We don’t need no dress control

Authorities of the Sri Jagadguru Renukacharya Pre-University College in the city should have expected it. Students are angry that college authorities on Thursday declared that male students could no longer wear printed jeans to college.

A group of students gathered in protest, as they did not wish the college to restrict their sartorial freedom. True, one’s dress style could easily become a marker of one’s status and wealth; but college students are mature, and how much longer should aspects of their lives be policed?

Some students claimed that the imposition of a dress code was no less than the ‘Talibanisation’ of education. Closing ranks behind the agitated and protesting group of students were fashionistas from the city and parents.

“We need to respect the wishes of our children. We can’t act like dictators and impose dress codes on college students. Once students go to college, they’re expected to be able to exercise a choice in many matters; once they are 18, they can even vote. Should they still need permission to wear the clothes they like?

Clothes too are an aspect of personality, and students should be free to evolve an individual taste in matters of dress. There is no need for such a restriction,” said a leading fashion designer, who preferred not to be named.

Rev Sr Albina, director of the Mount Carmel Institute of Management, however, said that although a strict dress code might be unnecessary, there could be some way in which the college could intervene and prevent students from wearing outlandish clothes: “I don’t believe in imposing a strict dress code. However, there should some regularisation in what students wear. After all, they come to colleges to study, and we cannot allow them to think of the space as one in which to perform fashion shows,” Sr Albina said.

Fashion designer Seema Malhotra, however, is all for freedom in matters of dress. “I grew up in Bangalore, and I went to Mount Carmel College. There was no such thing as a dress code. Students were sensible and mature, and in the main, the line between trendy and vulgar was something that was agreed upon.

College students dressed trendily, but there was nothing vulgar about how they turned up.” She added that college life was meant to be free; and the college ought to be a space to teach young adults to use freedom responsibly. “I feel it is harsh on the part of colleges to have a dress code,” she said.

Rita Naik, parent of a college-going girl, said, “I have no problems with my daughter wearing sleeveless tops or capris. And I don’t understand why the college authorities should find that way of dressing objectionable. Back in the 1980s, when I was a college student, we wore t-shirts and tight jeans. No one seemed to mind, then. Bangalore is apparently more cosmopolitan now, but in the past few years, we have been seeing unreasonable restrictions on young people. I have had to buy long tops and salwaars for my daughter, just so she can dress according to some code. The college watchman is the one that checks the students’ dress code, and he sends students back home if they are not dressed appropriately.”

Now will someone also debate curricula and infrastructure issues at institutes of higher education?