Today's Fashion

Today's Fashion

It is quite evident as you walk around the streets of almost any town or city in America that the line between what was once considered the black style of dress and the white styles has become less and less evident. This is especially true with the younger kids in junior high and high school. The baggy pants and shirts with labels and bright colors that were once reserved for the city's black and Latino kids are now being worn by whites in wealthy neighborhoods everywhere.

I live in a middle class area on the Colorado River and have for the past thirty years. The change in style of dress for kids has become more and more evident. Main stream stores such as Dillard's and Macy's started carrying the underground hip-hop clothes that were once only found in the larger cities. Even major labels such as Tommy Hilfiger started designing larger clothes with brighter colors. There jeans were available in relaxed fit and even baggy. Hip Hop had now become a large market for young teenagers and people in their early twenties. Everywhere I looked around at my school boys were dressing like this. Now everywhere I see the boys wearing skin tight jeans.

I went to a public school that had a somewhat strict dress code and even there you could tell that the new fashion had an effect on the way most all students dressed. They would try to get baggier pants and would wear bright colored shirts with logos on the front. At ballgames they would wear baggy blue jeans and sweatshirts with emblems on the front. Whenever we had a casual day all the kids would go to the stores and you would see the baggy jeans and bright shirts on everyone. When the weather got hot kids at school started wearing the baggy shorts were there boxers showed. So many kids at my school had them that the school should of maid them illegal to wear. Also more and more girls started wearing shorter and shorter shorts. Soon the principle made it in the dress code that your shorts had to be a certain length.

I don't know exactly how these trends came about but I remember it started when I was in seventh or eighth grade. At first it was the large "Starter" jackets with The Raiders or Miami Dolphins logos on them, and then it went to overalls and Adidas shoes and jackets. These were the things that white kids saw their favorite musicians or athletes wearing in videos and in movies. Rap music became the music choice of the suburban teenager as they looked for ways to rebel from their parents. And rappers tried to portray themselves as wealthy and powerful people with name brand clothing and expensive cars. But as always they added their own touch to fashion by adding the style of oversized clothing and bright colors.

As the years have gone by I have noticed that this style of dress is usually limited to high school and middle school kids. But even still I