Mom shocked by teen's modest clothing
A shocking trend is gaining ground in teen dressing: modesty.
Here's an example: Last summer, my 13-year-old daughter needed a dress to attend a friend's bat mitzvah.
What we found was a black concoction with a neckline so low that my condition for buying it was a fill-in-the-gap black undergarment. She wasn't happy about it, but complied.
This June, for her eighth-grade graduation, my daughter debated between a slinky blue dress with a plunging neckline -- more lounge singer than middle schooler -- and a flowery cotton print that was strapless but not low-cut.
After much consultation with her friends, she opted for the strapless and decided to top it with a sedate, white cardigan sweater.
What had happened to teen dressing in those intervening 10 months?
Layering. The economic downturn. Traction from an entrenched parents' backlash against highly sexualized looks for their daughters. Oh, and fashion's do-or-die need to throw something new at the gigantic but fickle teen/tween market as quickly as you can say "MySpace" or "Facebook."
..."We're in a very challenging time period," said Allison Levy, merchandise manager for menswear and childrenswear at the Doneger Group, which advises major stores on what fashions to buy. "We have to work harder to get them in the door and satisfy them. ... It's about capturing their attention."
..."It's all media-driven," Stone said. "It's about girls seeing celebrities on TV shows, movie and concert tours and now they get to communicate about clothing on social networking sites. More communicating tools are available ... to spread the word about fashion a celebrity is wearing. That drives tween fashion."
In the emphasis on layering, many parents see a welcome trend that is long overdue.
"A lot of the very fashionable looks right now are very modest," said Brenda Sharman, national director at Pure Fashion, a Catholic-based organization that has put on modesty teen fashion shows in nearly two dozen U.S. cities. "It's almost a flashback to looking very demure and proper."
The group has long deplored the low necklines and sexy looks that have marked teen fashion, and they aren't alone. Last year, an American Psychological Association task force reported that cognitive performance and health can suffer when teens and young women make themselves into sex objects by wearing sexy clothing or styling themselves after sexy celebrities. Eating disorders, depression and low self-confidence can result.
Happily, there's evidence that the covered-up styles for teens might continue into next season and beyond.
..."Girls are dressing for themselves, as opposed to dressing for guys," she said. "The guys might not like it but the girls are not wearing really tight shirts. They're covered up."
...I'm rejoicing over anything that keeps my girl from looking like a lounge singer
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1 comment:
In scandinavia people think jews have a very strange face, especially the nose is very bad-looking,kinda scythe-like they say, . They call it " Ful nasa". the word "ful" is pronounced like the english word "fuel". i kind of feel sorry for them, but maybe its the testosterone.. i´ve heard it increases the tissues inside the nose, especially bone mass.
It´s intresting to note that the hebrew work "nasa" can mean both "to marry" and "to lift" and "to desire" among many other verbs..
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