Should Managers Provide Free Café Rio Lunches? [An essay by Chelsea and Cassi]

Today at work my coworker and I decided we wanted free lunch. My boss told us that in order for this to happen we had to convince him. He also said that food was more important than customers (in jest, but we took it as truth) so we wrote the following proposal to convince him using the 5 paragraph persuasive essay format from elementary school. Who knew it would actually become handy in real life? ;)

Have you ever been sitting at a lonely desk in a front office building when suddenly your stomach begins to speak to you?  There’s a solution for this problem that will be addressed in the following paragraphs and it begins with a tortilla and ends with a “Thank you for choosing Café Rio”. Café Rio should be purchased for hungry customer service employees because they are hungry and food is a basic human right, they are hard workers, and a dessert of choice will be provided for the supplier of the Café Rio.

First of all, food is a basic human right. Depriving employees by not supplying free lunch may cause such symptoms as hunger, fatigue, hallucinations, angry outburst at customers and bosses, an overall grumpy attitude, and in severe cases, death. When faced with the options of supplying the food or not, it appears that the choice should be an easy one. Some may say that only providing free Café Rio for customer service employees is unfair to the other works in the warehouse. But we disagree. The nuances of customer service lend these employees to hold a level of digression that would keep there from being any issues with the warehouse workers in question.

Along with saving your employees from a painful death of starvation, providing Café Rio will also show your employees that you appreciate their hard work and uplifting manners. As opposed to the side effects mentioned above from hunger, the side effects of supplying Café Rio for hard working employees are overflowing with positive outcomes such as: faster resolution to customer service issues, a more enjoyable demeanor, and a happy, satisfied stomach. Rewarding these employees will encourage the continuation of hard work and perseverance through the hard times on the front line of communication with angry customers. As Steve Maraboli said, “A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal.”

Finally, there is the issue of compensation. No favor should be asked without a plan of action from the receiver of the favor to reciprocate the gift of Café Rio. A suitable plan of action is that a dessert of the manager or bosses choice be made by the customer service representatives. This will satisfy the sweet tooth of the receiver as well as bring joy to his stomach and joy to those he shares the gift with.  The manager’s happiness will also brighten the day of the customer service representatives, bringing the cycle full circle. Opening up the gift options by letting the manager choose the dessert also shows the maturity and dedication to excellence of the customer service representatives.

In conclusion there are many reasons why the customer service representatives should receive free Café Rio. The main reasons are, the provision of food is a basic human right, providing free lunch will reward them for their hard work and insure more hard work in the future, and compensation will be given by way of baked goods of the manager’s choice. So as you sit and read these words, think back on a time when you were hungry and your stomach began to speak to you. What is it saying to you now? Free Café Rio for the girls it is!

C.R.M.

xoxo

p.s. We got Cafe Rio. Success.  

Why Fashion?

Fashion is ever changing and morphing into something new and exciting. It never stays the same for long, and like a water fountain, it recycles the old and makes it new again. The only way to truly stay up to date on what other people are saying about fashion and keep with the trends is by being observant and doing your homework. There are a myriad of ways to do this, but my personal favorites are reading magazines and blogs, going shopping and even just people watching. But why do people even care about what the new hip trend is you may ask? Why do people spend their entire lives studying something that is always changing and to some, has no value whatsoever? People love fashion because it gives them a lift from the mundane of everyday life, it is a fun past-time or hobby, and it gives people a way to track history as it is being made.

I have always felt bad for people who are blind because of all the color they miss out on in life. The world we live in is full of such exciting textures, hues, depths and colors. How boring would it be if we all ran around in gray jumpsuits or the same jeans and black t-shirts? The way we dress can define us in ways we don’t even realize. It may seem like an unconscious choice you make in the morning to choose the yellow shirt or the red shirt, but you are choosing an aspect of the way that people view you and you are choosing how you are going to impact the world of color. Stephanie Maddux said, “In today's world, fashion defines a culture, the status in which society sees you, it defines the type of people that you hang out with, the type of attitude that you may have…Clothing defines your personality and your way of life. Apparently, living by the way of fashion has become a standard in life.”^[i]

Choosing what you wear and being excited about that choice can give you a lift on a bad day, make you feel empowered, and take away some of the gray that so often fills our lives. This is especially apparent around springtime. Glenda Bailey, editor of Bazaar magazine said, “A new fashion season always gives us a lift, and although the word may be overused, the spring collections felt decidedly fresh.”^[ii] So make a statement, embrace something new and give the world some color and something to talk about.

Some people don’t consider clothes to by anything more than a way to cover themselves so they don’t have to join a nudist colony. For others, it is a job that fills their entire lives. They track fashion shows and follow the trends like some people follow the stock market. These people track the trends and then tell us commoners what they find: “The New York shows were full of paisley…with trippy Beatles-take-a-jaunt-to-India swirls and brocades and ’20-era flappers. Right on New York’s heels, London was chockablock with the tech-no eye candy of digital prints.”^[iii] For many, like myself, fashion is just a fun hobby that brings them joy and satisfaction. This group may see fashion as a challenge like Rajni Lucienne Jacques: “Every spring I go on a journey to find a not-too-high sandal that satisfies me as much as my usual heels. [I want] cutesy and chic all at once.”^[iv] Or maybe all it will entail is a trip to the mall every now and again to buy a few new pieces and get rid of some of the old.

One of the biggest reasons people are interested in studying fashion is because of its historical value. How often do you remember a date or a certain time period in history without having a picture of what the clothes looked like in that era pop up in your mind? So it shall also be with our generation. Suzy Menkes said, “There is a sea change in fashion for spring 2012—and not just by way of the underwater themes that were captured I the pearls at Chanel, sharks’ teeth at Givenchy, and crustaceous corals at Alexander McQueen. A generational change and the techno revolution have brought a shift in attitude that may turn out to be the defining spirit of the 21^st century’s second decade.”^[v] What will be our overarching defining characteristics that our children will make fun of us for in the future? Will it be the peplum which Bazzar magazine says is “the season’s most modern look—and for that matter, one of it’s most flattering,” or “straight-cut trousers [that] impart instantly cool polish”?^[vi] Whatever they may be, it is only through having an interest and study of fashion that any of this will matter in years to come.

 No matter what you might throw on in the morning, someone somewhere made important decisions to have those clothes land in your closet. No one can go through life without fashion or clothing impacting him or her in some way and this is why study of the subject is so important and useful. People love fashion because of the way it defines and gives color to our lives, because it gives people a fun hobby to enjoy and because it defines history in a way nothing else can. So the next time you slide open a drawer or push open a closet door to choose what to wear in the morning, know that your decision could change the world.

---

[i] Stephanie Maddux, “Fashion: Does Fashion Define Who You Are?,” last modified July 17, 2009, http://voices.yahoo.com/fashion-does-fashion-define-3797678.html.

[ii] Glenda Bailey, “Editor’s Letter,” Bazaar, Spring 2012, 156.

[iii] Lisa Armstrong, “The Shape of the Season,” Bazaar, Spring 2012, 235.

[iv] Rajni Lucienne Jacques, “Hottest Style News This Minute,” Glamour, March 2012, 160.

[v] Suzy Menkes, “The New Season,” Bazaar, Spring 2012, 380.

[vi] “The Style: Where Fashion Gets Personal,” Bazaar, Spring 2012, 199.

Shopping Justified

Breaking up and dealing with the heartache is never a fun experience. Anyone who thinks otherwise has a twisted personal gauge of “fun”. Coping with matters of the heart, especially when it is your heart that has been broken (in other words you’re the dumpee, not the dumper), can be a very touchy and personal experience. Everyone deals with pain in different ways. I don’t know anything about the way guys’ brains work, so I will not try to pretend to know how they deal, but I have become very well acquainted with how girls handle breakups. Some drown their sorrows in chocolate, others in greasy food like french fries and hamburgers.

Others torture themselves by watching chick flick after chick flick and wondering why their lives can’t work out like the fictional characters in the films.

Although these methods of dealing with the hurt can be effective in short bursts, there is a better way: shopping. Going on a shopping spree after a breakup is the best thing you can do to realign your life because it is less detrimental to your figure and social life than food and movies, it gives you a sense of control, and it helps you realize your true beauty, something that is so easy to forget.

While eating an entire bag of Dove chocolates might make you feel better for an hour or so, give it some time and your stomach will start to protest. Keep this practice up and not only will your stomach feel the strain, but so will your pants as they try to stay buttoned. Every girl needs some chocolate on occasion, but when it comes to feeling lasting results, it’s not the way to go. Shopping and fashion, on the other hand, will only make your figure look better, give you a chance to don a pair of heels, help you get some exercise as you walk around the mall, and fill your arms with shopping bags. Shopping also gives you the opportunity to get out of the house and be social instead of popping in another Nicholas Sparks tearjerker movie adaptation. The only thing that could suffer from this mode of coping is your pocketbook. But as long as you know what your budget is, write it up as an emotional need, and shop the sales, you’ll be just fine.

One of the hardest things about breaking up is the feeling that you lack control of your life. No matter how long you and your significant other were together, the sense of loss from no longer having him around can rock your perfect world in ways you can’t imagine until it happens. Everything seems out of place, and a hole is left where there use to be someone you could always turn to. The only way to regain balance is by focusing on the things you can control in your life. One of those things is the way you look and the way you dress. Get out of your sloppy tear stained pajamas and sweats and show the world the girl you want to become. You have control over what you wear and how fantastic you look everyday. You might not be able to force yourself to be happy and be okay, but you can control the way you look and the way you hold yourself. So go forward with confidence when you put on your new pair of hot pink skinny jeans.

The most important thing that a shopping spree and fashion can do for you in this time of discomfort and gloom is to help you realize that you are beautiful. When someone tells you they no longer want to be with you, it is easy to put all the blame on yourself. You suddenly start thinking of all the things that must be wrong with you that pushed him away. You tell yourself that, if you were prettier, he would have stayed. This is not true. You are beautiful inside and out and letting yourself get all dolled up (even if you have no where to go) can help you remember this. Another great thing about a shopping spree is that it is so much more enjoyable with friends. Take your best girlfriends with you to encourage you and give you the positive feedback you are lacking. Instead of crawling into a hole, becoming a nun, or hiding behind sunglasses and sweats, show him what he’s missing out on. Let the world know that you don’t need anyone to tell you you’re beautiful because you already know you are.

 

Healing a broken heart takes time and strength, but relying on something other than food and chick flicks to help you gain control and remind yourself of your beauty can help speed up the process. I understand that shopping and fashion might be some people’s worst nightmare, but just being yourself and getting back into the swing of life (like you can do by expanding your wardrobe) is important for everyone as they try to overcome the pain. Keep your chin up and know if you’ve hit rock bottom, it can only be up from here!

xoxo
CRM

The Evolution of Fashion

The History of Fashion is such a broad topic that millions of books, articles, websites and blogs are dedicated to the study of it. Trying to narrow fashion down to a specific cut and dry history is almost impossible. Throughout time periods and cultures, every country, state, even city, has had their own history of fashion and unique style. Most everyone has a different view or opinion of what fashion is, but what is it that makes fashion so important and versatile over the years?

Since the beginning of the civilization, clothing has been important to the masses. From the time of Adam and Eve wearing fig leaves to cover his nakedness, to now days, where society spends a good chunk of their time worrying, obsessing and fussing over it, fashion has an impact on each of us whether we like it or not. As is sung in “The Creation of Man” from the musical, The Scarlet Pimpernel^[i], the lyrics “Now, drape your cape and puff your cuff, embroider those lapels! Be the king of the beasts in pastels! La, but someone has to strike a pose, and bear the weight of well-tailored clothes, and that is why the Lord created men” demonstrate just how important clothing is to our society.

What I find ironic about fashion and its increasing importance in our everyday lives is the lack of people who actually know how to sew. “Ready-made clothing…resulted in the devaluation of the sewing machine in the minds of Americans, which lead to its ‘disappearance’ in American culture. Since it was no longer a status symbol, the sewing machine became an object whose use was assumed but not proclaimed—something akin to a washtub or broom.” In our culture today you rarely hear of people making their own clothing. More often I hear of people throwing or giving away old clothes, or even new ones, that don’t fit them because they don’t know how to mend or alter them to fit. This trend is unlikely to be reversed, but at least there are some designers left who devote all their time to making beautiful clothing. If not, we might all be running around in potato sacks. How uncomfortable.

In contrast to the lack of at home designers today, the first “fashion designers” were disputed throughout the history. Before the 1800’s, most seamstresses were anonymous and were employed by the rich and powerful. At the time, the rich were able to dictate specific fashion trends. If a queen, princess, duchess or other important noble man or woman wore something new, it was instantly the height of fashion. A more recent example of this is charm bracelets. They became popular in Queen Victoria’s reign because she “loved to wear and give charm bracelets. When her beloved Prince Albert died, she even made ‘mourning’ charms popular; lockets of hair from the deceased, miniature portraits of the deceased, charm bracelets carved in jet.”^[ii] Charles Frederick Worth^[iii] is said to have been one of the first fashion designers who was actually recognized for his work. He led his customers to embrace the new trends he conjured by “preparing a variety of designs that were shown on live models at the House of Worth…his aggressive self-promotion earned him the titles ‘father of haute couture’ and ‘the first couturier.’”^[iv]

There have been many fashion revolutions and shifts throughout the years that have shaped our ideas and given names to the trends we see today. For example, Mrs. Bloomer who “had a skirt just below the knees and trousers gathered at the ankles,”^[v] the flappers of the 20’s, the greasers of the 50’s, the peace loving folks of the 60’s, and the hipsters of 2012. One of my favorite and commonly overlooked revolutions in fashion was Christian Dior’s “New Look” of the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. After World War II, people needed something new and exciting to help them emerge from the dregs of penny pinching and assisting the war effort. “Christian Dior delivered it in a collection of luxurious clothes with soft shoulders, waspy waists and full flowing skirts intended for what he called ‘flower women’.”^[vi] The fifties are a huge inspiration for me in my designs and the way that Dior was able to take America by storm in a single, simple silhouette is remarkable. “All the reference books agree: contemporary fashion was born in 1947, with the New Look, the child of Christian Dior.”^[vii] Many fashion designers like Dior have changed the world in their time. That is why we continue to be inspired by their creations and people are willing to spend small fortunes on a dress just because it has a particular label on the back.

Another interesting aspect of fashion is the way we use it as an alternate way to study history and the people involved in it. CBS news posted a video on their website that shows in three minutes the evolution of fashion by a woman changing just her hair style and the clothes on her upper shoulders. Even with such a limited view, the watcher can instantly relate to what time period she is embodying.^[viii]


Moby - Wait for me from Lena Nosenko on Vimeo.
Another video shows a man and a woman dancing while their clothes and the music they are dancing to changes to match the time period. We are such a visual culture that when someone mentions a decade, the first thing that pops into most of our minds is a picture of someone in that time periods clothing.

To answer the question I posed at the beginning of this post, the reason that fashion has remained so important and versatile over the years is because it directly involves people and their imaginations. As long as a nudist colony doesn’t take over the world, we will always need something to wear. The individualist nature of humans will continue to push us towards the new, different and exciting things that fashion has to offer year to year. We are always stealing from the past and the styles they held while looking towards the future and the evolution that is bound to continue.

---

[i] “The Creation of Man,” last modified 2012, http://www.lyricsondemand.com/soundtracks/s/scarletpimpernellyrics/thecreationofmanlyrics.html.

[ii] “Charm bracelet,” last modified February 14, 2012, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charm_bracelet.

[iii] “History of fashion design,” last modified February 20, 2012, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_fashion.

[iv] “Charles Frederick Worth (1826-1895) and The House of Worth,” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, accessed February 22, 2012, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wrth/hd_wrth.htm.

[v] Wilfred Mark Webb, The Heritage of Dress: Being notes on the history and evolution of clothes: (London: E. Grant Richards, 1907), 361, accessed February 21, 2012, http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HumanEcol/HumanEcol-idx?type=goto&id=HumanEcol.MBWebbHeritage&isize=M&submit=Go+to+page&page=361.

[vi] “Christian Dior: Fashion Designer (1905-1957),” Design Museum, accessed February 21, 2012, designmuseum.org/design/christian-dior.

[vii] “History of the House of Dior,” Dior, accessed February 22, 2012, http://www.dior.com/couture/en_us/The-House-of-Dior/House-of-Dior-in-Video/The-House-of-Dior.

[viii] “Evolution of fashion and style for women over centuries,” last modified September 21, 2011, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504784_162-20109692-10391705.html.