February 1, 2011

"Your North Face doesn't match your Uggs!"


Ah, Perfect. What would have been a 10am-6pm work day resulted in cancellation.
When you're work closes because it snows too much, you're living in the right place, whether you know it or not. However, I remember the time in my life where a snow day didn't mean a monetary loss like it does now. I am certainly not complaining, but you do have to factor it in. While stuck indoors after attempting to help shovel the driveway, I find myself feverishly craving Portillo's, an establishment I hardly doubt is open in such conditions. You better believe I'll call later to find out.

outside my house this morning.
20'' drifts!

The perfect topic to write about pranced perfectly into my life the other day and was perpetuated by a male. How refreshing! It's only refreshing because it applies to what girls are wearing today. He works in a movie theatre and stated ;

"All the girls look the same. It's only Ugg boots, North Face jackets, and different shades of jeans. A pack of 8 girls will walk in and they will all look exactly alike. Why do they want to dress the same...I don't get it."

Perfect observation. He forgot to mention the PiNK sweatpants that adorn the legs of so many high school girls today--& to each their own. Hearing that Uggs (I own two pairs and I actually love these things), North Face Fleece Jackets, and pricey falsely labeled coloured pants still make the way into the lives of every girl when she hits the age of 16, is just plain amusing to me. Fortunately, the sweatpants, jacket, and Abercrombie/Hollister everything stayed out of my life, but it is almost reassuring to see that this is still an ongoing trend.

We live in a world that projects news stories through so many different mediums and they all reach their targets effectively. Stories move SO fast which is able to stir up so many different responses and opinions in such a short period of time. While it is extremely convenient to get "hot off the press" news via twitter/facebook/blogs/news widgets it makes us move so fast that we lose sight of so much detail embedded within those stories because of the speed of the new focuses rolling in. Of course, having a twitter allows news publications to get smaller, maybe less focused on stories out to the mainstream. It almost gives you a reason to put every little thing out there--and why not?

Because of this, we have influences coming from endless amounts of places. Not only are there the same mediums that provoked tastes & trends in the 50's and 60's, but now there is the added faster means of communication and retrieval of information that comes from those mentioned earlier. Trends already move at lightning speed and as it would seem to me logically, people would be moving at the same pace.

I hate to go here, I really do; I remember when I was in high school. Freshman year; 2002. We didn't have Facebook or Twitter (THANK GOD). We didn't have android phones and we probably all still had our very first email addresses from 7th grade that went something like SugrNSpice0791. Of course, we knew how to work the internet, some better than others, we had access to magazines of any topic, and reality TV began to really take off. We had different sources of influence, but not as many, I feel. I could be wrong, but I feel like so many of us were the same--conventional suburban high schoolers. Although I hate to lump myself into that category, because I don't feel I dressed like anyone else, but that's because Vogue was my bible.

When I heard that girls in high school now are still dressing like the girls when I was in high school (given, only years apart), it gave me this sense of reassurance that maybe things aren't moving as fast as I think. It made me think of times in the 50's, when the girls looked the same; same hair, same high-waisted skirt, same jewelery, but they had a reason! They were limited in terms of access to various sources of trends. They all idolized the same people and had the same aspirations. Now, I feel like people have the potential to do anything; we have so many ways to retrieve information, so many influences, so many choices, and we have the power to get our word in some way that might be effective. I just think it is hilarious that people have such a huge range of style to choose from, yet so many girls dress exactly like each other. Why is that? "Trendy" doesn't mean better.

Of course, I know this UggBoot/NorthFace/Pink Sweatpants wearing trend cannot be thrust upon everyone. I know that there will ALWAYS be people in your high school that completely go against trend, they bow down to Good Will, and use fashion as an art form-or as a way to spark an idea or use it as a way to communicate. So while, this is not like the 50's and girls today hold much more individuality and aspirations, these packs of 8 girls clad in Abercrombie & Ugg boots make me feel like times aren't changing too fast--even though they have all the means to be. Of course, I think we can agree, the trends of the 50's were much more favourable.


















Ha, you just have to laugh and be ready to plant your face in your palm in years to come.
I have to also respect the fact that people probably hate what I wear.
If I wear a huge headband, I assume that people think it looks stupid, but I don't care, because I dig it. I love wearing strange things. I also wear funky ass leggings & tights all the time. Of course though, I wear them with long shirts or short dresses or something appropriate. I know it is a trend that people cannot stand, but I love it. So I can understand that these girls dress for comfortability and not fashion and that's cool too--as long as you don't think you're making a statement.


-Tessa

6 comments:

Jessica said...

I took Mae to a museum today and there was totally a little girl there who reminded me of you! She had on crazy leggings (so cute), a funky skirt, a striped shirt, and to top it off a huge flower in her hair (that was curly and blonde). Her mom complimented me on how cute Mae was and embarrassingly said that she let her daughter dress herself. I thought that was totally awesome and told her that! Besides her daughter seriously looked so cute. She needed to not be embarrassed.

I do love my Uggs, and anyone who says they are stupid and ugly have not tried them yet. They are warm and cozy and perfect when there is a storm. There is a time and place for them though! This post cracks me up and totally brought me back to high school! I am pretty sure i never dressed like that either, and still won't.

I love your style and I am glad you don't care what other people think, that is how you have always been!

Jessica said...

p.s. those bags look like diaper bags. I am a mom and I refuse to wear one so why are they?!

Jessica said...

oh yeah and I will kill to wear a dress from the 1950's everyday. That would be sweet!

Tessa G. said...

You would look adorable in 1950's dresses. You should make that your thing. Right?! Fuck Vera Bradley. AND YAY for little girls who dress awesome!

I actually notice how much colder my body is when I am wearing normal shoes in the winter vs my uggs. I just wish I had black ones.

Thank you for your feedback! I swear, only two people read this thing! he he ;D

Luna Tiger said...

Personnaly I love these Ugg, they're not sexy at all but I love the eskimo touch !
http://selenite.weebly.com/

Unknown said...

Yeah I go back and forth on what to think about the whole lack of change thing. On one hand, i can see your point and completely agree- that in a world so fast moving, it's refreshing to have things slow down a bit.

However, another side of me is annoyed that people are so lazy and where something mostly for the BRAND. It's actually astonishing that both UGGs and Northface have stayed at the forefront of popularity for so long without dissolving away as more trends take it's place. I've never owned a northface or UGG produce, so I cannot say if they are extra warm or comfier than other brands, but the case is more likely that they are seen as an acceptable brand to be wearing, and people are a bit too lazy or simply not interested in going through the effort of finding other clothes that would be "acceptable", if "acceptable" is important.

But anyways- great blog post- I chuckled at the bit about highschool and the cutesy first e-mail addresses and screennames..... mine was "lauralouski" and "bookslayer" with some numbers. hahaha!