MDIS Dress Code Fashion Talk

http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/singaporeseen/viewContent.jsp?id=41099

I feel so sorry for the students at MDIS. They've got school officials policing the gates to decide who gets to go in. What a waste of resources and time on MDIS's part! Like bouncers at some exclusive clubs playing fashion police with god-like beams emanating from behind. Whatever happened to freedom of expression?

Excerpt from Stomp.com
"According to a circular from the campus management, these are things students should take note of with regard to their dressing and appearance:

1) Singlets, spaghetti-strap tops, shorts or tank tops
2) Revealing attire, off-shoulder or low-cut tops, or tight/tube dresses (tube dresses can be worn with a cardigan)
3) Mini skirts, short dresses (of more than 15 cm above knee)
4) Facial piercings
5) Visible Tattoos (to be covered at all times)
6) Flip flop slippers (unless justified by valid medical reasons)
7) Dyed hair except dark brown and red shades"

When I was in college, spaghetti straps and hot pants were de rigueur...coupled with a modest cardigan. Although I did draw the line at other things like facial piercings and flip flops. Actually I think the trick to get away with it are the right shoes. I never never wore shorts AND flip flops. That would just be sloppy. Always wear shorts with heels. Then at least you can look slutty. HAHA!

Then, there's this letter written to the forum in The Straits Times on this issue:

Ill-conceived: MDIS dress code crackdown
I REFER to yesterday's article about the Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) enforcing dress codes in school ('Dress code crackdown at MDIS'), which is the most upsetting news in weeks.

One would have thought that, at tertiary level, superficiality would not be the focus of education, but rather, we would look at substance and quality of work. I cannot see how hair colour or shorts and slippers indicate a student's ability to do well in school. As a tertiary student myself, and in the Singapore climate, I find wearing singlets or shorts very comfortable.

To say it is distasteful is not saying anything as that is purely subjective. For example, one could wear a nice MNG basic singlet and Esprit shorts and look a million times better than the batik top and chequered print trousers I can imagine the discipline master or mistress might wear. I could say they are distasteful too, because it hurts my eyes to look at them.

One could demand that teachers do not commit 'distasteful' fashion faux pas as well.

Move away from superficiality, MDIS.

This Ms Teng apparently lives on another planet. To call this the "most upsetting news in weeks" with the financial turmoil, people losing retirement money in Lehman Brothers, Top Notes, Pinnacles, oil prices plunging, volatile stock market happening around her reveals her own superficiality.

I half-agree with her that attire has no bearing on one's performance in school and MDIS needn't have gone into nitty-gritty issues like hair colour. (What if you were blond, or sported natural white streaks?! What would they would with them?) They could have just left it at "No revealing tops and shorts". Anyway, Ms Teng's "comfortable" reason falls on the lame side. Like a majority of Singaporeans who sport the singlet-shorts-slippers, looking presentable did not appear to be in her agenda.

Moreover, to imply that wearing a few branded pieces (from Esprit for example) of clothing elevates her above the older educators smacks of bad taste. Since when did branded clothing become synonymous with good taste? Just look at the horrors designers churn out regularly.

Finally, if dress codes were such "superficial" issues, then why bother writing about it in the first place?