The Plaid Rags : In New Fall Look, Tartans and Solids Leave Acid-Washed Jeans All Washed Up
If you see a group of schoolgirls moving down the street in a mass of plaid, it’s a sure bet that they attend a private school, right? Not this year.
San Fernando Valley retailers report that plaids and bright, jewel-tone colors are the big hit of the fall fashion season for public school students, who headed back to class Wednesday. The preppie, neo-varsity look is replacing last season’s acid-washed, torn denim.
The plaid skirts look like something out of an “all-girls school,” according to Frank Lever, who works at Bullock’s in Sherman Oaks. “It throws me that they’re selling so well as back-to-school choices. You don’t traditionally see plaids on a junior girl too much. But they’re really taking to it.”
Plaid is such a big favorite for back-to-school clothes that it’s showing up in some unexpected places. “The new jeans have plaid trimming on the pockets or on the belt loops,” Lever said.
The trend extends into the grade-school set. “The plaid is very strong in everything--skirts and a combination of denims with plaid and fleece with plaid,” said Brian Lipman, who owns Kids Collection in Tarzana.
At Camp Beverly Hills in Canoga Park, Manager Beth Collins shows tartan plaid shorts and pants for men. And Sassy, a new teen-age fashion magazine, has such confidence in big plaid on campus, that a recent fashion spread featured combinations of plaid skirts, plaid blouses, plaid stockings, plaid bows, plaid hats and plaid shoelaces.
During a recent visit to the Factory in Sherman Oaks, Denise Schatz, 16, said she loves plaids. Although she attends Campbell Hall, a private school in North Hollywood, she said she avoids uniforms. “We sort of get in trouble a lot,” she said. “I’m the worst. . . . We come in the office and they go, ‘Gasp!’ I’m looking for shoes, anything I can get away with.”
But plaid is only part of the story for the 1988-89 season. Valley students can indulge in whimsy with a variety of fashion statements.
Collins says the varsity look is making a comeback. The store has a very strong varsity group, including a rockabilly style long and full skirt, shorter tops and cardigan sweaters, Collins said.
Team spirit is big at the Factory in Sherman Oaks as well. “We have a cheerleader-look skirt that’s selling well,” manager James Moore said. “It’s pleated and solid-colored with a different color band around the bottom.”
“The mock turtle is showing up in everything,” Moore said, adding that they are really popular with both men and women. “And we just got in a shipment of wool cardigans with suede on the front. It’s ‘50s influence, kind of like the kind your dad might have worn.”
Students who tire of dressing for a pep rally can opt instead for what Factory assistant manager Nicole Johnson calls “the Heidi look.”
“When you wear it, you look like you’re out of some yodeling movie,” Johnson said. Essentials include “a jumper with bibs for the girls, knickers for the boys or girls, big bulky sweaters and argyles or knee-high nylons.”
Unisex attire is cropping up in some stores.
Little newsboy caps are very much in for both girls and boys, Johnson said. “And vests are real popular, with just a T-shirt underneath, or, some girls are wearing baggy pants with big, wide shoes, and backwards suspenders.”
But the unisex look is open to interpretation. “I have a pair of men’s wing tips, for instance,” said Johnson. “But I tie them with big satin bows. And I wear lacy scarfs in my hair or around the waist of my baggy pants.”
Even jeans are baggy. And “now it’s dark and indigo blue for denim and no acid wash,” Lever said.
Moore concurs. “Torn is passe. The denim is solid and regular in blues and blacks, no acid wash.”
Parents who are tired of seeing their children dress in nothing but minimalist black may get some relief this fall. Back-to-school colors are bold, with purple and green leading the pack.
On one recent weekend at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, back-to-school shopper Jennifer Novak, a 16-year-old student at Calabasas High School in Calabasas, was dressed in a black skirt and a bright green blouse. “Lots of jewel tones are in,” she said. “Greens and purples. There’s a lot of color this year. Last year it was more black and more static colors, and now it’s more vibrant. And the girls are wearing a lot more rayons,” she added. “Rayon and wool. Last year it was more cotton.”
These bright, jewel tones are so big, they’re even showing up in accessories. “We’re selling a lot of earrings with greens and purples in them,” said Julie Patterson, assistant manager at the Broadway in Northridge.
Novak has opted for both the brights and the plaids. “I mixed up things to match. You get more outfits that way. I do a lot of that.”
And what of the mini? “I’m looking for longer skirts, and full-length skirts and dresses,” said 12-year-old Abigail Gershman, a student at Walter Reed Junior High in North Hollywood, as she shopped at the Galleria.
“Miniskirts were more popular last year, as long as they weren’t too short,” said Novak. “Now, it’s just above the knee. I don’t think girls like to wear skirts too short cause guys call them sleazes.”
Fall shoes complete the picture: they come in jewel tones, plaids, menswear styles for women, and the wider silhouette.
Do Valley students favor a different look than their counterparts over the hill? Yes, says Lever. “Here, in the Valley, the junior is a little more conservative. They will say, ‘Oh, I want something new and different,’ but they don’t want it to be too outlandish.”
Lipman disagrees. “The Valley is a lot more fashion-forward in terms of kids. They’re a lot more trendy. The fashions really come to us first, and when they die here, that’s when they’re just getting started elsewhere in L.A.”
(Prices of plaid glad rags range from $22 to $98 in Bullock’s Young Attitude Department, from $40 to $300 at Kids Collection, from $14.95 to $160 at Camp Beverly Hills, from $5 to $200 at the Factory, and from $22 to $200 in the Broadway’s Juniors Department.)
