Fashions and fads: What do you like and hate?

I'm a jeans & T-shirts kinda girl. I love my Chucks, Vans and combat boots (they're military issue and one of the most comfortable pairs of shoes I own). I'm too laid back to give a hoot about what the latest trend is. I don't base my opinions of others on what they wear... it really doesn't matter to me one way or the other.

Since the topic is fads and fashions, I can't see any reason not to talk about the ones of the past too.

Flashback to my early adolescence, late 1970's, when I was in junior high (what is now called middle school). The rage for girls was to have their hair frosted. I wanted it so badly, but my mother resisted. "Oh, just wait 'til it's naturally frosted," said the smiling sweet little old lady across the street. I can't be mad at her because she *was* such a sweet little old lady, but when you're 13, that's not real helpful, is it? My father joked, "Why is it that when women are young, they want to look old, but when they're old they want to look young?"

What I still can't figure out is why my mother put up such a resistance. It's not like I wanted some punk 'do. What's so outrageous and radical about this?



The way she acted, you'd have thought I was asking for this:



But she was dead set against frosting my hair, until I turned that magical age of 16, at which point I would be allowed to wear makeup to school (all of the other girls were doing that at 12 or 13) and wear RED nail polish instead of pink.

What was so important about being 16 that these things are OK, but not at 15 1/2? I still can't figure that out.

PS: Hubby just commented, "Don't even try to figure your mother out."

I'm really dismayed to see my middle school students showing all the cleavage. We have a dress code, but it's not really enforced.
I wish we'd go to uniforms.

JMO, I think it would be better to simply enforce that dress code. I used to be in favor of school uniforms, thinking it would instill a sense of pride and improve conduct. For example, as a Girl Scout, I would not have wanted to be caught behaving badly while in uniform, because it would bring shame to the Girl Scouts in general, much the same as the Armed Forces talk about being a disgrace to the uniform. When I had a temp job with the United States Post Office, one of the first things they told us in training was that Cliff from Cheers is not exactly a shining example, and that in fact they have rules against going to bars and drinking while in uniform.

Unfortunately, this tends not to translate well to schools. It has been my experience that, even with uniforms, you can tell the haves from the have-nots. The giveaways are usually the shoes--sturdy and polished versus scuffed and full of holes, and the hairdos--professionally done salon styles versus bad home haircuts. Sometimes even the uniform is a giveaway. One student's uniform will be properly fitting and in good repair, while the other's is left over from last year because the parents can't afford a new one, so it is too small, threadbare, and stained. In this way, socio-economic status is still evident, and the haves still look down on the have-nots.

I loved the skirts of the late 70s when they were about midcalf length and billowing like the irish tartan long skirts. I remember when preppy was all the rage. I loved it. Then, in the 1980s, I loved miniskirts but they were not micro-minis. I love skorts (little skirts with built-in shorts underneath. I wish they still had those.

^^Me too. I love the clothes they wore on The Brady Bunch.