Shopping For The Perfect Teen Clothes
I remember when I was a teenager and a family member would buy me clothes for Christmas. It was usually something I really couldn’t see me wearing (like the year I got these two really ugly brown striped turtlenecks). I thought old people just don’t understand good fashion.
Up until this week I thought that wasn’t me. I’m a parent now, but I’m a hip parent. I watch MTV. I glance at the teen magazine covers. I read TMZ. I know what everybody’s wearing.
But then I found myself standing in the middle of the men’s department at Kohl’s and I realized, I have no clue what’s hot this year. Well actually I have an idea of what’s hot, but I don’t know why. All of these latest men’s fashions are ugly.
And that’s when I knew. I was one of those people thinking why would anybody wear this? I was one of those old people.
Everything has skulls on it. What is up with the skulls? What happened to a nice college sweatshirt. Or football tee. And everything is either black, gray or brown. What happened to bright colors? I like bright yellow, red or orange. Happy colors. Not colors of death.
But I don’t have to wear it. My boys do. And they want to wear what everybody else is wearing. Jeans with holes in them. Jean you buy with holes already in them. And sweatshirts with skulls on them. *sigh*
Since clearly I’m well passed my fashion prime, I spent the whole time at Kohl’s following these two young men around. I’d guess them to be around 20. They were there with their dad, but their dad was just doing what I was doing; following them around and letting them pick out the good stuff.
I listened to their conversations. If they said, “This is awesome. But it’s not in my size.” I snagged that sweatshirt. When they said, “This rocks.” I grabbed one of those shirts in my teen’s size.
And apparently it worked. My 16-year-old got to open his gifts on Monday night since he’s going to be visiting his mom for the break. And he LOVES his new clothes. I’ve never heard him be so enthusiastic about the clothes I bought him.
So going forward my shopping trips will start with me scouring the crowds looking for the nearest hip teen. And then following him around. Hopefully I don’t get arrested for stalking.
