As you may remember, I'm in 8th grade. I was wondering, when you were a kid/teen did you care about fashion? When did you start caring? I started noticing fashion in 5th grade, but never really participated in in till the end of 6th grade. Thanks!
Interesting question...I remember always being into fashion. My mom always came up with cute, prim little outfits for me and made me dresses when I was little, and I always liked make-believe and glamour and playing dress-up. I remember my Jewel Secrets Barbie (when I was maybe 4) came with a booklet that said all about how she was a fashion model about to put on a big show, so I was intrigued by the fashion world even though my dad didn't like it and said it was shallow. And in about 3rd-6th grade, Baby-sitters Club books were all the rage, so if you remember those you know all about how Claudia and Stacey were so fashion-obsessed and had their own personal style--all the girls in my class were mimicking their ideas. Fashion was crazy back then, in the early 90s--it was all colorblock, neon, bright fuchsias and teals. I always found it fun to coordinate outfits and develop a personal style but adapt it to the times.
When I was a kid fashion was really never a focus of mine or of my friends. Did we wear (or try to wear) nthe latest trend....sure but was never or main thing. We were more focused on school (good friendly grade competition), band, or one of the huge musicals we would put on and NO we were NOT geeks. We were actually the popular kids. All the popular kids were in these groups. I didn't start CARING about fashion until my late twenties early thirties.
I know it is a lot different today with kids and their appearance. I worry about how it will affect my kids who are not even in school yet.
My best advice is be yourself and dress the way you feel comfortable. Yes first impressions are huge but not everything!
When I first considered your question, I flashed back to high school, which was bell-bottom jeans with shredded hems, flannel shirts and my POW bracelet.
Then I recalled how my sister and I designed and sewed our own dresses and suits (yes, back when students were taught tailoring in Home Ec), how we planned our wardrobes before going to the "Big City" to shop for clothes.
I really got into fashion after graduating from college and obtaining my first teaching job. A tenured teacher took me under her wing and helped me dress professionally.
Thanks for all your responses. To clarify, I enjoy fashion, I love making outfits and shopping and all that, but i defiantly don't think its more important then being a good friend or doing well in school.
I've probably cared about it since middle school, but always felt I couldn't really do anything about it since my family's price range was KMart and not the trendier places like GAP where my friends shopped. At that time, the KMarts and WalMarts had pretty bad clothes for pre-teens/teens. They are better now.
I started actually paying attention to what other people might think of my clothes in 6th or 7th grade, but at that point it was primarily aimed at making sure nothing about my appearance was worthy of being made fun of. I wasn't much interested in following trends or drawing any attention to myself through clothing.
I didn't get into WNTW-type caring about fashion - things that fit, things that are flattering, etc. - until my second year of college, and it's taken me until now (2+ years out of college) to actually replace enough of my wardrobe according to my new philosophy. I've had quite a few people comment about how I went off to college in the big city and came back with a different, more fashionable style.
What a great question! I have always liked clothes and especially shoes, but I wasn't into "fashion" and creating great outfits until I gained a lot of weight in just one year due to a medicine I was taking and a bout with mono that really shut down my metabolism. I felt really bad about myself and kind of just gave up. I didn't even want to go out with my husband (then boyfriend) on dates because I felt like I didn't look good in any of my old clothes. It was just easier to wear sweatpants and sweatshirts. After seeing some "what not to wear" episodes, I began to realize how clothes could be used as tools, and I tried to find outfits according to "the rules." It's been a process that keeps evolving (and people on here have helped so much), but I feel much better about myself now.
I have always been interested in fashion since as far back as I can remember. I grew up in a remote, small town in the 70's and the only source of clothing stores for us was the Sears and JCPenny catalogs (and Montgomery Ward to a smaller degree... blast from the past, I know). I would love when the new catalogs would arrive before the new school years and I would pour through them, marking my choices. I still remember favorite pieces of clothing and shoes through the years. I was the first in my high school to own a pair of Jordache jeans and the first to wear leg warmers (I know, scary, huh?). As the years have gone by, I've managed to learn what is flattering & fits well, mostly from trial and error, and before we had our WNTW shows. If I could do it all over again, I would definitley have picked a career in the fashion industry.
What a fun question! I was a child/teen of the 80's-early 90's, and my fashion journey started around 11, ie 5th or 6th grade. I can vividly remember wanting certain items that classmates had (that were usually a little out of my parents price range) and trying to find cool looking stand-ins on a tight budget. This was about when I started asking for specific clothing/shoe items for birthday/Christmas. Shortly after, I started babysitting (at $2/hr!) and would save up all my earnings to buy the things I wanted. Being from a small town (pre-internet) I also LOVED catalogs. I can also remember playing a game in school where I would observe what everyone was wearing and pick out the pieces I wanted or remix the outfits. One friend and I also had a game (which, looking back, was kind of mean) where we would take bets on what a certain teacher (with a bad and VERY small wardrobe) would wear each day. (Even w/ all this going on I still pulled straight A's.....) I think the biggest thing WNTW/this board has taught me is it's not about the hot item or label, but how it looks on YOU and your body type/style. As an aside: how young is TOO young to care about fashion? My friend recently told me that her 7 yr old (2nd grade) prefers to wear clothes from a certain store now (Justice, formerly known as Limited Too). I'm not sure if I'm an enabler, but I offered to keep my eyes out when I'm in the kids consignment shops. I guess I'm lucky I have boys - the oldest likes to look a certain way but hasn't expressed preferences for any labels YET!
I think I always took an interest in what I wore, but that doesn't mean I was always fashionable. As a kid, I was attracted by a color or style of something, and did not pay attention to whether it was fashionable. I went through a tom-boy stage where I didn't want to wear any pink or dresses so my focus of that time was picking clothes I felt suited my personality. I did notice designer clothing in middle school, but didn't feel it was worth spending my money I earned from chores (my parents bought us inexpensive clothes, but we had to pay for trendy expensive brands with our own money).
As a teen, I looked for stuff I thought was flattering to my body (although I sometimes did get it wrong), but was not super trendy. As I got into my later 20's, my style started to mature from the teen/college look to a more sophisticated look. I also started watching S & C around this time. Instead of just dress up clothes and casual looks, I also added nice blazers, more skirts, and trousers for a more adult and sophisticated look. I also started playing more with accessories (chunky jewelry, belts, ect.) I'm still not a person who has to follow every trend, but I do make an effort to include trends that I like and look good on me. I'm 33 and I feel my style now says youthful but not young, fun, and sophisticated.
I was kind of anti-fashion in high school and into college. I wore Converse All-Stars for years (before they were popular like they are now), and I wore my dad's old sweaters. Yeah.
In grad school, I tried to "upgrade" a bit, but that mostly amounted to wearing polo shirts instead of t-shirts with my jeans. I was fairly clueless as to fit (I wore everything too big) and body shape.
It wasn't until the last few years after I got back to my pre-pregnancy size after having my son, and moving to a different climate, thus necessitating a wardobe overhaul, that I really started paying attention to things like fit and color.
I first really got interested when I started high school. I was fortunate to serve on a Teen Fashion Board with girls from other local high schools at JCPenney in our mall for my junior and senior years. We did fashion shows in the mall and at other events, in-store modeling, and also worked on the sales floor part-time. It was fantastic - really helped with my style sense and self-confidence. At that time, my hair was cut like Mindy's on "Mork and Mindy" -- shoulder-length with full layered bangs (I actually saw the cut in a Vidal Sassoon ad before I saw it on Pam Dawber). I was always doing stuff with my hair -- especially stuff like Suzanne Somers did with hers on 3's Company (Ponytails on the side, one small braid on each side with the rest of my hair straight, etc.). And Seventeen magazine was my bible -- if Phoebe Cates wore it, I wanted it! I thought she was the cutest model. I guess you figured this was the late 70s, early 80s! Since I got an employee discount at JCP, I was always buying clothes. BTW - I still have layered bangs, just not as full. That part of my hair grows forward, so the bangs just fall naturally - no straightening required!
I don't think fashion - as in following what is seasonally in-style, has ever been terribly important to me. I've worn what I felt comfortable in & could afford pretty much all my life.
On the other hand, I am trying to learn what looks best... on ME right now. Whether it's fashionable or not, I want to find colors, cuts & styles that work on MY body - and try to find nice ways to coordinate them into outfits that don't make me look completely clueless.
So I guess I'm at the very beginning stages of caring right now... and I'm 34!
In elementary school, particularly grade 6-8 I desperately wanted to be cool and coveted the things that others had, but sadly did not have that great of a fashion sense. After grade 8 until 2 years ago it was about hiding my body most of the time, but I did have some pretty good outfits when I worked in a business environment until I was 17. I will be recovered from an eating disorder 2 years in January. From that point I had to start paying attention to my dress so that I could feel good about that and, in turn, the way I looked. I only ever started hitting the mark since I've been here. I think I've been here a year. And even then I've had some bad outfits! I'm still learning and growing. My tastes are always evolving.
I went shopping in San Francisco with my mother during my freshman year in highschool. I always liked clothes, though I started to evolve beyond T-shirts and jeans in HS. I bought my first pair of whipcords from the GAP and sweaters from the Banana Republic (post-Xmas extravaganza).
Interested in fashion? Always--since I was 4 or 5.
At first I wasn't going to post for fear that it would sound like sympathy mongering, but I'm going to--if only for the purpose of showing that even some of the worst "fashion nightmares" can be overcome. Not that mine was the worst, but you get the idea.
My great-grandmother was an amateur seamstress and my grandmother went to school for tailoring. You should see the suede coat she made recently--complete with wrapped buttons and reinforced button holes.
So, at age 5, I sewed my first dress and skirt. The problem was that they were both rather short, and the skirt too tight, and my grandmother raised fire and brimstone over both (i.e., she beat me ). I come from a wonderfully dysfunctional background, lol.
For some reason, that didn't stop me, and I continued to love things that were out of the ordinary. I didn't want to wear what anyone else was wearing. I wore bell-bottoms circa 1994, right before "flared" jeans became the standard. I also made and wore very long and elaborate earrings. I got made fun of for both--but I still wore them. (Statement chandelier earrings, anyone? )
It didn't help that we were on a shoestring budget. By middle school, my mother hadn't noticed that I had outgrown most of my clothes. I asked for 10 tee-shirts for my 13th birthday. And by "tee-shirt," I don't mean $25 concert tees. I mean the ones from Gabriel's, for 1 or 2 dollars. My mother didn't let my "greed" go for several years. "My teenager wanted TEN T-shirts!" she would say to her friends. However, she did get them for me, and I was able to crudely match them to whatever bottoms I had.
By high school, I became convinced that I didn't deserve to shop at department stores, or even to walk in the door. I remember five new purchases from high school--two skirts and a white lace cardi that I still have, a pair of jeans and a strappy, cotton lace cami. My clothes were chosen almost exclusively by my mother, who regularly excavated the $1 bin at the local Goodwill.
My college scholarship helped. In 1998, I embraced Goth. Think Morticia Addams, lol. Black, tight, floor-length skirts, chunky platform boots, lacy/sheer shirts, topped with a spiked leather collar from a pet store. At $18, it was probably my most expensive accessory. It might not have been the most approachable attire, but it felt good to stare down potential muggers on the urban campus.
At that point, my mother began to make up for my teenage lack of fashion--or clothes for that matter--by finding more and more stylish pieces for me to wear. She was now willing to pay as much as $5 for a used shirt. And by then, I had all but given up.
Convinced that I had neither the academic ability nor the wardrobe to apply for internships, I instead took jobs in painting and floor installation. Looking back, I'm glad I did, since I still have a respectable figure to show for it. But I also realize--now--just how much my wardrobe affected my self-image and my life.
Anyhooo... There's my sob story, lol. The reason I'm saying all this is that I firmly believe that attention to personal appearance is NOT shallow. Even though I've been watching the show for several years, it's only about a year ago that I took stock of what was in my wardrobe and how much it was holding me back. Not just from jobs, but from living my life. The people on this forum and on MyCloset have been incredible, and have helped me gain confidence not only in how I look, but in who I am and how I carry and express myself. I'm 27 years old, but I'm just now coming into my own as far as feeling comfortable in my own outer skin--my clothes.
So...own your style. You deserve to look good and to hold your head high.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: mod_ivy,
Wow! so many responses! I thought that because you guys gave such wonderful responses, I'd elaborate on mine.
When I was in 6th grade, around valentines day i remember my mom took me to JC Penneys and they were having a sale. I got two shirts and two pairs of pants. Then I got a pair of flats at payless. I wore the same two combinations of these pieces every single week. As Pres would say they were my "Perfect outfits".
That kind of got me started and now I love experimenting with fashion!
My interest grew slowly. I am the 4th girl in my family so grew up wearing hand-me-downs and a uniform to school. I do recall my very first clothing experience though: a family friend took me to the dentist because my mother was busy. Afterward she took me shopping and bought me a pink skirt and a white blouse with pink polkadots. They were the first brand new clothes I ever owned, and I was in heaven! It wasn't until high school that I could buy my own clothes, and I mainly bought what everyone else did and tried not to look out of place. As a young adult, I bought clothes when I needed them. Then while I was in college two things happened: I watched a sewing program on public television that talked about wardrobe planning, and I attended a Colour Me Beautiful event at the community centre to have my colours done. Those events peaked my interest, although I was more interested in looking professional for job interviews/work than in being fashion forward. After that I starting picking up books from the library and have been reading about style/wardrobing ever since — trying to look the best I could with the information I had and stay within my budget. But it wasn't until I started watching WNTW that I learned to develop my own style and to get clothes that fit and flatter.
LastCaress, quite a story. Kudos to you! I want to add that you look fabulous.
For me, I never particularly cared about being "fashion forward", I had a sense of what styles/colors looked good and not on me. I still don't like to wear something that everyone else gotta have. I do like to have new elements, but not the same ruffle shirt + bf cardi combo that everyone else is wearing. I was not a WNTW until being pregnant and had 3 children over the years. Then one day, while sitting on a train on the way to work, I realized my sweater was on backwards! That's when I realized how far off I have been and started caring about my appearance again. I don't think I have a good grasp until I started watching WNTW and understanding proportions and color combos etc.
I was a late bloomer. But then I'm a guy--so maybe that has something to do with it. I really don't think I started paying close attention to fashion probably 12 or 13 years ago. But a good friend of mine says that I always liked having an accent piece--like a hat--ever since she's known me.
I started caring, or should I say worrying, about fashion when I was 13. I had gone to Catholic school for 8 years and wore a uniform every day. It occurred to me that I would have to come up with FIVE different outfits a week once I started public high school! I remember using my babysitting and paper route money to supplement my meager wardrobe, and actually writing down what I wore each day, so I wouldn't repeat outfits too frequently.
I always loved clothes & shoes when I was growing up. I was raised by my grandmother who had a closet full of shoes so it kind of came naturally.
Just hold on to the love of clothes & styling. When I was in my late 20s I gained a lot of weight and developed a hate of clothes & mirrors. Now I'm in my 40s and trying to find the old fashionista in me.
I was such a bookworm throughout my youth that I was truly oblivious to how I might have looked. My mom bought my clothes and was good at sewing. I just wore what she gave me I think. In college I fancied myself an intellectual/computer geek and if I thought about it at all, I thought I was above such silliness. I was married and pregnant with my first before I graduated and my second little one followed quickly on the heels of the first. That nixed my twenties - no time, no money. Fortunately I have a fairly forgiving body type and did have some sense of fit(sloppy was never my thing), so I don't think I ever looked terrible. Anyway I was definitely over 30 when I became interested and thought, "Maybe, instead of looking passable, I could look good."
I think I've always been interested in fashion. As a little girl I thought my mother was very fashionable and I couldn't wait to grow up and be just like her. She was also a talented seamstress and I would "design" doll clothes that she would sew. I can also remember designing, cutting out and coloring outfits for my paper dolls. And I was so thrilled to receive a pair of "high heels" for my 7th or 8th bithday. (I think they were plastic ) As a teen I poured over fashion magazines cutting out pieces of outfits, mixing them up and putting them together with pieces from other outfits. But it wasn't until my mid-thirties that I really began to have fun dressing myself and developing my own style.
Somewhere between being asked when I'm due, when I wasn't, and when I was tired of being yelled at from behind for using the faculty copy machine. I didn't want to look like a pregnant undergrad when I was a professor expecting nothing but to make some copies in peace.
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