Throughout my time at Penn, I’ve amassed a truly unfortunate number of “that girl” monikers: “that girl who tweets a lot,” “that girl who makes sarcastic comments,” “that girl with the glasses,” to name a few. However, my most unfortunate identifier, by far, is “that girl who wears a lot of black.” While to you this may seem like a trivial issue, my boss this summer wouldn’t speak to me on days I wore grayscale. I for one think it’s time to lift the metaphorical (and literal) dark shroud and tell you the truth about the Girl Who Wears Black.
When I was 10 years old, my mother started to let me pick out my own clothes. Faced with the garishly colorful wardrobe she had curated for me, I overzealously began leaving the house in orange pants, Kelly Green shirts, polka–dotted tops and plaid skirts that by this season’s standards would be actually be considered on–trend.
After a short intervention, she left me alone in my closet with one crucial piece of advice: black matches with everything. I guess it’s not all that interesting then, that as time passed I accrued a stockpile of black clothing: black pants for colored sweaters, black T–shirts for colored bottoms, and so on and so forth. The logistics of this phenomenon are of trivial importance, but as time passed, my wardrobe was gradually consumed by black.
Just the other day, a recent friend of mine looked at me and said, “you know, before I actually met you, I would see you walking around campus wearing all black, and I thought you were a real bitch.” Imagine my horror to be told, as a senior, that my sartorial choices have determined public opinion of me throughout my college career.
I’ve been asked if I wear black to be edgy or because it’s slimming. The truth is that I’m just not very good at matching. The point that I am trying to make, however, has little to do with the color black. The point is — and I hate to arrive at a self–serving, “don’t judge a book” conclusion — to spend less time in our own worlds passing judgment, and more time leaving our comfort zones. I for one am wearing pink tomorrow. Join me?
