If you tell them that covering your arms, legs, neck, and hands with tattoos, is really cool; they'll do it.
If you tell people that when they leave their house/flat they must have a rucksack, mobile phone, water bottle, cardboard cup of coffee, and earphones, they will do exactly as you say.
If your young son is told by his school mates that he has to wear £250 'trainers' or they'll never speak to him again, you buy them at once.
If you are told that puce is the new black, you wear puce.
Now this one will really make you laugh. Someone in Taiwan had this great idea. They will slash brand new jeans with a Stanley Knife, rough them up a bit in a concrete mixer filled with pebbles, and then charge you an extra £500 for the pleasure (as they now look like a tramp has been wearing them for a few years), someone, somewhere, will buy them and actually wear them outdoors in the open. Yes, there's one born every minute.
Welcome to the world of peer pressure and fear of missing out - fuelled by social media!
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what it is. They are told what to do, and they do it.
DeleteThe eye has already gotten used to seeing all those ripped jeans. I wonder what our grandmothers would say about that.
ReplyDeleteThey would be horrified.
DeleteAll my children wear ripped jeans. I always tell them I'll buy them a decent pair and they laugh long. Honestly I thought the trend would have died out by now. It's a strange one.
ReplyDeleteAsk them if they'd like them 'darned'.
DeleteThat might look good with the "visible" Japanese mending in different colours.
DeleteIn gold?
DeleteOne of the kids has put on a couple of very rustic patches. It's worse when they cut them down into shorts leaving long hanging threads with no hem.
DeleteThe gold is for ceramics repairs.
DeleteIt will pass...its just fashion and having to look like every other young person. The thing that upsets me is what young women are having done to their faces. Once ruined, thats it.
ReplyDeleteI agree, that's very sad. I see 'selfies' every day of girls with fat lips and too much make-up, and they all look the same.
DeleteI absolutely refuse to follow "fashion" and certainly won't pay big $$$ for something already ripped to pieces.
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe that people think ripped-up jeans look nice; I'm sure they're just sheep following other sheep.
DeleteThe song, Dedicated Follower of Fashion, has just come into my head. I was a dedicated teenager, had to look just like Mary Quant, Cilla, Lulu, and Sandie Shaw. At least we didn't have to destroy our clothes to fit in with the sheep. I made a lot of mine at home.
ReplyDeleteAll those you mention were real fashion icons, and were worthy of being followed. I knew Twiggy in the mid 60's, but she was simply TOLD what to wear.
DeleteAnother one that used to get my goat was wearing their trews so low that we could all see what brands of underpants they were wearing. This was impossible for me as I always "go commando".
ReplyDeleteYou don't see that so much today, although it's still fashionable with builders.
DeleteDo they realise how silly they look in those ripped jeans? They must be very drafty in cold weather!
ReplyDeleteLike Mean Queen, I too was a dedicated follower of fashion, making many of my own clothes. I could run-up a shift dress in one evening using my mother's sewing machine. I doubt many girls make their own clothes these days, everything is instant "must have".
Ah yes, shift dresses were very easy to make, using a Simplicity or Butterwick paper pattern. Mini skirts were dead easy. I could make one with a yard of fabric from the market. Barely covered my knickers.
Deletelucky if you can find a market that sells fabric. I've just bought some Liberty fabric for a top, £16. From the Cloth House down Sadler Gate, Ilona.
DeleteI'm getting old, all these trends pass me by.
ReplyDeleteAll of the above have passed me by too; thank goodness.
DeleteIt shows their individuality.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't they show it. They seem cloned!
DeleteOnce I was a 'dedicated follower of fashion' but now at 91 my mantra ha become 'will it keep me wwarm?' I was just about to remove the first w in warm then realised I am chilly sitting here by the window so have left it there for effect.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite pleasant here this morning; I didn't even wear my hat for early dog-walking!
DeleteIt takes me a lot of years to get my £25 jeans to look even 10% as damaged as that. I'll stick to my method of buying them 'proper' and wearing them until they fall apart of their own accord. My hubby always says 'aww, look at that poor person' when we see a dedicated follower of ripped jeans fashion.
ReplyDeleteSome of the ones I've seen recently have hardly been worth wearing, they were just 'rags'.
DeleteThe code of conformity, of the young non-conformists.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem stronger at the moment than I've ever known it.
DeleteI don't do fashion, I don't really care what I look like as long as I'm warm enough...what's with all these people who go around in shorts and t-shirt no matter what the weather? My daughter refuses to carry an umbrella in wet weather because it's not fashionable to do so!
ReplyDeleteShorts (here in Brighton) are very popular all year round. I'm a shorts wearer myself but not in the cold or rain. I blame the Postmen, who started the craze.
DeleteI think ripped jeans is one of the strangest fashion trends ever. I cannot see a single thing of beauty about them. I remember working with someone with a teenage daughter in the early 1990s before social media and phones and they had problems with peer pressure at school on what to wear and particularly designer trainers even then.
ReplyDeleteAnd some of the prices they charge for the 'destroyed' jeans are astronomical!
DeleteSome people will do anything to fit in with their peers. It is their choice.
ReplyDeleteAnd good luck to them.
DeleteToday I have on leggings and a flannel shirt tennis shoes. Comfortable and that is me. Have never worn makeup.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't know how to describe what I wear, but none of it is expensively ripped.
DeleteGuess I was born 'old' as peer pressure and fashion was never an issue with me. I've always liked jeans, but didn't wear them ripped. I'm sure the kids think they're sexy that way. Doesn't bother me... odd, but what the heck? I'd just hope they wear them because they actually like the look, not because of peer pressure.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't care less either of what people wear, it's the pressurisation that worries me.
Delete