Teens Dressing Down for Success With That Studied Casual Look

A student at University High School was describing the current state of teen fashion.

“You just gather a bunch of stuff,” she said, “and put it on.”

However vague it may seem, the description is accurate.

Today’s look is casual, comfortable, sloppy. The pressure is off to dress for success. Even in private schools, competition has relaxed for the must-have accessories that are allowed with uniforms. Competition comes not from what is worn, but how it is worn.

That’s the latest word from University High in West Los Angeles and Bancroft Junior High in Hollywood, both public schools, and private schools St. Bernard’s High in Playa del Rey and the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks.

At University, junior Ali Morra, 16, calls today’s look “mellow fashion.” She was dressed in white stretch jeans, a loose-fitting V-neck black shirt, an oversize black and white tweed coat and cowboy boots, extremely popular this year. Earrings made from crystals, another new accessory, hung from her lobes.

There are casual looks taken from the ‘60s and updated for the ‘80s.

“My parents look at me and say, ‘I used to wear that,’ ” said Rachael Marcus, a 16-year-old junior wearing ripped jeans with white lace stockings underneath, an oversize T-shirt and several clunky silver rings. “My mom doesn’t take it seriously.”

Styles weren’t always this casual. Senior Trevin Hartwell, 18, wearing blue sweat pants, a T-shirt, a zip-front sweat shirt and high-top tennis shoes, recalls that two years ago he and his classmates dressed up much more for classes.

“In the 10th grade, even the guys were wearing brooches with jackets,” he said.

Expensive Splurges

There are some splurges like leather jackets, expensive jewelry and other accessories. Ali bought a pair of $100 shoes recently, a figure she admitted was high.

Who pays for it all?

Usually parents, who fork over a credit card or cash and let their children roam Beverly Center unattended. Even those teens who work spend their money going out, not on clothes. Sometimes there is a ceiling on the amount doled out by parents, sometimes not.

“If I tell them what I want they say, OK, go get it,” said Brooke Pickens, a 16-year-old senior.

“If it’s really expensive, I have to put it on hold and then my mom checks it out,” Rachael added.

A Cheaper Way to Dress

You could spend a fortune on even the grungiest of clothes, but today’s students would rather not. They shop at thrift stores, and choose Pure Sweat discount outlets and the Gap over the Esprit Super Store for an anti-trend trend. Girls find oversize tops and sweaters in men’s departments, or raid their brothers’, boyfriends’ and fathers’ closets.

“You make do,” one girl said with a shrug.

Having the right label is definitely out.

“Levi’s are big, but they’ve always been big,” said Jolie Mitnick, a 16-year-old junior. “It’s not really trendy, it’s just an American look.”

From the Closets of Others

What isn’t purchased is borrowed--from friends, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers.

“This isn’t my jacket,” one girl explained. “I got it from Tracy, but I think she borrowed it from Carrie.”

“I’ll borrow my mom’s Lina Lee blouse and wear it with ripped-up jeans,” Ali said.

Parental wardrobe approval doesn’t come easily.

“My parents like me to dress preppy,” Jolie said with a sigh that meant she never would.

Preppy or ‘Bummy’?

Ahmad Reese, on the other hand, said he gets compliments from his parents on how he’s dressed. The 17-year-old senior favors a preppy look, including items by Polo and Izod.

The students are influenced by magazines like Elle, Vogue and GQ; they drool over five-figure outfits but scale the ideas down for their bodies and budgets. Girls look to TV fashion princess Lisa Bonet for ideas.

“All the girls dress like her,” Trevin said. “She used to dress real trendy, but now she looks bummy--like Ali,” he added, nudging his friend and laughing.

Music video-influenced fashions are out, since many students don’t even watch them anymore.

Older Models

“We like older women in the movies,” Rachael said. “Not like the ones in ‘Breakfast Club.’ The older ones usually look best, like Glenn Close and Kim Basinger and that chick who played Beth (Anne Archer) in ‘Fatal Attraction.’ ”

Despite the casual look, there are few complaints about how the opposite sex dresses. Said Trevin: “I think it looks elegant. It gives them sex appeal.”

“There is still a lot of conformity for what kids are wearing,” said Gerard Gumbleton, a psychologist in the senior high division of the Los Angeles Unified School District. “If you’re talking about ripped-up clothes, that’s the uniform. But you can go into some schools and still see preppy stuff, too. They all represent a uniform for the group that you’re in.”

Take the Uni High students and shrink them a bit and you’ll have an idea of what the students at Bancroft Junior High look like. The same basic styles are popular here, with girls favoring tight pants, leggings and short skirts with big tops, and boys opting for baggy pants, rolled and pegged, or shorts with loose-fitting jackets. Boys who go for a dressier look wear oversize tailored shirts buttoned up to the neck with baggy pants and Creepers.

“Students wear everything,” said principal Peggy Selma, who added that the school’s loose dress code stipulates “dressing appropriately” for classes.

Bloomers and Lace

That includes 13-year-old Tuesday Cohen’s homemade jean bloomers, faded jeans cut off at the knee and finished with ruffled white eyelet.

“I love bloomers and lacy stuff,” said the eighth-grader, who pronounced her look “original.”

Thami Greenlee, 14, stood out in the lunchtime crowd in her thrift store dress, studded leather jacket and grass green hair. Her friend, 13-year-old Zen Sekizawa, wore a long skirt and oversize black sweater with clunky black lace-up boots.

“She’s punk,” Zen said of her friend’s look. “I’m middle-class punk.”

“Nah,” Thami countered. “You’re mod .”

The Names to Wear

Asked to name the must-have labels and a group of 13-year-old girls named Guess?, Esprit, No, Bongo and ID, plus Converse high-tops in blue or yellow. Teen, Seventeen and Elle magazines are their fashion bibles, Lisa Bonet and Alyssa Milano (of “Who’s the Boss?”) their fashion heroines.

Friendship bracelets are big here, too, and also worn in multiples.

“Sometimes if you have a really nice friend you want to give them one,” explained Yolanda Mansillas, 13, an eighth-grader who wore several on her wrist.

Allowances are saved for shopping expeditions with friends to local malls, with parents footing the bill for bigger expenditures. Not every parent understands the current fashion concepts.

“We take new jeans and cut ‘em up,” one girl explained. “But my mom gets real mad.”

The limits of fashion creativity have been tested at St. Bernard’s High School, where anything that can be done to change a uniform has been done.

Blue and yellow pleated plaid skirts, for instance, are shortened, then made tighter by stitching the pleats together almost to the hem, leaving a little flare at the bottom. Boys roll their pant legs up and peg them to show a few inches of white socks.

Taking the Yellow Out

“Also, we take the yellow string out of the skirt,” said Tracy Thornton, a 16-year-old junior. “One of my friends snagged her skirt one day and took one of the threads out by mistake,” she explained. “We thought it looked cute, so we took them all out. But then it makes them even colder in winter.”

When the skirts are hemmed, the extra fabric is used for hair ties, or taken to the nearest Vans tennis shoe store and made into matching shoes.

Rebellion against the uniform is strong with some, like 16-year-old Susannah Rodriguez, who paired her pleated plaid skirt with a blue and white striped spencer jacket and thigh-high black stockings.

“By 2:40 when the bell rings, a lot of people have a completely different look on,” said Tracy. “People keep stuff in their lockers and change before they leave school.”

‘It’s Kind of Cool’

“I always wanted to dress my own way,” said 17-year-old Effie Hubbard, a senior. “When I first came here I thought, ‘Oh no, everyone looks alike.’ But now it’s kind of cool. I change my look. Today I look like the all-American student.” She pointed to her knee-length gray skirt and regulation button-down white shirt.

Some, like Tige Yeargin, 17, are usually content to wear the uniform down to the socks.

“But sometimes you wake up and put on a jeans jacket, just to take the chance.”

Doing that means risking a one-hour detention after school if a teacher catches you looking too distinctive.

‘Not Worth It’

“I got caught six times last year,” said Robert Cartagena, 16, a junior. He’s watching himself more carefully this year. “It’s not worth it.”

“Wearing the uniform kind of makes you more responsible,” said senior Sean Gutierrez, 17. “It teaches you manners.”

Athletes are allowed free dress on game days, and on a few special occasions before holidays when there is a Mass at school, students are supposed to dress as they would for church.

“The church started the uniform concept for parochial education so you couldn’t tell the difference between the rich and the poor kids,” said Father Kidney, the school principal. St. Bernard’s dress code has changed over the years, going from full code to a uniform-optional policy, back to full uniforms a few years ago.

Parents Most Concerned

Strict dress codes also eliminate competition for the best outfits, a concern expressed more by parents than students, Kidney said.

Students admit that a uniform isn’t necessarily the great equalizer. Affluent kids are noted for their leather jackets, conspicuous gold jewelry and a different pair of shoes every day.

“When I’m playing in a basketball game,” Tige said, “I’ll look up in the stands but I won’t recognize anybody because they’re out of their uniforms. But they do look good.”

“It’s so much better wearing the uniform,” said Kim Greitzer, a 16-year-old junior at the Buckley School. Kim is back at Buckley after a brief period at Beverly Hills High.

“There is so much competition to dress there,” said Kim, who wore dangling genie earrings with her uniform. “Of course, on free dress days here it’s just about the same.”

Strict Dress Code

The Buckley School, a private school for nursery school through 12th grade in Sherman Oaks, has a reputation for having one of the most affluent student populations in the city. The students know that and say that uniforms nix the fashion parade that could be.

Here the guidelines for dressing are fairly strict. According to the school’s pamphlet: “Dress regulations . . . contribute positively to the learning environment and to the stands of personal appearance and academic performance. . . .”

Girls in seventh through 12th grades are required to wear blue or gray skirts, white button-down shirts (white turtlenecks are allowed underneath in cold weather), sweater vests, pullovers or cardigans in white, navy, gray or red. Boys must wear gray pants, white oxford shirts, a gray and red striped tie, and white, gray, navy or red pullovers, vests or cardigan sweaters. Status items for girls are letterman’s jackets from their boyfriends.

Some Hiked-Up Hems

Clothes are not altered as much here as at St. Bernard’s, although one girl said some girls hike up the hemlines on skirts.

“And you know what kind of reputation they have,” she said.

“There was a teacher last year who used to go around with a ruler and measure the skirts,” said another.

Last year girls tried to get away with boxer shorts under their skirts. Now they try to get away with leggings--”but we’re not even supposed to wear those,” said Mariann Chang, 14.

Students can be sent home for uniform violations. Jackets that are not part of the code can be confiscated by teachers.

Avoiding the Limits

“And that depends on if you can avoid certain ones,” said junior Adam Glickman, 16.

“But if it was free dress every day, I don’t know what would happen,” said 16-year-old sophomore Ori Marmur, shaking his head while thinking of the possibilities.

Short hair for boys is in. But if it is long, “you stuff it under your turtleneck,” Adam said.

The super-rich are set apart by expensive sweaters, shoes, watches and jewelry. But, the students add, wealth at this school is told more by an attitude than a piece of clothing.

Parents on Parade

The true fashion parade seems to come from the parents. On a recent day parents were on campus for a Christmas pageant. Women wore leather skirts and pants, luxurious sweaters and chic dresses; men wore expensively tailored suits.

On weekends, students opt for the comfort of sweats, thrown together without much thought.

Said 14-year-old freshman Darina Kohanzadeh: “You just want to blend in with everyone else.”