Students will learn the do’s and don’ts of dressing professionally during the American Marketing Association (AMA) of SUNY New Paltz’s first-annual business fashion show on Monday, Nov. 21 in Van Den Burg Hall.
First-year member Erica Vaccaro believes the show will be beneficial for all students, even first years.
“Everyone is going to have to find a job eventually,” Vaccaro said. “It’s not just business-related because they all will have to go on interviews.”
Vaccaro said she did not know what to wear to her first interview and recalled the situation as “embarrassing and unprofessional looking to not look the part.”
AMA President Fiona Lee said that students often don’t seem prepared for events including career or internship fairs that happen on campus. According to Lee, common issues that arise are wearing too much fragrance or makeup.
“The point of this show is to show students what to wear and what not to wear,” Lee said.
AMA’s goal is to inform students how to properly dress in business-like situations in a fun and engaging way. The individual scenes are split up by style, including a scene dedicated to business casual attire, and another for what to wear to an interview. This allows students to differentiate between the various styles available.
“There’s three main styles of business attire — business casual, business professional and business formal,” Lee said.
Collaborating with others outside of the business school or the marketing field is something AMA wants to achieve along with getting the word out about the club.
As it will be the debut of the fashion show, all participants are part of the School of Business. However, Vice President of Fundraising, Alexandra Sanky hopes to include other majors in the future and show them that AMA members “like to participate in fun, yet educational events,” such as the fashion show.
Sanky said she feels it is important for students to know how to dress even on casual days. Students always misinterpret the word casual and will assume they can wear an everyday outfit to work, which is in correct, she said.
“You always have to present yourself well, so this show will be a good way to teach students that in a fun way,” Sanky said. “It’s all about good impressions.”