Teen fashion or teen uniform?

July 2018 | Matilda Page

TEEN FASHION, let me paint you a picture. I arrive at the Deloraine bus stop ready for my first day of college and three of five girls standing there are all wearing denim mini-skirts.

I get to school and there’s five more. I walk round the corner, more. I go to my classes, and the majority are wearing denim skirts.

Maybe I didn’t get the memo, it seemed that over half the school female population were wearing denim skirts.

This is one example of a fashion trend, not to highlight denim skirts but to highlight conformity.

Teenage fashion has become uniform due to clothing options in stores, trendsetters and the flow of society.

Despite how much choice and variety in clothing people think they have, the majority wear the same thing as the next person.

I talked to a student at Launceston College, who moved from South Africa, currently living in the Meander Valley area.

“It’s funny, because in Africa people weren’t wearing denim skirts. So when I came back here, came to college, the whole denim skirts thing was quite new.”

When it really comes down to it, we wear whatever clothing stores decide we should wear.

When I wore clothes (purchased from other places) that were out of the norm, such as flowing pants, I received many comments from people who liked them. The fact that they didn’t know where to get them shows that society is limited to whatever options stores provide.

Another option that provides everyone with a larger variety of clothing, and meets the financial circumstances a majority of young people face, is op-shopping for a variety of good brands for less.