Dressing by the Boards

13 Seven Sisters

When Cleveland's department stores announced their College Boards, they weren't talking about the organization formed in 1899 to expand access to higher education.

The College Boards were a predominantly 1950s-1960s marketing tool to attract college coeds, especially freshmen who were anxious to fit into their schools' particular fashion sense. The Board consisted of a dozen or so supposed authorities on what their particular colleges required in terms of wardrobe. They were hired to work for six weeks, from mid-July until late-August, peak off-to-college shopping time.

It was an honor to be a College Board member, I thought, not that far from being Miss America. Their names, colleges and photos would be printed in the department store ad under a fetching headline such as:

"Introducing our 1958 College Board!"

Members didn't represent just any college, either. They were almost all from the Seven Sisters— Barnard, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, and Radcliffe. There was the odd local student from Oberlin or Ohio State, but who cared what anyone wore in Ohio? It was the Ivy League that mattered, and it was that preppy style we sought to emulate even in high school.

I never met a College Board member. They didn't seem to be "on duty" when I was downtown shopping. Instead I got my fashion advice from August Seventeen magazine and their "Back to School" issue or August Glamour's "10 Best-Dressed College Girls"*.

 
By the time I really was headed to college, to art school, in 1960, I'd put my circle pins away and laid my Peter Pan collars to rest. Instead I was buying opaque black nun's stockings to stand in for the black tights Beatniks wore. No College Board in that department.

I see why it's so hard to get dressed today. We don't have anyone telling us what to wear, how many shirts to buy, what styles are "in" or what will make us look hopelessly out of step. We have no one to please but ourselves. And when was the last time you looked in the mirror without hesitation and said, "Gee, I look good today."

*Yes, Glamour actually called it that from 1957 until 1969, when the honor was changed to "Top 10 College Girls". It took a few more years for them to become Women.