At their birthday party last weekend, Rachel and Andie received gift cards to Claire’s, a tween/teen girl’s dream store. Full of accessories such as jewelry, makeup, hair doo-dads and even flip-flops, it’s a fun little boutique that I frequented as a college student.
I can’t say I’ve been there much in the past 12 years or so, other than to purchase several things for my daughters on occasion. It just doesn’t have the draw for me that it used to. I mean, a lot of the stuff is cute, but do I really want to go around sporting Jonas Brothers buttons or Hannah Montana jewelry? I don’t think so.
I had to run to town the other day and Andie talked me into letting her go along so she could spend her Claire’s gift card. We got in there and immediately began checking out all the adorable earrings at the entrance. I was enjoying myself immensely, feeding off of Andie’s excitement and remembering vividly what it feels like to be a young girl shopping for accessories, chattering about this and that.
I was having fun.
That is, until we left the earrings for the interior of the store and I came face to face with a whole display case full of neon, plastic jewelry.
“Aargh, neon!” I mini-shrieked. “This is exactly the same kind of stuff we wore when I was your age!”
The early-20-something cashier with the face piercings and countless neon bracelets nodded and rolled her eyes. “Yup, it’s totally back in now,” she said.
Andie stared at me. “What’s neon?” she finally asked, no doubt contemplating just how long ago it was that I was her age.
As I explained to her about the bright, eye-searing colors of neon pink, yellow, orange and blue, and the huge plastic charm necklaces we wore back when I was a kid, I noticed some of those 80s fingerless gloves hanging on the wall. “Oh dear,” I said, shaking my head.
By this time I was beginning to feel like my mother rather than the fun, hip mom who had just been chumming around with her tween, having a grand old time. It was like being transported back to “Pretty In Pink,” only not so pretty.
I don’t know why, but our little shopping trip made me feel rather dinosaur-ish. And a little sad. Personally, I don’t think the 80s were a great time in fashion history, so I don’t fancy the idea of my daughters wearing the same kinds of gaudy clothes and accessories I did at that age. <<shudder>>
What’s next? Side ponytails? Legwarmers? Stirrup pants? Can we at least skip the big, teased hair?
What do you think of 80s “fashion” (I use the term loosely)? Do you think it’s a good look for today’s teens and tweens?
LOL! — Well, I have to admit there’s a special place in my heart for *some* of the 80s fashions. I watched a movie recently that was made in the late 80s or early 90s, and there was a dress in it that made me wish that particular cut were back in, because I thought it was beautiful. But watching some of my school programs from the 80s usually makes me say, “WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?!?!?” most of the time.
This freaked me out! I–[emphasized!] wore neon bracelets and plastic neon pink earrings, not to mention hip huggers, bell bottoms and stirrup pants. They were ugly. I hated the fashions when I was young, and they were back in when MY kids were young (that would be you!), and now they are back for my grandkids. I say FIRE ALL THE FASHION DESIGNERS who are bringing these hideous things back!
Care to share the movie? I’m really curious what dress you’re talking about!
I thought those were popular in the 50s? I know you wore the bell bottoms and hip huggers (70s), but I didn’t think the neon stuff was your era…
Oh, I think it was “Only You” with Marisa Tomei — one of the dresses she wears, and it has what is I think called a “sweetheart” neckline — it has shoulders and sleeves and all, but the neckline looks kinda like a heart coming off the shoulders. Hard to describe — I’m not much into fashion, so never knew the proper terms and names for all these things.