"Oh, that's so you."
I'm sure we have all heard it before. You're shopping and you pick something up off the rack that you may or may not like. "Oh that's so you," your friends say, and you aren't sure whether to take that as a compliment or not. Are they trying to skirt around the fact that they don't like it or do they really just think it is perfect for you?
What you may not realize is that your friends probably have a picture of you in their mind, and maybe the item you picked up fits into their picture. It all has to do with the way you brand yourself, the "you" that you put out into the universe.
As a marketing student, maybe I do just think about branding more often than the average person, but it is such a monumental concept that affects our lives everyday. Branding doesn't just apply to retail and service companies; it pertains to people as individuals as well.
A former marketing professor of mine, Jim Friedman, has a saying that he uses in his classes throughout the semester to guide his students on a path to self-awareness in their job search. He says, "Everything you do makes a statement." Your personal brand does not only consist of what you do, it's made up of every part of you; what you wear, what you say, the music you listen to, your facial expressions, who your friends are, etc.
Most of us go through our lives not wanting anyone to define us. For some reason that can seem like the worst thing in the world, to have another person think that they know us when we don't even feel like we know ourselves completely. But why do we see that as such a bad thing? Shouldn't it be comforting to think that someone else knows us even better than we know ourselves? That someone cares about us enough to pay attention to what we like and how we react to situations?
This all comes back to the topic of fashion, because the way you dress says a lot about you and the way you want others to see you. Famed fashion designer Miuccia Prada put it wisely when she said, "What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language."
That is not to say that wearing certain labels makes you better or worse than someone else. I strongly believe the way you dress is an extension of yourself because it shapes who you are in someone else's eyes. It may sound shallow, but the reality of the situation is that you are what you put into the universe, you are what you make of yourself, and your style is a physical representation of that. And it may not even be what you are wearing that shapes you, but rather how you wear it.
So the next time you pick up a sweater and your friend says "oh, that's so you," thank them. They just might be helping you show the world the real and awesome you.
Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter
Read More
How one professor and her classes are preserving Oxford’s Black history
By Sean Scott | March 20, 2024Jazma Sutton, an assistant professor of history, teaches The Black Midwest (HST 350Q) and Black Women in America (HST 450D) classes. In both courses, she has students working with the Smith Library of Regional History and Miami’s archives to document and preserve Black history in Oxford.
Miami faculty members recount Freedom Summer in new documentary
By Luke Macy | February 25, 2022After seven years of work, “Training for Freedom,” a documentary highlighting Oxford’s involvement in the Freedom Summer of 1964, premiered on PBS Western Reserve on Valentine’s Day.
“Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic”: History in the making
By Alice Momany | August 29, 2021In March 2020, Miami University’s archives launched “Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a collection focused on life during the COVID-19 pandemic.