Week 3 Lab: Fashion Fundamentals

A Lab assembling three outfits for three named occasions, the same shape Assignment 1 marks

Before the Lab#

Bring your current wardrobe inventory, or take one during the Lab if you have not already.

In the Lab#

Introduction. Last week’s schedule handled maintenance — the routine stuff that just needs a frequency and a fallback. This week is about the one decision a schedule can’t make for you: what you actually put on, and whether it fits the room you’re about to walk into.

Activity 1 (groups of 4): Ranking exercise. Each group works from the same five outfits:

1. Off-duty casual

   

   A collared shirt-jacket, cuffed jeans, and boots that have never seen polish — dressed for a look, not a room.

   Photo: May Lee (Flickr), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

2. Head-to-toe loungewear

   

   A long-sleeve top, pyjama trousers, and bare feet — no attempt made at shoes.

   Photo: Alexander Moore / Rydale Clothing, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

3. Overdressed

   

   A full suit and a tie loud enough to be seen from the back row, worn somewhere that did not call for either.

   Photo: AndLikeThings, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

4. Gym kit

   

   Tank top, leggings, trainers — straight off the gym floor, no time taken to change.

   Photo: metromela (Flickr), CC BY-SA 2.0.

5. The typical CS student

   

   The unofficial CS-student uniform — hoodie, jeans, and a bag slung across the body, giving away nothing about which side of an all-nighter this particular CS student is on.

   Photo: SEAMENSHIE Gusahoixa, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Each group is assigned one occasion from the list below and ranks the five outfits best-fit to worst-fit for it:

• Your thesis defence, rescheduled twice already, now happening at 8 a.m. on a public holiday.
• Meeting your in-laws for the first time, over a lunch you cannot leave until dessert.
• Your younger cousin’s birthday party, where an aunt has already announced you as “the fun one” for the afternoon.
• The interview for the internship you have already told everyone you got.
• Jury duty, in the exact week you also have three assignments due.
• A group project meeting called for 7 p.m. on a Friday, by the one member who never replies to messages otherwise.

Then the occasion rotates to a different group’s assignment and the same five outfits are ranked again from scratch — the point is that the ranking changes with the occasion, not that any outfit is objectively good or bad.

Presentation: Each group presents the one ranking they disagreed on most — the outfit whose placement genuinely split the group — for the class to weigh in on.

Activity 2: Assemble three outfits. Individually, from your own wardrobe, assemble three outfits — one for a lecture, one for a friend’s birthday party, one for the gym — and justify each in one sentence against its occasion. This is a rehearsal for Assignment 1, not the submission.

Discussion / debrief (pairs): Show your three outfits to one other student; they offer one suggestion per outfit — a swap, an addition, or an objection.

Wrap-up: Keep these three outfits and their justifications — Assignment 1 asks for the same shape, with photographic evidence attached.

Afterwards#

Keep the three outfits and their justifications; Assignment 1 asks for the same shape with photographic evidence attached.