Yesterday, Jim and I went out for linner (the meal between lunch and dinner that’s also known as dunch), and a bunch of tweens were around in their school clothes. It was 103 degrees outside, and one of the tweens was wearing giant suede laced boots (Jim said, “Is that like a Lord in the Rings sort of footwear?), and another one was wearing tweed (I said, “They must be really hot right now. I hope they don’t faint.”)
This reminded both of us of how as tweens and teens we would wear totally inappropriate clothes in August and September, when it was roasting outside, simply because it was back-to-school time and we saw these clothes in magazines, and they fit what we thought we should be wearing at the time: sweaters, cords, boots, parkas, etc.
This story was prompted by Eloise Grey in Treehugger ”with immaculately tailored shapes evoking 1930s and 40s styles,” all of which would lead to fainting right now. Thank God we’ve grown up and can wear shorts in August. Perhaps that’s the moral.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:02 am
The older I get, the less I care what people think about me. Hand in hand with that realization is the fact that playing dress up is fine for adolescents and the adolescent-at-heart, but not for me.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Maybe they didn’t care what we thought….they just seemed hot!
August 27th, 2008 at 11:44 am
First of all, I’m glad to know that someone else uses “linner” like my husband and I do. And second, I recall those very same inappropriate clothing choices on my own–in grad school in Florida, I tried wearing my leather pants in November and nearly passed out. It might be leather pants-weather in Georgia in Nov, but not in Florida. Lesson learned–just because you dress that way elsewhere, or you see it in a catalog, that’s not carte blanche to dress llike a goober everywhere else.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Oh, God, leather pants in November in Florida!!!
August 27th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Oh, do I remember those days. Back-to-school sweaters especially. It goes hand-in-hand with Thanksgiving and Christmas outfits that were also too hot and were shed in favor of shorts for a walk on the beach.
August 27th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
I remember when my friend Michelle came back from visiting family in Houston. Mind you, we were all goths at that time. And she said “Oh my god, Texas goths are insane, they wear head-to-toe velvet and capes… and they go out during the day like that! Any self-respecting goth knows you only go out at night.”
Though, I must admit as a Californian, I was completely unprepared for how much of my normal summer wardrobe got cut out when I moved, due to the humidity.
August 27th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
oh, sweaters and capes! I’m feeling faint!
August 29th, 2008 at 10:47 am
What’s going on here? Youth in Southern Cali are wearing leather, tweed, and suede in the hottest part of the summer? Whereas up here in the Pac NW, I see teens wearing miniskirts, barely-there camisoles, and VERY loosely knit hats in January.
As a teen I was a horrific dresser, but at least I dressed for the weather.