What are teenagers doing/thinking these days?

[mrsbrown]

There are 4 teenage girls in my kitchen atm.

They are discussing skaters/goths/emos/punks/ho's etc.

One girl says, "I'd like to be a punk, but I can't afford it"

huh!!!!!???

Comments

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

"I'd like to be a punk, but I can't afford it"...

-Priceless! Just... Priceless!!! I didn't realise the price of safety pins had gone up!

[nobble.livejournal.com]

Or slashed clothes

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

My youth of rebellion started when I refused to let my mother pierce my left ear, and then a few years later it went into full-blown shirt'n'side-parting mode. Boy, did it annoy my old hippie of a mother! -She also wanted to die my hair blue when I was 14...

Some times i think I would've been wise to do as she told me to, really; i sort of feel like I've missed out on something! LOL

Wow

[erudito.livejournal.com]

That's great.

Mind you, I think Tom Wolfe wrote something apposite about this years ago confronting the phenomenon of 'designer jeans'.

Designer punk. Wow.

[basal-surge.livejournal.com]

Yeah, its the designer world. There's a new bit of slang popped up in NZ recently - "Glassons' Goths" - they look like goths, have gothy clothing, jewellery, etc, but know none of the music, and do very few of the goth-subculture activities, because all they know is the look, which has been picked up from fashion advertising, in particular the local NZ middle to lower up-market clothing chain, Glassons (Like Myers, I guess.)

It's got so competitive to be the first to identify and commodify a fashion trend, that a lot of the big fashion houses have been paying young, hip design school people to hang out on the streets and try and spot which things will take off, and design accordingly. But of course, the young and about town are losing the ability to build their own look, because all they know are those looks that have been commodified and sold to them out of the chain stores, and they don't have the skills to loot, scavenge and make their own gear as much any more.

Me, I'm pissed about the way military dpm's ("Cargo Pants") became hot a decade or so back, because they had been my mainstay surplus store buy - tough trousers with lots of pockets for tools, loot, ammo, etc. Then they became fashionable, the pockets became silly, the construction became light, the fabric crap, and now I walk out of a pair in less than six months because they are no longer built to military spec. Plus all the scum who run what passes for surplus stores these days have raised their prices by about 400% for lower quality surplus gear.

Rant rant.

[pearl]

You're not thinking in the right frame of mind. First- remove all of your mental baggage involving punks in 60's Britan listening to the Ramones and setting out to look non-conformist.

Now that all associations with punk being anything other than a style of clothing has been wiped from your mind, you will want to wander into any of the punk-style clothing and fashion shops around the city. Two that spring immediately to mind are Toxic, Peril Underground (Elizabeth St.) and Stars and Stripes (in Bridge Road).

Look at the price tags on the boring shirts with pvc appliqued onto them. Laugh. See, this is why she can't afford to be a punk.

Then worry that there is an entire generation out there who can't actually sew and make their own look for a lot cheaper.