ladies and gentlemen let’s talk about
Adam and Eve now for the heathens in the
crowd today Adam and Eve is a story from
the Bible and it’s about the first human
beings who are created by God and they
lived naked in the Garden of Eden the
Garden of Eden was gorgeous there was
this luscious place and these two had to
fulfill just one condition to live there
don’t eat a fruit from the forbidden
tree
it sounds really easy right the tree
literally has the word forbidden in its
name apparently it wasn’t because one
day Adam and Eve decide to eat an apple
from the tree and the moment they take a
bite they realize they’re naked and they
feel really embarrassed so they run
around the garden trying to find leaves
to cover themselves up am I skipping
some parts of that story definitely but
I summarized the parts that to me
demonstrate the fundamental way most of
us see clothing it exists for a single
purpose and that’s to cover our bodies
our society looks at clothes hair shoes
makeup accessories collectively what I
will call fashion in a very practical
and utilitarian way folks today I want
to show you why that’s wrong I want to
talk about the power of fashion and the
ability it has to transform our lives
but Before we jump into all of that
juicy stuff who is this person that’s
gonna stand here for the next 20 minutes
and tell you all that you dress really
badly well in case you’ve already
forgotten my name is Maria I’m a student
a researcher and author a bunch of other
cool stuff I think for a 20 year old I
have a pretty good resume I’m happy with
our man but trust me when I say that
that resume just used to be a blank page
I want to take you back in time to about
three years ago and I asked you to
imagine
scared 17-year old high school student
who’s about to embark on a journey at
Canada’s number one post-secondary
educational institution she was also
about to live on residence so she was
kissing goodbye to her mum’s home-cooked
meals and her dad killing any insects in
the house she was basically looking down
a really dark tunnel and all she could
see was hours spent at the library
microwaved bowls of old pasta and
cowering in fear because the spiders had
colonized her bedroom I was that 17 year
old and you thought I looked bad now
right surprise but in the middle of all
of this change
I had to simplify at least one aspect of
my life so I picked my wardrobe I came
up with a personal uniform of
sweatshirts and skinny jeans I could
eaten them sleep in them and study in
them which are the only things that
really matter to a student right at this
point in my life
all I was thinking about was
productivity I had come into university
with all these dreams and goals that I
was trying to achieve so all my energy
went towards that this focus on
productivity is such a strong message in
our culture and fashion is just one of
the ways that it’s reinforced some of
our most idolized and iconic figures are
famous for the fact that they have
uniforms take Mark Zuckerberg for
example he wears the exact same gray
t-shirt every day now when he was asked
about that in an interview he said and I
quote I feel like I’m not doing my job
if I spent any of my energy on things
that are silly or frivolous about my
life so that way I can dedicate all of
my energy towards just building the best
products and services alright so his
wardrobe suffered so that you and I
could have a platform to share cat
videos on and he’s not the only one
right Steve Jobs also comes to mind
black turtleneck dad jeans white
sneakers I mean
people are iconic they’re so respected
in our society and this was their
opinion on the clothes we put on our
naturally I felt the same way I had a
budding interest in fashion but I
thought at the very least I had to wait
till I’ve achieved something really
significant with my life before spending
time on things like that you know maybe
once I’d created the next big tech
company pineapple or space book then I
unfortunately I was nowhere near
starting the next pineapple I was in my
first year at university and when you’re
at university you realize that you’re a
guppy in a shark tank everyone sitting
in these lecture halls has actually
already started their own tech company
or invented a water purifier that cost
five cents or interned at NASA when they
were three years old I hadn’t done
anything remotely close to that
impressive I mean I’d been on my high
school’s lacrosse team for a week but
one day the ball came flying towards my
face nearly broke my nose so I dropped
out I like my nose suddenly I’m sitting
there and I’m questioning everything
myself my abilities my goals my
ambitions I’m really wondering will I
ever achieve those big dreams I had I’m
sure most of the students in this room
today completely understand where I’m
coming from the modern undergraduate is
expected to have everything grades work
experience volunteering extracurriculars
clubs and a fantastic social life I am
not the only one who was wearing myself
out trying to have it all we’re expected
to be extremely productive and yet we’re
also expected to be extremely happy and
you know what folks that makes complete
sense this day and age is statistically
speaking the best time ever to be alive
we have longer lifespans
the mortality rates easy access to food
shelter education we should all be so
incredibly grateful for the gift of
being alive in the 21st century but
there’s a catch right all those perks of
the modern age are pretty much offset by
that constant pressure to be productive
what good is a longer lifespan when
you’re spending most of that time
working we tend to forget that being
happy requires work – now I was so
stressed trying to be this productive
student that I decided enough is enough
I need to shift some of this work
towards being happy and how did I do
that
well I looked at that budding interest
that I had in fashion and I decided to
nurture it I went into my closet and I
dug out all those clothes that I was
saving for special occasions and I just
started wearing them to lectures or to
work
I stopped spending all my money on
skinny jeans and hoodies and I said
Maria try something interesting
something different it got to the point
where I was having so much fun dressing
up that many Monday mornings when the
last thing I wanted to do was crawl out
of bed for eight am calculus I forced
myself to I had a duty to show the good
people of Toronto the fantastic outfit I
had planned for the day now every night
I’d stand in front of my wardrobe
deciding what to wear and I’d ask myself
would I be happy if a future employer or
a future boyfriend saw me in this outfit
and not at the same time folks one or
the other I’m not that kind of person
you don’t have to worry but that idea
that sentiment it’s based in something
we all intimately know we all know that
the way you dress influences how other
people perceive you it’s the reason why
your mum’s ironing that white shirt
before your first proper job interview a
wire up at midnight texting your friends
15 different outfit options before your
first date with that smoking hottie from
the library we’re trying to project
confidence skill weight intelligence all
these wonderful
and amazing aspects of our personality
all I did was adopt that into my daily
life
why should I just project these amazing
things at job interviews and first dates
why not project it every single day what
but there’s something we rarely ever
focus on and that’s how the clothes
influence how we see ourselves I noticed
something that was happening around the
same time as this newfound passion for
fashion I was walking with a bit more
bounce in my step I was more confident
going outside of my comfort zone I felt
like the imposter syndrome that had
gripped me since my very first day at
university was decreasing little by
little the thing I attributed this
change to was my newfound interest in
fashion
I noticed that taking a few minutes to
craft a good outfit made me feel
prepared to take on the day and any
problems that would help have I felt
like my clothes were helping me be my
now the last thing I want to do is
assume that a correlation equals
causation and folks right now I’m just a
girl standing in front of the crowd
asking it to believe me based on a
personal anecdote so I went out to try
and find a study that would support
everything that I was thinking and guess
what I did find a study now this paper
was published in 2012 by dr. Adam and
dr. Gilinsky in the Journal of
experimental social psychology one day
these professors see a white lab coat
and they think hmm white lab coats are
typically worn by doctors and scientists
and generally people who are very
careful and pay a lot of attention to
detail so they conducted a study and
they confirmed that yes the majority of
the population associates white lab
coats with traits like carefulness and
attention this finding led them to
wonder would wearing a lab coat make a
person take on those trait
for themselves so would it lead to
increased attentional abilities to test
this idea they got a bunch of
undergraduate students and they divided
them up into three groups group one was
given a white lab coat to wear and they
were told that it’s a painter’s coat
group two was given the exact same white
lab coat to wear but they’re told it’s a
doctor’s coat and group three they’re
also given the exact same white lab coat
they’re also told it’s a doctor’s coat
but they weren’t allowed to put it on it
simply lay on a table next to them next
all three groups were given two images
that were identical except for some tiny
differences now when they were asked to
write down those differences group two
wearing the lab coat they believed was a
doctor’s found the most reflecting
better attention they also found that
when people are wearing a doctor’s lab
coat they make half the number of
mistakes in an attention task compared
so the crucial finding of the study is
that the effect of a lab coat depends on
two factors first it depends on what the
coat symbolizes Group one who is wearing
a painter’s coat didn’t show any changes
presumably because we don’t associate
painting with traits like carefulness
and attention and second you have to
physically wear the lab coat to see any
improvement group three that saw a
doctors lab coat but didn’t actually put
it on showed no change the name for this
effect is the theory of enclosed
cognition which describes the effects
that clothes have on the wearer’s
psychological processes they had found
that when people were a lab coat
associated with the traits of
carefulness and attention to detail
they showed increased attentional
abilities themselves what a
thought-provoking study right pretty
interesting
but the question is how relevant is that
to you and me the last time a student
walked around every day in a lab coat he
was pretending to be a doctor and he
ended up in jail you should google it it
was a really weird story but what the
study got me thinking was we all have
our own personal lab codes we all have
things that when we put them on we feel
invincible now maybe it’s a color that
makes you feel like you stand out from
the crowd perhaps it’s a style of
clothing that makes you feel really
professional and put together you could
even be inspired by how your idols dress
whatever it is we all have our own
personal lab codes that we associate
with important traits and they have the
potential to help us feel like our best
selves now when I looked at my
experience from this perspective I could
immediately understand why I was feeling
the way I was and I could see my
personal lab codes so I’d like to share
them with you today lab code number one
crazy trousers I’m talking cuts colors
Flair’s prints anything and everything
I’m wearing them today I love them now
this might surprise some of you but I am
a serious introvert I’m the definition
of an introvert and trust me when I say
that’s not really very helpful when
you’re a measly student trying to get
their grubby little hands on any job
opportunity that they can get crazy
trousers are the opposite of introvert
they’re loud they’re flashy they’re
confident I had to be bold when I wore
them and that boldness helped me seize a
lot of opportunities that otherwise
might have just passed me by lab coat
number two are my round glasses for some
reason round glasses are really common
in academia I feel like we’ve all had
that professor that came in the first
day of the semester round glasses
turtleneck suit papers under their arm
and you just knew wow this person is
really smart
well that happened to me because
eventually I began to associate these
glasses with everything I wanted to
one day this wise intellectual scholar
who’s he go to in their field think
Dumbledore
now I stumbled across these one day I
decided to try them on and the moment I
did folks
I felt smart I felt intellectual I was
channeling all these traits that I
admired greatly my final personal lab
coat thick eyebrows now thick eyebrows
have become really trendy recently but
to me they’re a symbol of my heritage
women from my racial background always
had lots of hair and bushy eyebrows but
even before it was cool so I like to
wear my brows bold and unruly wild and
untamed because those are all traits I
think a woman of color needs to thrive
in our society and there you have it
those are my personal lab coats now to
some of you the crazy trousers are just
that crazy and to others the round
glasses were less Dumbledore and more
Harry Potter but guess what none of that
matters what’s important is that these
items have significance to me they
embody traits that I value and when I
put them on I feel myself taking on
those traits now it might have started
out as superficial but that change
became deep and meaningful no longer am
i that timid 17-year old who was afraid
of trying hard and failing I became
confident and fearless well on my way to
achieving those big dreams a journey to
find happiness ironically ended up
fueling my productivity and driving me
that was really motivational right
really inspirational
I bet each and every one of you wants to
run out now and find your own personal
lab coats and if you don’t may I ask
what’s wrong with you I’ve just stood
here and told you how amazing they are
but finding a personal lab coat isn’t
always going to be easy you might need
to do some trial and error the thing
about trial and error is that might
require money
and that’s not something a lot of
undergraduate students really have so
the conclusion to my talk today is that
if you don’t have money I’m afraid you
can’t have a personal lab coat I’m
kidding you obviously got that of course
it’s still possible and to prove it
I set myself a challenge I did a bit
more research and I found out that the
average Canadian whoops the average
Canadian spends I’ve given away my
challenge the average Canadian spends
three thousand three hundred and seventy
four dollars a year on clothing which
translates to nine dollars a day now my
challenge was to create a complete
head-to-toe outfit based on one week’s
worth of that budget so to do the math
that’s 63 Canadian dollars now this is
the outfit that I came up with on that
budget it’s a simple dress but with this
wild jacket and flame printed boots it’s
pretty amazing right but I’m sure most
of you are thinking what I thought 63
dollars for one outfit folks that’s the
cost of 12 Big Macs so I went ahead and
made 12 more outfits with the three
things I bought but using clothes I
already owned
now the first six these are the simple
ones they made with things we already
own like white t-shirts black jeans
denim the second set these are the
flamboyant ones you can see the crazy
trousers round glasses a bunch of other
funky stuff and these twelve that’s just
the tip of the iceberg there are tons
more outfits I could have put up that
today even just by mixing and matching
what’s on the screen the point is you
don’t have to go broke to have a
personal lab coat you don’t even have to
buy anything the value in a personal lab
coat is the meaning behind the clothing
it’s not what you wear but why you wear
it each and every one of us can dress
with purpose dress with meaning dress
folks I’m standing here I’m looking out
and I see a really amazing group of
people I
the next inventor of Facebook I see the
next author of the Harry Potter series I
even see the person that’s going to
invent a burger that tastes better than
the Big Mac but now that I’m standing
here thinking about that I don’t think
it’s gonna be too hard to do what I see
is an incredible group of people and you
will achieve incredible things but
standing in your way is your own doubt
you will often feel like you cannot do
it you will need every single tool you
can get to help you achieve your goals
why is fashion not one of them there’s a
really common idea that dressing well is
just for special occasions but to that
all I can say is that life is an
occasion and every day can be meaningful
if you just dress like it I want to
thank you for listening to me today and
if I bored your pants off please feel
free to try on some new ones preferably
flared and bright yellow thank you very
much [Applause]
Adam and Eve now for the heathens in the
crowd today Adam and Eve is a story from
the Bible and it’s about the first human
beings who are created by God and they
lived naked in the Garden of Eden the
Garden of Eden was gorgeous there was
this luscious place and these two had to
fulfill just one condition to live there
don’t eat a fruit from the forbidden
tree
it sounds really easy right the tree
literally has the word forbidden in its
name apparently it wasn’t because one
day Adam and Eve decide to eat an apple
from the tree and the moment they take a
bite they realize they’re naked and they
feel really embarrassed so they run
around the garden trying to find leaves
to cover themselves up am I skipping
some parts of that story definitely but
I summarized the parts that to me
demonstrate the fundamental way most of
us see clothing it exists for a single
purpose and that’s to cover our bodies
our society looks at clothes hair shoes
makeup accessories collectively what I
will call fashion in a very practical
and utilitarian way folks today I want
to show you why that’s wrong I want to
talk about the power of fashion and the
ability it has to transform our lives
but Before we jump into all of that
juicy stuff who is this person that’s
gonna stand here for the next 20 minutes
and tell you all that you dress really
badly well in case you’ve already
forgotten my name is Maria I’m a student
a researcher and author a bunch of other
cool stuff I think for a 20 year old I
have a pretty good resume I’m happy with
our man but trust me when I say that
that resume just used to be a blank page
I want to take you back in time to about
three years ago and I asked you to
imagine
scared 17-year old high school student
who’s about to embark on a journey at
Canada’s number one post-secondary
educational institution she was also
about to live on residence so she was
kissing goodbye to her mum’s home-cooked
meals and her dad killing any insects in
the house she was basically looking down
a really dark tunnel and all she could
see was hours spent at the library
microwaved bowls of old pasta and
cowering in fear because the spiders had
colonized her bedroom I was that 17 year
old and you thought I looked bad now
right surprise but in the middle of all
of this change
I had to simplify at least one aspect of
my life so I picked my wardrobe I came
up with a personal uniform of
sweatshirts and skinny jeans I could
eaten them sleep in them and study in
them which are the only things that
really matter to a student right at this
point in my life
all I was thinking about was
productivity I had come into university
with all these dreams and goals that I
was trying to achieve so all my energy
went towards that this focus on
productivity is such a strong message in
our culture and fashion is just one of
the ways that it’s reinforced some of
our most idolized and iconic figures are
famous for the fact that they have
uniforms take Mark Zuckerberg for
example he wears the exact same gray
t-shirt every day now when he was asked
about that in an interview he said and I
quote I feel like I’m not doing my job
if I spent any of my energy on things
that are silly or frivolous about my
life so that way I can dedicate all of
my energy towards just building the best
products and services alright so his
wardrobe suffered so that you and I
could have a platform to share cat
videos on and he’s not the only one
right Steve Jobs also comes to mind
black turtleneck dad jeans white
sneakers I mean
people are iconic they’re so respected
in our society and this was their
opinion on the clothes we put on our
naturally I felt the same way I had a
budding interest in fashion but I
thought at the very least I had to wait
till I’ve achieved something really
significant with my life before spending
time on things like that you know maybe
once I’d created the next big tech
company pineapple or space book then I
unfortunately I was nowhere near
starting the next pineapple I was in my
first year at university and when you’re
at university you realize that you’re a
guppy in a shark tank everyone sitting
in these lecture halls has actually
already started their own tech company
or invented a water purifier that cost
five cents or interned at NASA when they
were three years old I hadn’t done
anything remotely close to that
impressive I mean I’d been on my high
school’s lacrosse team for a week but
one day the ball came flying towards my
face nearly broke my nose so I dropped
out I like my nose suddenly I’m sitting
there and I’m questioning everything
myself my abilities my goals my
ambitions I’m really wondering will I
ever achieve those big dreams I had I’m
sure most of the students in this room
today completely understand where I’m
coming from the modern undergraduate is
expected to have everything grades work
experience volunteering extracurriculars
clubs and a fantastic social life I am
not the only one who was wearing myself
out trying to have it all we’re expected
to be extremely productive and yet we’re
also expected to be extremely happy and
you know what folks that makes complete
sense this day and age is statistically
speaking the best time ever to be alive
we have longer lifespans
the mortality rates easy access to food
shelter education we should all be so
incredibly grateful for the gift of
being alive in the 21st century but
there’s a catch right all those perks of
the modern age are pretty much offset by
that constant pressure to be productive
what good is a longer lifespan when
you’re spending most of that time
working we tend to forget that being
happy requires work – now I was so
stressed trying to be this productive
student that I decided enough is enough
I need to shift some of this work
towards being happy and how did I do
that
well I looked at that budding interest
that I had in fashion and I decided to
nurture it I went into my closet and I
dug out all those clothes that I was
saving for special occasions and I just
started wearing them to lectures or to
work
I stopped spending all my money on
skinny jeans and hoodies and I said
Maria try something interesting
something different it got to the point
where I was having so much fun dressing
up that many Monday mornings when the
last thing I wanted to do was crawl out
of bed for eight am calculus I forced
myself to I had a duty to show the good
people of Toronto the fantastic outfit I
had planned for the day now every night
I’d stand in front of my wardrobe
deciding what to wear and I’d ask myself
would I be happy if a future employer or
a future boyfriend saw me in this outfit
and not at the same time folks one or
the other I’m not that kind of person
you don’t have to worry but that idea
that sentiment it’s based in something
we all intimately know we all know that
the way you dress influences how other
people perceive you it’s the reason why
your mum’s ironing that white shirt
before your first proper job interview a
wire up at midnight texting your friends
15 different outfit options before your
first date with that smoking hottie from
the library we’re trying to project
confidence skill weight intelligence all
these wonderful
and amazing aspects of our personality
all I did was adopt that into my daily
life
why should I just project these amazing
things at job interviews and first dates
why not project it every single day what
but there’s something we rarely ever
focus on and that’s how the clothes
influence how we see ourselves I noticed
something that was happening around the
same time as this newfound passion for
fashion I was walking with a bit more
bounce in my step I was more confident
going outside of my comfort zone I felt
like the imposter syndrome that had
gripped me since my very first day at
university was decreasing little by
little the thing I attributed this
change to was my newfound interest in
fashion
I noticed that taking a few minutes to
craft a good outfit made me feel
prepared to take on the day and any
problems that would help have I felt
like my clothes were helping me be my
now the last thing I want to do is
assume that a correlation equals
causation and folks right now I’m just a
girl standing in front of the crowd
asking it to believe me based on a
personal anecdote so I went out to try
and find a study that would support
everything that I was thinking and guess
what I did find a study now this paper
was published in 2012 by dr. Adam and
dr. Gilinsky in the Journal of
experimental social psychology one day
these professors see a white lab coat
and they think hmm white lab coats are
typically worn by doctors and scientists
and generally people who are very
careful and pay a lot of attention to
detail so they conducted a study and
they confirmed that yes the majority of
the population associates white lab
coats with traits like carefulness and
attention this finding led them to
wonder would wearing a lab coat make a
person take on those trait
for themselves so would it lead to
increased attentional abilities to test
this idea they got a bunch of
undergraduate students and they divided
them up into three groups group one was
given a white lab coat to wear and they
were told that it’s a painter’s coat
group two was given the exact same white
lab coat to wear but they’re told it’s a
doctor’s coat and group three they’re
also given the exact same white lab coat
they’re also told it’s a doctor’s coat
but they weren’t allowed to put it on it
simply lay on a table next to them next
all three groups were given two images
that were identical except for some tiny
differences now when they were asked to
write down those differences group two
wearing the lab coat they believed was a
doctor’s found the most reflecting
better attention they also found that
when people are wearing a doctor’s lab
coat they make half the number of
mistakes in an attention task compared
so the crucial finding of the study is
that the effect of a lab coat depends on
two factors first it depends on what the
coat symbolizes Group one who is wearing
a painter’s coat didn’t show any changes
presumably because we don’t associate
painting with traits like carefulness
and attention and second you have to
physically wear the lab coat to see any
improvement group three that saw a
doctors lab coat but didn’t actually put
it on showed no change the name for this
effect is the theory of enclosed
cognition which describes the effects
that clothes have on the wearer’s
psychological processes they had found
that when people were a lab coat
associated with the traits of
carefulness and attention to detail
they showed increased attentional
abilities themselves what a
thought-provoking study right pretty
interesting
but the question is how relevant is that
to you and me the last time a student
walked around every day in a lab coat he
was pretending to be a doctor and he
ended up in jail you should google it it
was a really weird story but what the
study got me thinking was we all have
our own personal lab codes we all have
things that when we put them on we feel
invincible now maybe it’s a color that
makes you feel like you stand out from
the crowd perhaps it’s a style of
clothing that makes you feel really
professional and put together you could
even be inspired by how your idols dress
whatever it is we all have our own
personal lab codes that we associate
with important traits and they have the
potential to help us feel like our best
selves now when I looked at my
experience from this perspective I could
immediately understand why I was feeling
the way I was and I could see my
personal lab codes so I’d like to share
them with you today lab code number one
crazy trousers I’m talking cuts colors
Flair’s prints anything and everything
I’m wearing them today I love them now
this might surprise some of you but I am
a serious introvert I’m the definition
of an introvert and trust me when I say
that’s not really very helpful when
you’re a measly student trying to get
their grubby little hands on any job
opportunity that they can get crazy
trousers are the opposite of introvert
they’re loud they’re flashy they’re
confident I had to be bold when I wore
them and that boldness helped me seize a
lot of opportunities that otherwise
might have just passed me by lab coat
number two are my round glasses for some
reason round glasses are really common
in academia I feel like we’ve all had
that professor that came in the first
day of the semester round glasses
turtleneck suit papers under their arm
and you just knew wow this person is
really smart
well that happened to me because
eventually I began to associate these
glasses with everything I wanted to
one day this wise intellectual scholar
who’s he go to in their field think
Dumbledore
now I stumbled across these one day I
decided to try them on and the moment I
did folks
I felt smart I felt intellectual I was
channeling all these traits that I
admired greatly my final personal lab
coat thick eyebrows now thick eyebrows
have become really trendy recently but
to me they’re a symbol of my heritage
women from my racial background always
had lots of hair and bushy eyebrows but
even before it was cool so I like to
wear my brows bold and unruly wild and
untamed because those are all traits I
think a woman of color needs to thrive
in our society and there you have it
those are my personal lab coats now to
some of you the crazy trousers are just
that crazy and to others the round
glasses were less Dumbledore and more
Harry Potter but guess what none of that
matters what’s important is that these
items have significance to me they
embody traits that I value and when I
put them on I feel myself taking on
those traits now it might have started
out as superficial but that change
became deep and meaningful no longer am
i that timid 17-year old who was afraid
of trying hard and failing I became
confident and fearless well on my way to
achieving those big dreams a journey to
find happiness ironically ended up
fueling my productivity and driving me
that was really motivational right
really inspirational
I bet each and every one of you wants to
run out now and find your own personal
lab coats and if you don’t may I ask
what’s wrong with you I’ve just stood
here and told you how amazing they are
but finding a personal lab coat isn’t
always going to be easy you might need
to do some trial and error the thing
about trial and error is that might
require money
and that’s not something a lot of
undergraduate students really have so
the conclusion to my talk today is that
if you don’t have money I’m afraid you
can’t have a personal lab coat I’m
kidding you obviously got that of course
it’s still possible and to prove it
I set myself a challenge I did a bit
more research and I found out that the
average Canadian whoops the average
Canadian spends I’ve given away my
challenge the average Canadian spends
three thousand three hundred and seventy
four dollars a year on clothing which
translates to nine dollars a day now my
challenge was to create a complete
head-to-toe outfit based on one week’s
worth of that budget so to do the math
that’s 63 Canadian dollars now this is
the outfit that I came up with on that
budget it’s a simple dress but with this
wild jacket and flame printed boots it’s
pretty amazing right but I’m sure most
of you are thinking what I thought 63
dollars for one outfit folks that’s the
cost of 12 Big Macs so I went ahead and
made 12 more outfits with the three
things I bought but using clothes I
already owned
now the first six these are the simple
ones they made with things we already
own like white t-shirts black jeans
denim the second set these are the
flamboyant ones you can see the crazy
trousers round glasses a bunch of other
funky stuff and these twelve that’s just
the tip of the iceberg there are tons
more outfits I could have put up that
today even just by mixing and matching
what’s on the screen the point is you
don’t have to go broke to have a
personal lab coat you don’t even have to
buy anything the value in a personal lab
coat is the meaning behind the clothing
it’s not what you wear but why you wear
it each and every one of us can dress
with purpose dress with meaning dress
folks I’m standing here I’m looking out
and I see a really amazing group of
people I
the next inventor of Facebook I see the
next author of the Harry Potter series I
even see the person that’s going to
invent a burger that tastes better than
the Big Mac but now that I’m standing
here thinking about that I don’t think
it’s gonna be too hard to do what I see
is an incredible group of people and you
will achieve incredible things but
standing in your way is your own doubt
you will often feel like you cannot do
it you will need every single tool you
can get to help you achieve your goals
why is fashion not one of them there’s a
really common idea that dressing well is
just for special occasions but to that
all I can say is that life is an
occasion and every day can be meaningful
if you just dress like it I want to
thank you for listening to me today and
if I bored your pants off please feel
free to try on some new ones preferably
flared and bright yellow thank you very
much [Applause]
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