you should do to take care of clothes.

So it turns out that when you stop buying all of your clothes from Forever 21 (ok but still some of them..), they can also last a lot longer…and they can last even longer if you do some basic maintenance to keep them looking nice. I feel that no one ever told me this?? In the last year I’ve been taking some baby steps toward being an adult when it comes to clothing maintenance. Here’s what I’ve been up to that I’ve found worth my time/money.

How I buy business clothes on Poshmark

It all started with a suit. I stumbled onto the Poshmark site late last summer, thought, “huh, like Ebay, but only clothes,” and probably would have just left…but then I found it. A gently used J. Crew suit, in tall sizes, for $40. Could this site be for real?? I weighed my options. I figured if I lost $40 in some scam, I would be a little sad. But not as sad as I would be buying a $200+ suit for my impending time on the academic job market. I got out my credit card.