About us

Critical Introduction:

Welcome to our blog! We are Rachel, Sam, Alisa, and Kiara: the authors of this blog. Each of us is a freshman attending the University of Maryland and are a part of the College Park Scholars Program. As part of our Scholars English class, the four of us joined together united by our common interest in the issue of modesty in fashion to compose this blog. In our role as college students we have all experienced the latest trends in fashion. We have used our personal experiences combined with our interests in fashion to write this thought provoking blog about the disappearance and reappearance of modesty in fashion.

In this blog, we chose to analyze the articles “Men’s Fashion of the 60’s” and “Why Modest Men Get the Brush-Off From Women.” The first article focuses on the more feminine changes in men’s fashion during the 1960’s. The latter article argues that modern women prefer men who are not modest. These articles were well suited for our topic in mind because they set the time frame of our topic from the 1960’s to the present day, allowing us to follow the disappearance and reappearance of modesty in fashion over the decades of the late 20th century into early 21st century. The fashion trends of the 60’s have contributed immensely to current underlying themes in fashion today. In the article “Men’s Fashion of the 1960’s,” we see a shift towards immodesty in men’s fashion resulting in praised arrogance, while some men faced criticism from women for dressing modestly as analyzed in “Why Modest Men Get the Brush-Off From Women”.

The article, “Men’s Fashion of the 1960’s,” focuses on how the changes in men's fashion were just as important as the changes in women's fashion. In highlighting the newfound “tightness” in men's pants, the article further illustrates the dramatic shift in men’s fashion. In addition to the pants, we are also informed of scarves entering men's fashion and becoming common; as they are still a part of men's fashion today. On the contrary in the article, “Why Modest Men Get the Brush-Off From Women,” we see modest men criticized for valuing their appearance and subsequently losing out on opportunities for their lack of arrogance. Each of the texts adds substance to our argument that modest men are ridiculed and receive less positive attention than men of a more abrasive stature. The texts are relevant because fashion is very influential in American culture; many people base their first impressions of others solely on what they are wearing, we also have to be mindful that fashion is a means of self-expression and that self expression will always have relevance in a growing population like that of America. Any other texts may not have properly contrasted one another and not fully portrayed our argument.

Since fashion is a visually centered topic, we used many pictures and other descriptive tools to help our readers imagine this superficial change. We also used texts and linked to different source to address the root of this change in fashion. Our first posts aimed to introduce our texts, thus we directed our first posts towards the Stasis Theory and Major Argument of each text. Consequently, we further analyzed each text more in depth discussing their credibility, appeal to audience, and emotion. By examining each text, we conveyed our major argument through comparing them, linking to outside references, and providing background. We chose this system for a couple of reasons. Primarily, the web provided a quick and effortless mechanism of supporting our claims. In addition, the system of separated posts targeting different topics allowed for all our members to contribute and build a big picture to the audience about our argument.

Fashion is more than an outward, superficial aspect of our lives but rather it is a method of communication. Although we are strongly encouraged to refrain from two-dimensional judgment, it is unavoidable that appearances always impact our first impressions. Therefore, fashion is composed of more than clothing but rather it is a culture that represents ideas, beliefs, and values. In our blog, we discuss modesty and repeating trends regarding men’s fashion. However, fashion extends to many other parts of our culture since everyone is inevitably a part of it.

From this blog we hope that you have gained a new appreciation for fashion and its role in making impressions. After all, when haven’t you judged someone off of what they’ve worn?