“When it comes to dressing, comfort is overrated. A little discomfort probably means your clothes fit and you’re not in your pajamas.” As Tim Gunn quotes, it’s important for teachers and people in the workplace to remember. The formality of teachers’ assembles affects the learning environment for students. Human behaviorist, Desmond Morris, states “It is impossible to wear clothes without transmitting social standards. Every costume tells a story, often a very subtle one about it’s wearer.” So why wouldn’t educators want to set standards for their learning environment? Dress codes set the social standards regarding sexual identity, authority roles, and also sets wealthy status. Teachers set authority and a specific environment according to their dress code.

To begin with, educators can set their authority and expectations of respect by the way they dress and act in an environment without knowing their student. As Rachel Zoe states, “Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.” Professionals in the workplace may find this a very important guideline. Dressing appropriately demands respect from others. Huffington Posts notes that colleagues appreciate when other colleagues are dressed formally. Formal dress may not only increases the productivity of colleagues, but also the individual and in the case of a teacher, the students. Studies were taken with the variation between dress: professional formal, casual formal, and casual.

Tracy Morris led studies to show that formal dress gave higher instructor competence. This was especially high with female students rating female instructors. This group of workers found that dressing can be intentionally or unintentionally displayed by the wearer as well as interpreted by the observer. Molly, another working on the study, claims that clothes are primarily an impression tool. Responses can be manipulated by one’s ability to dress differently. It is declared that even without intentions to one’s outfit, more often than not, it has an affect on the observer.

Most studies, according to K. David Roach, a professor at Texas Tech University, suggest that studies taken on formal dress of instructors are taken in college classrooms. College students are shown to have further perception and apprehension more about details like these. This would make sense seeing how college students are furthering their education, but that doesn’t mean that the way teacher dress doesn’t affect high school students. For instance I appreciate when teachers are dressed formally. When teachers are “dressed up”, the environment feels more under control and I am able to respect the teacher more. Over all I love when teachers dress formally and I think that teachers should “dress up” for work.

“Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” This famous quote says a lot about how the professional dress should dress. Instructors’ outfits may not have an effect on every student, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have any effect. Formality in school jobs should be encouraged for teachers. To dress formally as a teacher sets standards for their student and demands respect. Stay classy teachers.