Fashion : Hot Teen Togs
For hip California teen-agers, this is the summer of ripped, castoff jeans, fluorescent swimwear, tie-dyed sports bras for an athletic take on the lingerie look, bolero jackets, miniskirts, volleyball shorts, surf-logo T-shirts, high tops, cowboy boots and baseball caps.
As might be expected, these are only a drop in the teen hamper. Dipping into a mixed bag of styles--ethnic, athletic, East Coast preppie, West Coast glamour--teens are picking the best of the batch, adding some special twists and looking, to use their favorite word, rad.
Among other notable items, they also like to cruise in Batman T-shirts, Body Glove beachwear, bandannas, funky sunglasses, fanciful watches, black shoes (with sci-fi sounding names like creepers and Doc Martens), old-fashioned sneakers, barrettes, white socks, black hats, leather jackets and the tony scents of Paris by Yves Saint Laurent, Lou Lou by Cacharel, Calvin Klein’s Obsession and Guy Laroche’s Drakkar Noir. Compared to the eccentric punk-rockers of yesteryear, this generation looks practically prim. But that’s hardly the word Diane Schwartz, manager of the Esprit Superstore in Los Angeles, uses: “They’re sophisticated. They go for adult clothes. Fun, bright colors are not the image these kids want. They’re more apt to wear black or jewel tones, things that 30- and 40-year-olds wear.”
Along with batik vests (worn over white T-shirts) and Guatemalan backpacks that girls use for purses, Esprit’s young sophisticates are buying mountains of active wear. Top of the pops are padded and non-padded spandex biker shorts. Girls wear the non-padded versions under full, swingy miniskirts and top them with oversize T-shirts. The look “is casual with a kick,” Schwartz says.
Actually, entire teen-age wardrobes come under the classification, “casual with a kick.” For girls, nothing captures the spirit better than tired and torn jeans inherited from the male who owned them.
The Natural Rip
Seventeen-year-old Rachel Grumman of Santa Monica prizes the old Levi’s she was given by a boyfriend, because tattered clothing these days needs to be authentic: “Ripping them yourself is dying out, but if they rip by themselves, that’s OK.”
Of course, if a girl can’t find castoffs, she can always go to the Gap, get a pair of stonewashed jeans “and rub them against the concrete to beat them up,” Grumman suggests.
Rena Mundo, who inherited old jeans from her high school drama teacher, wears them belted and rolled down below the waist to reveal some skin. For summer ‘89, “Showing your bellybutton is the big thing,” Mundo says.
She likes “cute, casual” cottons for school. But when she goes dancing or to parties, Mundo’s look “is a lot flashier,” which means something like her stomach-revealing jeans worn with a sports bra or another sexy cropped top, boots, a bolero jacket and a black gaucho hat.
‘Every Group Is Different’
Malibu teen-ager Simeon Sturges--into bandannas, baseball caps, Jimmy’Z cotton pants and high-ticket ($64-$110) Oakley sunglasses with changeable everything: lenses, nose pieces, temples--makes it sound as if the pressure has vanished from the teen fashion scene: “There isn’t any major trendy thing at the moment. People dress the way they like. Friends dress alike and every group is different.”
When something becomes too popular, teen-agers abandon it. Sturges, a surfer, no longer wears surfer-inspired woven friendship bracelets. The fad became “too trendy,” he explains. Now he is among the relatively few teen-agers who like to wear a crystal charm on a silver necklace.
But Lisa Edwards, a Woodland Hills mother of three adolescents, finds there remains “a tremendous amount of peer pressure,” especially for her 13-year-old daughter.
“What we go through in the morning,” Edwards sighs. Before her daughter, Samantha Sacks, leaves for school, she will have asked a series of fashion-related questions, including: “Is this shirt too long? Does my rear look OK?”
Who inspires whom in a house filled with fashionable parents and offspring is often up for debate. Edwards says there is little difference between teen and adult fashions. “I’m wearing the same clothes my daughters are. As much as they hate to think so, they do mimic you and even compete with you.”
Rubber Meets the Road
On the other hand (or foot), at Sneaker Land in Woodland Hills, manager Greg Khatchadorian says adult women are buying L.A. Gear Brats, which he considers a young shoe.
Several Sets of Laces
The pink-and-white leather high-top comes with three sets of colored laces (pink, white, black) so that teen-agers can do their own thing. “They might tie the right foot with black and pink laces and the left one with white and black,” Khatchadorian explains.
Boys have an easier time looking hot. They just buy L.A. Gear’s Fire style shoe, which comes with a twisted leather design meant to look like a blaze. Other favorites include Tiger Asics and the Nike Air Jordan. But even with Sneaker Land’s discount prices, the Nike Air costs a hefty $96, which is one reason “55% of the teen-agers come in with their parents.”
While teens don’t actually flaunt labels, they know which ones are cool. For Corey Josleyn, a 15-year-old in Orange, the in list includes her Nike Cross Trainers (“You wear them with everything “) along with Gotcha, Quiksilver and Billabong for sweat shirts and T-shirts. Her favorite jeans, made by Guess, are light blue denim, have five buttons in front instead of a zipper and fit the teen way: “Not super tight and not baggy,” Josleyn explains.
Looking for Bargains
Some young shoppers will go bargain hunting at the Price Club or Wet Seal’s clearance store in the Long Beach Plaza. Others like to get whatever is fresh (which is the same as cool or rad ) from neighborhood stores, such as Olliepop in Pacific Palisades. They also part with their allowances, part-time salaries or a combination of both in major department stores and mall specialty chains, including the Gap, Pacific Sunwear, Judy’s, Saturday’s, Contempo Casuals and the Limited Express.
As with past generations, today’s young shoppers get a feel for what’s in and out from their trend-setting peers and the two big M’s: musicians and movie stars. Rena Mundo, for example, began wearing bandannas after she saw one on Axl Rose, lead singer of Guns ‘n’ Roses.
Megan Sacks (Lisa Edwards’ 18-year-old daughter) was so taken with the white-chiffon outfit Kim Basinger wore in “My Stepmother Is an Alien,” she scouted Melrose Avenue for a duplicate. At Betsey Johnson, she found what she was looking for--a stretch-fabric top and a see-through chiffon skirt, which she discreetly wears over leggings or a shorter skirt.
As they search for the right stuff, today’s teen-agers follow a few rules. For Mijanou Montealegre, a Beverly Hills 14-year-old, her old jeans have to be thrift-shop Levi’s. They also have to be large and worn paper-bag style “without putting the belt through the loops.” If they’re converted into shorts, they have to be made very short ( not Bermuda length) and left noticeably frayed at the edges.
She and her girlfriends like men’s boxer shorts, cutoff sweat pants, combat boots, jewelry with peace signs and African accessories. Girls wear serious moonface watches, boys wear funky Swatch watches. Girls wear boys’ fluorescent volleyball shorts, but boys don’t.
And, pleeze , no “matchy-matchy clothes. You know, outfits,” Montealegre says, sounding both teenie and yuppie. “We like comfortable basics.”
