It’s Happened
March 8th, 2007As a teenager, I used to wonder if I would fall victim to the same affliction that plagued my parents and teachers and other adults. The thing that made them not realize the coolness difference between socks from Banana Republic and socks from K-Mart, between Keds and the knock-off Keds in the Garden Department at Sears. The affliction that made them roll their eyes at our youthful fashions—our COOL youthful fashions—and dismiss them as rebellious, tasteless, and oversexualized. I knew from TV documentaries about the 60s that they had not always BEEN this way, and I wondered what horrible blight overcame them, and how I could avoid it. I vowed to resist, and with the aid of my students and magazines and all of Los Angeles, I have tried my best to avoid this aspect of age. I have squeezed my ass into stretchy jeans, poked pancake-sized hoop earrings into my ears, and made an entire outfit out of three-quarter leggings, a mini skirt, and an authentically new vintage T-shirt from Urabn Outfitters ALL in an attempt to avoid detaching from what LOOKS GOOD to the YOUTH of America. But now, here, I admit my failure. Because standing in front of the VERY trendy American Apparel with Stevel the other night, out of my mouth came these words:
“This is how my students dress. But these mannequins just look naked to me.”
Steve agreed. “These outfits are ridiculous,” he said.
It is over. We are doomed to uncoolness. Two-for-one ultra-high-waist jeans at CVS? We’re on it.
March 8th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
American Apparel is exclusively sells 70s Porn Lifestyle.
While this may hold momentary fascination for today’s Los Angeles youth, soon another company will sweep away A.A. with the 80s Cocaine Lifestyle.
You need but merely wait for the cycle of porn lifestyles to return to the 90s so you may once again feel comfortable in your stretchy jeans.
March 8th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
It is unfortunate that “is exclusively sells” makes no sense.
March 10th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
As you age, you become wiser usually. It’s the wisdom that makes all that “cool” stuff look tarnished. But wisdom usually makes other stuff look “cool” that didn’t before, like museums and furniture that’s comfortable and shoes that feel good on your feet. Sadly, until you start to become wise, you don’t recognize or value wisdom. That’s why, when you’re young, wise people just look “uncool” to you.
March 10th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
personaly my issue is with my wife and her desire to maintain a viable fashion economy. I mean it takes me at least ten (10) years to break-in a pair of jeans. I mean by that time they become like my skin, I am comfortable in them. And they are now fashioable, a few rips and tears. A hole here and there, And of course some fraying at the cuffs. But lo and behold I turn around and they are gone to the Goodwill. They are not BLUE enough (after all they are Blue Jeans, right!) They are not the latest fashion (5,000,0001′s) So the cycle begins again.
of course at my age, we tend to look more at the person than the clothes. I think that if what you wear makes you comfortable, then that is really what counts. HIGH FASHION Tends to put me in a negative stereotyping of the person I am meeting. Classics, like Crocs, will always be classics. They fit and they work for you.