Urban Fashion’s Big Attraction : For Many Students, Brand-Name Clothes and Shoes Are the Ticket to Status. But Being Trendy Costs a Lot of Money--and It Can Be Dangerous, Too.
Calling herself a leader in urban style, Jody Orso said she has no sympathy for those who can’t afford the hip, “fresh” and “dope” designer duds that she and many of her Westchester High School classmates drape themselves in.
“At my high school, and schools like Crenshaw, Manual Arts and Dorsey, it’s a big fashion show,” said the South-Central resident. “And if you can’t afford to dress for the party, you should go somewhere else.”
To pay for her Guess? jeans, Nike tennis shoes and the rest of her brand-name wardrobe,Orso works part-time as a lifeguard and telemarketer. She estimates that she spends $500 a month on clothes, shoes and accessories--about what she earns at her jobs.
“Image is important,” the 16-year-old said. “People talk about you if you don’t dress up. But people know I’m a good dresser, so if I don’t dress up, they’ll say, ‘Oh, Jody must have a cold or be in a bad mood.’ ”
Throughout Los Angeles, school hallways have become fashion runways for thousands of teen-agers who crave the attention and respect they think brand-names clothes and shoes give them. In Central Los Angeles, where many of the hip-hop and street styles originated, the desire to follow fashion trends is intense.
Some students spend hundreds of dollars a month on clothes and shoes. At some schools, the need to look good is so overwhelming that some students take extraordinary risks to acquire designer apparel.
“When people can’t afford the clothes, they’ll steal (them),” said Susie Hernandez, a 16-year-old junior at Locke High in South-Central. “When they go in the dressing room, they’ll hide (stolen) clothes underneath their baggies.”
Because of the heavy peer pressure and the fact that many of the styles that youths are drawn to are associated with gangs, many schools have introduced voluntary uniforms--with mixed results.
“About 75% of our students are wearing the uniform,” said Marguerette Smith, principal at 36th Street Elementary School in South-Central. “Children compete to have the most expensive tennis shoes and parents can’t keep up. The uniforms make all students equal.”
The Los Angeles Unified School District, which allows schools to set their own dress codes and introduce uniforms on a voluntary basis, doesn’t keep track of which schools have adopted them. But district officials estimate that dozens of Central Los Angeles schools--mostly at the elementary and junior high level, but also at Washington High School--are trying the new outfits.
“I saw other kids at school wearing the uniform, and they looked pretty good,” said Shayleen Hillary, a fourth-grader at Woodcrest Elementary in South-Central, where about a third of the students wear the school’s hunter-green pants and jumpers. “I told my mom, and she was like, ‘Oh, you like it?’ She was happy to buy it for me.”
Parents generally welcome the uniforms because they are less expensive and more conservative than designer wear. Boys’ pants for a uniform can cost as little as $10, and a girls’ uniform blouse is about $6.
In contrast, a pair of Guess? jeans can run $60, a Karl Kani jacket can sell for more than $75 and the price tag on a pair of Nike Deion Sanders shoes can be $75.
“I could not afford to keep buying my son the expensive shoes and pants that he was asking for,” said Troy Jones. His 13-year-old son, Jonathan, a student at Foshay Junior High, and 6-year-old daughter, Christina, who goes to 36th Street School, both wear uniforms. “I think clothes can mess up kids’ minds because they’re constantly checking each other out instead of worrying about their school work.”
Although uniforms are a big hit among elementary children, school officials have had a harder time interesting older students in them.
Only about 100 of the 2,100 students at Foshay, near USC, wear the school’s yellow, green and white plaid uniform that was introduced this fall, Principal Howard Lappin said.
Foshay’s dress code prohibits students from wearing extra-baggy pants, white T-shirts with khaki pants, colored shoelaces and all college sweat shirts, except USC’s and UCLA’s. The banned clothing has been deemed gang-related by school officials.
Similarly, students at Dorsey High School in the Crenshaw area can’t wear red shoelaces, belts with initials, or hats--except for Dorsey baseball caps. Similar anti-gang dress codes are in place at many other Central Los Angeles schools.
“Style and fashion are very important to kids,” Lappin said. “But I’m concerned about the safety issue. I don’t want to see kids hurt because of the clothes they wear.”
Students who wear designer clothing, colors and accessories that are popular among gangs are sometimes innocent victims of retaliatory gunfire because gang members distinguish their rivals by the colors and styles they wear, said James Diego Vigil, an anthropology professor at USC and author of the book, “Street Life and Identity in Southern California.”
“In a sense, they are agreeing to play Russian street roulette,” he said.
Dressed in baggies, a baseball cap worn backward and an oversized plaid shirt, Hamilton High School sophomore Ruben Gutierrez said people who wear gang-related styles have to take extra steps to stay out of trouble.
“When you’re wearing baggies or when you’re dressed like a gangster, people come up to you and say, ‘Are you from a gang?’ ” Gutierrez said. “Then they want to jump you.” But the 16-year-old still wears his baggies because “it’s just the style.”
“I want to look good,” said Gutierrez, who has not been attacked.
But even brand-name clothes that are not gang-related can make students targets of violence.
In recent years, youths across the country have been attacked, some fatally, for their Starter sports logo jackets, Nike Air Jordans or other high-status urban wear.
Rashad Frierson, in Karl Kani baggy jeans and a New York Yankees jacket, said most people at his school know there’s a risk in wearing designer fashions around town.
“See these Karl Kanis I’m wearing?” asked the 14-year-old Crenshaw High School freshman, tugging at his size 34 pants. “When I walk down the street, someone could just rip it off me. Some people do crazy things.”
Although suburban teens are just as fashion-conscious as their urban peers, some people say that fashion competition is perhaps most severe in the inner city, where some kids buy designer styles even as their families struggle to make ends meet.
In a March, 1991, interview with the Washington Post, the Rev. Jesse Jackson criticized celebrities who endorse products, saying they fuel the desires of inner-city children who can’t afford to buy pricey designer shoes and clothes.
“They are exploiting an ethos of mindless materialism,” Jackson said of the endorsers. “Our youth are trapped with economic depression, with zero-based self-esteem: ‘I am nothing. You are less. If you cross me, I will shoot you. For my inadequate feelings about myself I must at least identify with the best. So I cover up my inadequate feelings with $200 tennis shoes.’ ”
But USC anthropologist G. Alexander Moore said he doesn’t believe value judgments should be made when inner-city kids spend their money on clothes.
“Fashion plays a role in urban culture,” he said. “It’s important to people, particularly in black culture.”
Carl Jones, who created the popular Cross Colours line with partner T. J. Walker, said high-quality designer apparel is one of the few ways urban youths can feel good about themselves.
“It’s important to them because that’s all they’ve got going,” Jones said. “They don’t have a great house or great car, and they don’t live in a great neighborhood. But they can look good, so they try to do that.”
Susie Hernandez, the Locke High junior, said students seek out fashions at whatever cost because “the better you dress, the more popular you are.”
“You feel bad if you look bad,” said Susie, who recently came to school in bell-bottom jeans and platform sneakers.
Dressed in black Cross Colours baggies and a matching denim jacket, Washington High School senior Tommy Day said he wears stylish clothes because “people treat you differently if you wear the right clothes.”
“All of a sudden, they want to be cool with you,” the 17-year-old said.
Many of the fashions popular among urban youth originated in prisons or the military, USC anthropologist Vigil said.
For instance, the khaki pants and white T-shirts popular among some Latino youth are based on the uniforms worn by World War II and Korean War soldiers, Vigil said. The baggy-clothing look essentially was started by some of Los Angeles’ original gang members, emulating the clothes worn by prison inmates, whose pants often sag because the prisoners are not issued belts.
“The idea of the dress is to be masculine--to look like you can hold your own,” Vigil said. “Teens want to identify with rebels, the ones who are outlaws.”
Fernando DeSantiago, a senior at Wilson High in East Los Angeles, said a lot of boys like the “rebel look” and other hip styles because it gets them respect.
“Kids who don’t dress up are outcast,” said DeSantiago, who estimates that he spends at least $100 a month on clothes. “They’re what you would call ‘the quiet people.’ They stay by themselves and they don’t have many friends.”
Among African Americans, that sort of peer pressure can be particularly intense, as shown in a recently released report, “The Buying Power of Black America,” conducted by Target Market News, a Chicago-based trade publication.
After food and housing, African Americans spent more on clothing than anything else, including health care, education, electronics and cars combined, according to the report. African Americans nationwide spent $20 billion on clothes in 1992, the report said. No breakdown was given specifically for teen-agers, and figures were not available for other ethnic groups.
“Things that can make blacks feel good about their appearance are bought in great quantities,” said Ken Smikle, president of Target Market News. “Clothing is one of the ways we can make a statement of personal progress. We want to be stylish, and we’ll sacrifice in other areas to fulfill that.”
In 1991, African Americans spent an average of $1,803 per capita on clothing, or 8.2% of their average annual income of $21,929. Whites spent an average of $1,725 on clothes, or 4.8% of their average income of $35,311, Smikle said.
“Kids come in and they’ll ask me, ‘What’s new, what’s fresh?’ ” said Shane Wall, manager of the Lady Foot Locker outlet at the Fox Hills Mall in Culver City. “City kids care about looking good. A lot of people say we’re in a recession, but the urban customer doesn’t care how much it costs. They just say, ‘Wrap it up.’ ”
Currently, Nike’s Deion Sanders shoe, Guess? sneakers and black combat boots are hard to keep on the shelves, Wall said.
Darlene Young, whose 7-year-old son, Cedric, attends Hillcrest Drive Elementary in the Crenshaw district, said many parents don’t mind buying their children designer sneakers and clothes because they’re just as fashion-conscious as their kids.
“Kids are just copying adults,” she said. “The pressure to look good passes on from parents to their kids.”
Young, however, said she doesn’t have the money or interest in fashion to buy her son Guess? jeans or Cross Colours clothes. She said Cedric soon may be wearing his school’s uniform.
“When he gets older, he’s going to have to get a job,” she said. “That’s how he’s going to pay for his clothes.”
Rashad Frierson, the Crenshaw High freshman, said most students buy clothes with money from their parents or part-time jobs. With money he earns helping his father take care of their family’s property, Rashad said he can afford to shop for clothes only a few times a year.
“But I still look good without a lot of money,” he said. “At our school, we have a lot of kids who come from the projects. They don’t have a lot of money. But people don’t care because it’s the personality that’s important.”
Still, in nearly the same breath, Rashad talks about how wearing designer fashions is key to being respected at school.
“Next semester, I’m going to change my style,” he said. “I’m going to go to an all-(Levi) Dockers look because I have to provide a good image for my younger sisters to follow. Having a good look gets you noticed.”
A Look at the Price Tags
Students who wear uniforms to school can dress in an entire outfit--including shoes and accessories--for less than $50. But fashion-conscious youths can spend $300 or more on just one ensemble. Here’s a breakdown of costs of some in-vogue items:
Jeans: $60
Nike Deion Sanders Tennis Shoes: $75
Guess? Shoes: $65
Karl Kani Denim Jacket: $75
Karl Kani Vest: $80
Cross Colours Women’s Shirt: $52
