To the editor:

I never thought I would be incited to respond to a criticism of Emory fashion, but Mike Brandon's "Ban the popped collar: Dress to reflect intellect" (Nov. 15) has driven me to do just that. Although I share his opinion that the Emory student body has some problems in this particular area, I believe that some of Brandon's statements are misguided and that the issues he addresses are not really the most serious ones.

The first glaring fallacy in Brandon's argument lies in his use of a quote by Brandon Boyd in order to support the underlying message of his article, namely, that the current trend of paying a lot of money for brand-name clothes is pretty stupid. What Brandon fails to realize, however, is that his champion of nonconformity, Boyd, has recently appeared in commercials promoting Gap jeans, one of the very brands Brandon later condemns. Oops.

Brandon cites the abundance of brand-name, overpriced clothing as being the biggest threat to whether or not a person is perceived as an intellectual. What about the recent flagrant abuse of that inexpensive, generic piece of clothing, the wife-beater? Nothing screams unintelligent more loudly than attire that can be found at truck stops nationwide. Most of Brandon's criticisms also seem to be about stores that a wide variety of people shop from. Can a comparison really be made between a $40 AE polo shirt and the $700 designer purses so many students at Emory carry around each day? If an article is going to be written focusing on the costliness of campus fashion, shouldn't the targeted brands be Prada, Seven, Marc Jacobs and YSL as opposed to Hollister and Abercrombie?

I agree with Brandon's conviction that students at Emory tend to spend too much money on trendy items and his encouraging people to make their own fashion choices without relying on the opinions of others. But if your style happens to manifest itself as a popped collar from American Eagle, I say wear it with pride. The people who are judging you probably aren't the kind of people you'd want to get to know anyways.

-Joe Greiner, College senior