Old Favorites and A New Problem

This morning getting dressed was a little bit more challenging than usual. I realized that most of the things that I either wanted to wear or would normally pair with something that was clean and hanging in my closet were in my dirty clothes hamper. Since I run regularly and thus have sweaty gross clothes constantly layered into the dirty clothes, a hamper salvage is usually not possible for me. I was getting a little bit frustrated, when I realized that an old favorite: a pink wrap sweater that I bought years ago at Banana Republic had somehow drifted to the bottom of a dresser drawer. Immediately I had a cohesive outfit in mind. I paired the sweater with a grey cami, grey pencil skirt, black tights, and my pink John Fluevog boots. I accessorized with the best necklace ever! I bought it at Target six years ago for $2.87, earrings, and briefly, with a beagle.





Now, I've had these boots for several years, and I have received numerous compliments on them from colleagues, students, random strangers on the street and bus, and friends. However, I've never received one quite like I did this evening. When I arrived home from my long day, I checked my email. Apparently, six minutes before my evening class, a student in said class sent me an email from his blackberry. All it said was: Those boots are awesome! Haha

This compliment has brought up a jumble of thoughts and reactions. In all likelihood this student thought that he could win a few points with me with a little flattery. However, it's essentially provoking the opposite response in me. I've had students compliment my shoes, outfits, sense of style, etc. before, but never in an email and never without any conversation to contextualize it. For some reason, I feel like it's rather inappropriate. I've not yet responded to the email, and I'm not sure that I will. At this moment, I'm not sure what I would say other than thanks for the compliment, but I find this a rather odd and inappropriate email to send to a professor. So, dear readers, what are your thoughts? Do you think that the email/comment is harmless and at worst a slight attempt to manipulate my goodwill or is this something more pernicious? As a female academic who cares about fashion is this unwanted student attention one of the inevitable risks that I take in dressing the way that I do?