As the school year kickstarts, the swimsuits and sunhats of summer begin to evolve into more modest school attire. But what is “school attire?”
Is it a uniform? Is it a specific style? Is it a free-for-all mode of dress?
At Bellarmine, “school attire” is defined by the student handbook. While its dress code has been ever-evolving, the most recent changes for the 2025-2026 school year have stirred both indignant and willful conversations about the new style standards.
While clothes can be used for self-expression, especially among school-age kids, keeping up with transient trends can feel stressful and impose a fiscal burden on students and families. For this reason, dress codes aim to not only preserve modesty and professionalism within schools, but can also strive to relieve some of the intrinsic pressure within students to update their wardrobes in accordance with new trends.
In order to find out the purposes of Bellarmine’s own dress code, the Journalism team hosted a press conference on Sept. 23 with Deans Willie London and Nikki Maryanski. When asked, “What is your main goal of enforcing the revised dress code, they each replied with the following answers:
London: “My main goal is trying to prepare students for life outside of high school. Our feedback from colleges and the business world was that our group of COVID kids were not prepared…as they had been in the past. And the big things were attendance and dressing. If you show up really casual, your production actually drops.”
Maryanski: “I was an employer at a D1 institution at a private Jesuit university–I have employed hundreds and hundreds of work-study and non-work-study 18, 19, and 20-year olds, all the way through grad school. I have had to have some very uncomfortable conversations with those under my employment about how you show up in an office work environment…and that is better to be done here in this high school than being brought in to an executive director’s office…it’s about shaping…we understand that you are coming here and it’s high school, but your next step is going to put you in places and spaces that are going to hold these expectations, and if we’re giving that to you now, it’s probably going to feel a lot better than getting pulled to somebody’s office when you’re actually at your employer.”
Around campus, students host varying opinions and feelings about this year’s new dress code. While some students do not feel impacted by the new dress code constraints, others feel the weight of unfair clothing standards and unequal enforcement of the rules. Particularly within these hot months, not being able to dress in accordance with the temperature is a common grievance of students.
Student interviews revealed both surprising and not-so-surprising feelings about the dress code. One of the most common complaints was the prohibition of sweatpants–five out of eight interviewed students mentioned wanting to be able to wear sweatpants. When asked about the impact of the dress code policy on his comfort at school, Junior Ezra Mungai answered, “We can’t wear sweatpants…I’m trying to be comfortable, because when I’m not comfortable learning I won’t be able to learn.”
Another complaint among students was the financial cost of replacing their wardrobes with dress-code friendly clothes. During her interview, sophomore Avery Kropp said, “I think that it’s kind of an out-of-the-way hassle to find clothes that aren’t too expensive but also fit the dress code and feel nice to wear all day.”
In another interview, junior Faith Hwang mentioned that she actually got rid of many of her clothes following the dress code changes: “Now I’m starting to be more aware of what I wear,” she stated. “Some of my clothes I just threw out because I can’t wear them at school anymore, so I’m kind of in the middle [regarding her opinion on the dress code], but some of it makes me get frustrated.”
Following these interviews, we asked London about this during the press conference. Admittedly, it was presumed that the dress code would be varying drastically from year-to-year, just as it had the past two years. Rather, London stated, “Our [student] handbook is a living document, which means it can change at any time, so if we find that something doesn’t work well at all, we don’t want to stay with it. We want to improve on it and change it. So it could change, but right now everything seems to be going really, really well.”
However, surprisingly, some students reported that they enjoyed the expectation of being “dressed-up” for school. According to a couple interviews, a positive new development is requiring boys to wear ties during mass. Sophomore Hayden Stewart, when asked about his favorite aspect of the dress code, answered, “My most favorite is probably the tie thing; it’s pretty swagger.”
Additionally, Junior Nate Mobley said, “My favorite [aspect of the dress code] is honestly–I didn’t think I’d like it–but wearing suits to mass, because it’s kind of funny. I don’t really wear suits, so it’s like stepping outside of my comfort zone.” On an everyday basis, some students also enjoy having a precedent of more formal wear.
Sophomore Avery Kropp said, “My favorite thing about the dress code policy is probably that it makes people dress more up and well, and so it makes me feel like I get to dress well without being too upstaged.”
Among the different individual opinions of students regarding the dress code policy itself, one major concern was repeatedly voiced: the enforcement. Or rather, the inconsistency of enforcement. Junior Genevieve Davis, when asked how the enforcement of the dress code policy impacts her confidence and comfort at school, replied, “In some cases it feels a little more strict to one gender.”
However, other students felt as though the enforcement wasn’t biased based on gender terms, but rather personal relations with staff members. Sophomore Irene Armanious said, “I would say the enforcement of it makes me feel self-conscious because it seems as if it’s only enforced on certain people, and certain people get an exception or are allowed to get away with it.” She went on to say, “I would say that [the dress code] is pretty reasonable, most of [it is]. I would just say that my issue is with the enforcement of the dress code itself.”
During the press conference, London was asked what his message to both students and teachers would be regarding the enforcement of the dress code:
London: “The biggest part of the dress code is enforcement. We have to get all of our first-period teachers to enforce the dress code…if [staff member] is super lax, and [staff member] is super strict, then you have one group getting enforced harder than the other ones. We’re trying to get everyone to do their enforcement first period…we’re trying to get consistency built throughout our teachers, and we’re still working on that also.”
As this school year goes on, conversations will continue to form about the validity, consistency and egalitarianism of the dress code. Just from interviewing eight students, many important and valuable insights were gathered and discussed. As Bellarmine’s dress code is refined and finalized for years to come, conversations with students are essential in order for staff and administration to realize both the benefits and repercussions of a stricter policy on attire:
How much weight does comfort have compared to professionalism?
How much influence are students allowed to have on the dress code policy?
How can staff ensure that guidelines are enforced equally across all student populations?
Does a stricter dress code policy truly lower fiscal burdens?
Do students learn better when they are more “dressed up?”
What should the dress code look like in the future?
How can achieving the dress code be made more accessible for students that may not have the resources to replace pieces within their wardrobe?