Laboratory Fashionista

Laboratory Fashionista. Let’s face it – two words that just don’t belong together. When I think of biomedical researchers, I don’t tend to think of the most fashionable individuals – which is why I find my Friday evening elevator conversation so ironic. It started with a complement on my jacket, and turned into those in the elevator agreeing that I always look so well put-together and presentable, culminating with, “Julie, you’re so fashionable” and stating that I often look like I walked off the pages of a J.Crew catalogue.

I found myself having to stifle a laugh – if anything, I find my daily laboratory wear to be on the opposite end of the spectrum. Granted, it’s nice on days when you wake up late or aren’t feeling well to just be able to throw on an old pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and still be dressed appropriately, but most days I look in my closet at the A-line skirts and heels I used to wear every day when I interned on Captiol Hill and feel like an underdressed slob. I am entering a field where my daily routine of cheap jeans (I refuse to wear pants that cost over $30 into the lab ever, courtesy of my fabulous track record of either spilling things myself or having people around me spill things), a button down shirt, a J.Crew argyle v-neck sweater, and of course my high-class super-fashionable trusty New Balance sneakers (okay, I’ll admit to owning in multiple colors so they match whatever I’m wearing but still, I just wear sneakers every day) – has made me among the elite well-dressed of the medical center research building? Oh, and let’s not forget the best part – the lab coat and purple nitrile gloves! I know, so hot! I feel like I need to start doing something to maintain this title – like matching my lab powerpoint presentations to what I am wearing!

Friday evening I attended the Jewish Medical Student Association Shabbat services, and I was the only biomedical graduate student in attendance. When I introduced myself and what I was studying, there was a general attitude of impression, and one of the students even commented “Oh wow, a real doctor” (funny, I always thought the M.D.’s were the real doctors). It made me start to wonder when in the medical school process students go from thinking PhDs are smart and impressive to thinking they are the unintelligent who secretly wanted to go to medical school. I happen to have met quite a few of the medical students, and all of them have been impressed that I am going for a PhD and tend to think that it is a more difficult process than medical school, but almost all of the doctors I have encountered, including those at this university (see Big Pimpin’) tend to look down on researchers (except, of course, those M.D.’s who are doing research themselves). I wonder when this attitude change occurs – anyone looking for a sociology project?

And on that note, I’m off to study for Thursday’s biostatistics exam, or do something else totally important, like figure out what I’ll be wearing next Monday so I can color coordinate my lab presentation PowerPoint slides. :oP