Fab for the grad

April is here and that means May is only a few weeks away. With that comes the end of the school year and, of course, graduation! While it is not high school anymore, senior pictures are still prominent for college graduation. Since you can’t wear all your favorite outfits, how do you decide which few outfits to wear to represent your college years? 

Most people won’t be redoing college, unless you’re going on to graduate school, but you want to take this time to mark your years spent at your respective institution for your undergraduate years! With that said, there are selective outfits advised to wear for these senior pictures. 

The first outfit you should make sure to wear is one fancier outfit, which means for girls a dress or skirt and for men a dress shirt and nice pants (either khakis or nice jeans). This outfit is the perfect one to pair with your cap and gown and to show off your professionalism! Remember, though, just because you wear this outfit with your cap and gown it does not mean you have to wear it for your graduation day—actually it would be advised to wear a completely different, nice outfit for that big day! Back to the pictures, though. If you choose any article of clothing for this outfit that sports a print, just be very careful on which you choose; typically stripes have the potential to turn out blurry-looking in photos, while wild prints like any that have multiple directional lines—like tribal prints—often are too busy for simple graduation photos. For men, if you choose a plaid shirt—i.e., a button-up dress shirt—try to stick to a faded plaid, so much so that it is not very visible to the camera. It is highly advised to choose a simple dress, skirt, shirt, or whatever suits your fancy for this nicer outfit. If you want to go with one of your school’s colors, do that, but don’t wear both, as this can certainly come off as tacky. 

For the second outfit, look for clothes more on the casual side. Use this outfit to show your own personality while also representing your respective school. With that said, find your favorite pair of jeans and college representative shirt and pair them together. If you want to add more to your outfit (which is a great idea to do!), pair either a jean jacket, sweater overthrow, cardigan, or vest; when making your decision here, pick the one that will represent you as well as your major more—this is a cute and simple way to express more in your photos! Pair with this shoes that are nice-looking and clean but that also exude your personality—for girls, bootie heels are a great addition, or sandals if those are more preferred, while for men some lace-up shoes like Vans are a good way to tie the outfit together.  

Choose a third and final outfit that simply shouts “You.” Try to encapsulate yourself and who you are or who you have come to be through your years in college. Everyone has their own specific style that is particular to them, find that and showcase it to the camera because the more comfortable in what you’re wearing then the more comfortable you will be in the camera—therefore looking like the ultimate “you” in your photos. 

Use this time to truly capture what you want to remember from your college years. So think a little bit deeper into this little graduate photoshoot because years down the road, you may wish you had taken more time for it—and time to take in the life of the college around you. Hold onto this time and express yourself in your senior photos, photographers love it as much as you will love your photos!