Dress code, by Cheyenne Grant

One of the first things I noticed about Spanish people is their insistence on dressing up every day. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to see people take pride in their appearance, but as a West-Coaster, it gets to be too much sometimes. Growing up in the United States you always hear talk about how college students can go to class in their pajamas and I participated in the tradition until I came here. Students dress like they're going out to dinner on a daily basis. Of course it could be that the United States is far more casual then the rest of the Western world, and while this is mostly true I can also say that other European countries don't set the bar quite as high as Spain. I spoke with a woman from my program and she explained that since the patriarchal influence is still strong, many women feel the need to dress up to impress men. While this explanation makes some sense, I like to think that these women dress up for themselves. A friend and I came to the conclusion that fashion reflects status more here as opposed to the US where the car you drive matters more than the label you wear.