Much like at Christmas time, Dr. Perreault’s morning routine begins the night before.

“Sometimes I change my mind if I wake up in the morning and I’m like, ‘I just don’t feel like that,'” she said.

Family tradition is often important to Perreault to include in her choices year round.

“I have a lot of clothes that used to be my mother’s and grandmother’s that I try to incorporate into what I’m wearing,” she said.

Perreault likes to find colorful statement pieces to incorporate into her style, but also considers the time of year and weather.

“I also carry a lot of extra clothes in my car and in my office,” she said.

Classroom confidence is also a top consideration for Perreault’s choice of style.

“A lot of being a professor is about performing,” she said. “I’m more of a one-on-one person and so a lot of times teaching in a large setting can be super intimidating for me, so what I wear can kind of help me kind of put on a character for that.”

The advice that Perreault wishes to share with others comes from a lesson she picked up working in retail. One of those experiences was around Christmas time at a jewelry store, she said.

“I came in and he said, ‘Mimi, you’re going to have to wear something that looks like you would buy this jewelry when you’re selling it to people,'” she said. “I had never really thought about dressing for an audience.”

While in college, Perreault said she put this lesson into action when she organized workshops to help people learn about dressing for success.

“I would help people pick out their stuff for interviews,” she said. “I became a member of a student organization and it was our goal to help people prepare for interviews and what comes next after college.”

Now that Perreault is an assistant professor in the Department of Media and Communication, she is creatively incorporating statement pieces into her wardrobe that serve several functions for her such as confidence, joy and success. She confirms that’s how her new Matilda Jane evergreen velour suit she wore to campus the week before finals makes her feel.

“I just like felt so great when I put it on,” she said. “You need to find things that make you feel confident just as you are.”

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