BROOKE THAMES;Â A&C Editor:Â thamesbe@plu.edu
Pacific Lutheran University’s Career Connections added fashion advice to their list of services when the department partnered with Nordstrom  and The Center for Gender Equity last Thursday to consult Lutes on wear for the workplace.
Students in attendance not only earned a complementary Career Connections laptop bag, but also a plethora of fashion tips to help ensure their style success both during the interview process and post-employment.
“[We wanted to] equip students to feel confident and comfortable in the clothes that their wearing so that they can present their best selves,” said Jennifer Smith, Director of the Center for Gender Equity.
The Career Connections fashion show is a familiar event to PLU. The show previously used in-house models consisting of faculty, staff and students.
This year Career Connections and the Center for Gender Equity joined forces with Nordstrom to present students with professional and stylish clothing options currently available on the market.
Through its current relationship with Nordstrom’s internship program, Career Connections featured six Nordstrom employees who modeled various outfits and answered questions about everything from fitting and and fabric prints to tattoos and piercings in the workplace.
“It’s about your personality, emphasizing who you are and doing you.” – Jennifer
Smith;Â Director of the Center for Gender Equity
Each employee – along with the fashion show’s moderator, sales manager Terry Doan – emphasized maintaining identity and personality while still presenting oneself in a professional manner.
“Talking to students about how they can dress themselves in a way that represents who they are and also communicates their professionalism I think is important,” Smith said. “They did a really good job at the show to highlight [the fact that] its’s about your personality, emphasizing who you are and doing you rather than wearing a costume of what you think is professionalism.”
Simultaneously, the Career Fashion worked to remind Lutes of how their fashion choices matter both during the interview process and on the job.
“Often we don’t know if we’re violating a [fashion] principle in interviews until the interview is over,” said Allie Grill, Assistant Director of Academic Internship and Career Development. “To empower students to realize that they have the right items in their closet I think helps them see that they have the tools to be professional.”
