Hearts and flowers are everywhere this time of year.

Companies market Valentine’s Day on cards, candy, chocolate and dishes.

There are heart-shaped frying pans for pancakes, heart-shaped baking pans for pound cakes, decorated specialty dishes that alternate hearts and roses, towels adorned with hot pink little curly hearts and tulips, and even bedspreads for the occasion.

Florists sell more roses in a single day than they do all year, complete with heart-covered tissue paper and cards with heartfelt sayings, such as “Love never fails,” or “You are the wind beneath my wings.”

Therefore, it isn’t a surprise to see store mannequins donning shirts covered in hearts and roses and “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

But just because clothing stores are pushing the novelty idea of holiday-themed attire doesn’t mean it’s fashionable, according to Erin Blackwelder, an alumna.

“Seasonal sweaters and accessories should be left to the grade-schoolers,” Blackwelder said.

Blackwelder, who graduated from N.C. State in 2005, works for Gromwell, LLC., an employment firm in New York City. She is an account manager, helping match potential employees with the right fashion, apparel, retail, beauty and advertising industry environments. Some of her clients are D&G, Gucci, Lacoste, Diesel and Polo. She said people should be conscious of the clothes they wear, because they are constantly being scrutinized.

“We have to be careful about how we chose to dress or adorn ourselves, for fear of ending up in the back pages of Glamour magazine’s ‘don’ts’ section, with a big black box over your face!” she said.

Sophomore in industrial design Garry Atkinson has been interested in fashion for as long as he can remember. He even has his own clothing company, Illusion, that he began in middle school.

Atkinson said he wasn’t planning on wearing anything Valentine’s Day-themed for the holiday, but some people can pull it off.

“It just depends on the way you wear it,” Atkinson said. “You can wear it corny.”

For Atkinson, “corny” would be wearing a shirt absolutely drenched with hearts. He said he had seen good examples of holiday wear, however. One was a shirt from Akademics that said “Love is for Suckers,” and said he would wear a hoodie with a broken heart, or something along those lines, on it.

Blackwelder suggested celebrating Valentine’s Day the classic way, rather than trying to wear the holiday.

“The days of puff paint, glitter and silly bobbles are over!,” Blackwelder said. “Instead, opt for expressing your interests in this heartfelt holiday with the gift of flowers and those cute little Valentine’s Day cards, stuffed with Hershey’s Kisses and conversation hearts.”