What to Wear to Your Generation One Portrait Session

The most important thing I can tell you before you open your closet has nothing to do with fashion.

Don’t perform. Don’t purchase something new that you’ve never worn before. Don’t put on something that makes you feel stiff, uncomfortable, or like a version of yourself you don’t recognize in the mirror. The camera will know. It always does.

This session is about you. Who you actually are, not who you think you’re supposed to look like for a photograph.

Start here before you think about what to wear:

What do you want your family to see when they look at this photograph years from now? Not your outfit. You. The person who got here first. Dress for that moment. Dress for the legacy this photograph is the beginning of.

Everything else follows from that.

What actually works and why it matters

When someone arrives wearing the right thing I know within the first few minutes that we’re going to make something real. Not because of the clothing itself. Because of what it signals. They’re comfortable. They can move freely. Nothing is competing with their face or their smile. They look like themselves — and that’s exactly what the camera needs to do its best work.

A few things that consistently work for first-generation students coming into their Generation One session:

Solid colors over busy patterns. Patterns pull attention away from your face and your face is the point. A clean solid color lets everything else in the frame support you rather than compete with you.

Layers give you options. A jacket, a cardigan, an open shirt over a fitted layer. Layers add dimension to a portrait and give us something to work with on the day. They also mean if something isn’t working we can adjust without starting over.

Wear something you’ve worn before. New clothes carry tension. You’re thinking about whether they fit right, whether they look right, whether you made the right choice. Familiar clothes disappear. You stop thinking about what you’re wearing and start being present. And presence is what makes a portrait.

Wear what makes you feel like you. Not what looks professional. Not what you wore to your last interview. What makes you feel settled, confident, and like yourself. That feeling photographs.

For your first professional session

If you’ve never had a professional portrait taken before and for many first-generation students, this will be the first time, here is the only thing that matters. You don’t need to figure out how to pose. You don’t need to practice your expression in the mirror. You don’t need to arrive with any of that sorted.

You just need to show up as yourself.

This is the start of your legacy. The photograph we make together will live in your family for generations. It will sit on mantels and in wallets and on walls in homes that don’t exist yet. Dress for that. Not for a trend, not for an occasion, not for anyone else’s idea of what this moment should look like.

Dress for the person who got here first.

That’s you. That’s always been enough.

If you’re a first-generation college student in the DMV and haven’t applied yet, Generation One is here for you →