You're Either In or You're Out
Sunday, September 24
10:25 am
64 degrees
Sunny
I'm going to say this up front as nicely as possible:
I DO NOT WANT TO DRESS IN THE SAME OUTFIT AS A 7-YEAR OLD.
Recently the Minneapolis Strib reprinted an article from the NYTimes about children's fashion. Seems that fashionistas are getting younger and younger. A precious lil gal, around 6 years-old, was pictured with her many oh-so-hip outfits. Maisy, or Daisy was quoted as saying, "I only wear Seven jeans."
Being a fashion square myself, I had to go online and check out the brand. Yeah. $150 plus bucks for jeans. Seven brand cut-offs are a bargain at just $128. That's women's pricing and kid sizes are just over $100 a pop. The official brand name is "7 for all mankind."
I'm fairly certain that only a small percentage of mankind (and we use "man" in the generic sense lest we offend) can afford to cover their child's rumpus with jeans that cost what some families might spend for their weekly grocery budget.
The article also mentioned a new magazine, Cookie, that's devoted to "mom style and kid culture."
Harkening back to my resolution to be less judgemental, I decided to check it out. OK. It's nicely done, well designed and seems aimed at the modern, style and trend conscious mom. The mag and their web site is chock full of parenting tidbits, style and beauty, fitness for mind and body. Oh, and lots and lots of ads. Because we don't have enough pressure to have the right stuff, now little Maisy or Daisy or Jordan or Madison also has to have the right hair style and stylish clothing.
Style conscious children, like 7-year old Maisy or Daisy, represent the new frontier in marketing. Cause, Gawd knows, the rest of us have been bled dry already. Brands like Diesel, Guess, Juicy Couture, Nike, are all making child size clothing. If you choose cradle to grave fashion, head to The Gap, they've got a size for everyone: infants to baby boomers. Even J. Crew has jumped on the bandwagon with crewcuts, down-sized prepster clothing for little ones.
Also let it be said:
We are happy that most nations have moved away from Oliver Twist-style child exploitation.
We are in favor of parents doing their best to be good parents.
We support teaching children about art, music, culture, how to use tableware, and poop in the toilet.
However, we draw the line at turning children into mini-hipsters or trendy extensions of mom and dad. Growing up is hard enough without pushing children into being worried about the 'cool factor' too early. {We can hardly wait to see how the rebellion phase plays out with this group.} Let children be children and not an accessory.
Our children's wardrobe way-back-when was influenced more by living paycheck-to-paycheck than by any fashion sense. Given the choice, children will choose outfits that are, well, unique. Who would guess that a girl who was unembarassed to GO OUT IN PUBLIC, let alone pose with a giant Babar character, in an outfit of tie-dyed leggings, jean jacket, neon green bandana and a hat embroidered with "Arkansas" would grow up to be fairly stylish. Cool happens. On its own. There's no stopping it. Just don't rush it.
Feel free to parent as you choose. This is, after all, a free-market-capitalistic society. We're going to spend some time on this lovely Sunday shopping at Sears shopping for a pair of jeans that no self-respecting 7-year old would be caught dead in.
Listening to: Candi Staton, You Don't Have Far To Go. Only the best new R & B album in the last ten years. Listen to it.
Eating: Pistachio nuts
Getting ready: to haul my a** around Lake Harriet
10:25 am
64 degrees
Sunny
I'm going to say this up front as nicely as possible:
I DO NOT WANT TO DRESS IN THE SAME OUTFIT AS A 7-YEAR OLD.
Recently the Minneapolis Strib reprinted an article from the NYTimes about children's fashion. Seems that fashionistas are getting younger and younger. A precious lil gal, around 6 years-old, was pictured with her many oh-so-hip outfits. Maisy, or Daisy was quoted as saying, "I only wear Seven jeans."
Being a fashion square myself, I had to go online and check out the brand. Yeah. $150 plus bucks for jeans. Seven brand cut-offs are a bargain at just $128. That's women's pricing and kid sizes are just over $100 a pop. The official brand name is "7 for all mankind."I'm fairly certain that only a small percentage of mankind (and we use "man" in the generic sense lest we offend) can afford to cover their child's rumpus with jeans that cost what some families might spend for their weekly grocery budget.
The article also mentioned a new magazine, Cookie, that's devoted to "mom style and kid culture."
Harkening back to my resolution to be less judgemental, I decided to check it out. OK. It's nicely done, well designed and seems aimed at the modern, style and trend conscious mom. The mag and their web site is chock full of parenting tidbits, style and beauty, fitness for mind and body. Oh, and lots and lots of ads. Because we don't have enough pressure to have the right stuff, now little Maisy or Daisy or Jordan or Madison also has to have the right hair style and stylish clothing.
Style conscious children, like 7-year old Maisy or Daisy, represent the new frontier in marketing. Cause, Gawd knows, the rest of us have been bled dry already. Brands like Diesel, Guess, Juicy Couture, Nike, are all making child size clothing. If you choose cradle to grave fashion, head to The Gap, they've got a size for everyone: infants to baby boomers. Even J. Crew has jumped on the bandwagon with crewcuts, down-sized prepster clothing for little ones.
Also let it be said:
We are happy that most nations have moved away from Oliver Twist-style child exploitation.
We are in favor of parents doing their best to be good parents.
We support teaching children about art, music, culture, how to use tableware, and poop in the toilet.
However, we draw the line at turning children into mini-hipsters or trendy extensions of mom and dad. Growing up is hard enough without pushing children into being worried about the 'cool factor' too early. {We can hardly wait to see how the rebellion phase plays out with this group.} Let children be children and not an accessory.
Our children's wardrobe way-back-when was influenced more by living paycheck-to-paycheck than by any fashion sense. Given the choice, children will choose outfits that are, well, unique. Who would guess that a girl who was unembarassed to GO OUT IN PUBLIC, let alone pose with a giant Babar character, in an outfit of tie-dyed leggings, jean jacket, neon green bandana and a hat embroidered with "Arkansas" would grow up to be fairly stylish. Cool happens. On its own. There's no stopping it. Just don't rush it.
Feel free to parent as you choose. This is, after all, a free-market-capitalistic society. We're going to spend some time on this lovely Sunday shopping at Sears shopping for a pair of jeans that no self-respecting 7-year old would be caught dead in.
Listening to: Candi Staton, You Don't Have Far To Go. Only the best new R & B album in the last ten years. Listen to it.
Eating: Pistachio nuts
Getting ready: to haul my a** around Lake Harriet
posted by MadgeMc at 10:25 AM
5 Comments:
Fashionista is a word that will probably never be used to describe me. But, maybe it would be a good idea for me to subscribe to that magazine. Right now, I'd describe my kids' style as somewhere between "garage sale chic" and "potentially homeless".
I wet my pants when I viewed the proof of "The LaCrosse Years" -- and all this time I thought it was a dream-state. Those were precious moments. Even the drunken ones.
Yes, the LaCrosse years. Somewhere between suicide and surreal. God bless us all. We survived! Look at my little hillbillies! Steve's sister, Teresa, bought that skirt and shirt for Meggie for her first Christmas Program at Holy Trinity. Where was the mother? Don't answer that! Good times.
I think I invented homeless chic.
Also, I can't thank you enough for making sure that awesome photos of me are all over the Internet.
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