Grace Knight

Dressing like a cartoon character is wearing the same outfit, or a variation of the same outfit, every day. Before fashion content moved online, clothing styles were popular for years before they were replaced by something new.
As many brands turned to social media marketing, trend cycles accelerated, replacing each other faster and faster. Many retailers took advantage of this by selling cheap and poorly made clothing online.
Manufacturing clothing is both profitable and labor-intensive, so clothing companies use unethical labor practices to pump out as many garments as possible. Those garments are shipped long distances and discarded after a few months, making fashion one of the most polluting industries.
There are many ways to buy clothing without supporting these companies, like secondhand stores or ethical clothing brands. However, these solutions don’t address the root of the problem: mindless overconsumption of clothing.
As long as consumers are continuously updating their wardrobe with clothes they don’t really need, the fashion industry will be wasteful and exploitative. Dressing like a cartoon character is an easy way to decrease demand for clothing and break the habit of buying without thinking.
Another benefit of dressing like a cartoon character is to be immediately recognizable to anyone you meet. If I have to ask ‘What’s your name?” “Where are you from?” “What’s your major?” to one more person my head will explode and I’ll die.
None of us are remembering the answers anyways. Cartoon character outfits make introductions much easier because you remember them and instantly have something to talk about.
One recognizable character on campus is “Suit Kid”, aka the freshman student Guiry Borodkin. He can be seen wearing a full suit and carrying a large economics textbook to the OR, classes, and even the gym.
The reason behind his outfit choice is to show his personal values of consistency to everyone he meets. “I wear suits because I have a particular standard of dress. Wearing similar outfits, and traditionally formal outfits is indicative of particular behavior patterns, namely that you are not subject to constant emotional swings, or very varying outlooks,” he said.
Whether you want to be ethically conscious, more recognizable, or show your personal values, dressing like a cartoon character is worthwhile.