Anyone who goes to a slightly popular mall these days can easily see what teenagers wear. They walk briskly across the mall, with their baggy, off the shoulder shirts, skin-tight jeans, and UGG boots. They talk animatedly, or stand awkwardly near one of the stores, with their rhinestone-studded cell phone cases clutched in their hands, and way too much eyeliner rimming their eyes, running fingers through their obviously straightened hair.
Sounds familiar right?
Every store I pass I see the same thing. Mannequins with their plastic white eyes, staring at me while internally screaming, “Buy Me! Come Inside!” They wear what they think all teens wear, shirts with wide necks that expose your bra straps, animal-printed tanktops, t-shirts with slogans like “Little Miss. Princess” and “I Love Boys” on it. They all have the same skinny jeans, in a multicolored rainbow fashion against the window display.
The thing that the stores aren’t telling us is that the clothes only look good on some people. I am not one of those people. In my opinion as a pale-skinned, petite, small-breasted girl, I either believe that the “in-style” clothes make me look even skinnier and more awkward then I already am, and I feel uncomfortable parading around the mall wearing an oversized shirt cut off at my stomach that says “Spoiled” and tight leggings that expose my butt. The best part is that people call this look “comfortable”. How can you be comfortable constantly adjusting your shirt, and making sure that the leggings don’t expose my butt enough as it is?
The question now is “So what do you wear instead?” and that’s where my problem comes in. I love wearing casual skirts and dresses, but my mom deems them “too fancy”. If not, I usually then wear a graphic tee with some yoga pants, or shorts. This problem is becoming bigger and bigger, as we see this 80’s style in which people called “a terrible mistake” growing. Sooner or later, we’re going to be walking around with shoulder pads embedded in our clothing, and brightly colored unitards, which will be made fun of in the next few years.
For example, remember Crocs? They were a huge success a couple of years ago, and then suddenly, the plastic-shoes that were so cool and amazing were deemed a fashion disaster and thrown away. Or the peace sign, hippie rebellion we had a few years back involving numerous peace signs that are now only found at Justice stores. We’ve seen our parents laugh, or want to burn pictures of themselves in embarrassing clothing, so why haven’t we learned yet?
There’s not much we can do to stop this phenomenon of 80’s style clothing coming back in style. Instead, in the near future, I know that I will be at home sipping on some warm drink, in my comfy cardigan, and yoga pants, while others are out donating their clothes that were so hip and cool a few years ago. I honestly don’t care what people think of me. I’ll wear what I want, no matter what is “fashionable” at that moment.