Rock Star Kids
March/28/2010 10:14 AM Filed in: Fashion | Family | Children | Life of a Rock Star | Nicole Hanratty
Glam Kids
The Rock Star Style of Today's Youth
By Nicole Hanratty
Kids today--including my own--live the life of little rock stars. Recession or economic downturn aside, today's kids have more style and glam than their predecessors from previous generations. From the schoolyard to the mall, kids--especially girls--are rocking some serious fashion.
Glam kids today have closets that are filled with popular hip clothes nothing short of runway ready. And this is true whether parents are shopping at Bloomingdales or Target. Everywhere I go, I see kids dressed like their rock star idols: Kristen Stewart, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Justin Beiber, Zac Efron, Jesse McCartney and Taylor Lautner.
Children's clothing is constructed now to look adult-like and trendy along with their accessories. Rock star style sunglasses, necklaces, bracelets, bags and shoes--all very Hollywood--are available in tween or teen stores such as Justice, Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, Claires, H&M, as well as department stores ranging from Nordstrom to Kohl's. They are designed identically to high-end offerings on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The knockoff syndrome has gone size blind. One style fits all.
When I was a child it was fun for me to play dress up in my mom's closet and as a teen I wanted to borrow her cutest clothes. The young girls in my family do love to peruse my wardrobe and stake claims to my castoffs, but in a strange roll reversal I recently found myself borrowing a very adult cute and stylish Joe's Jeans jacket out of my child's closet. Sometimes we walk out the door looking the same and not in that freakish homemade dress floral print kind of way either. Do the kids look like me or do I look like them? Has the world gone mad? Suddenly Alice in Wonderland makes a whole lot more sense. What is real is impossible--our glam kids are trying to dress like their idols who are wearing adult couture and yet impossibly they are...pulling it off.
As a result, the line has become blurred as to what is appropriate attire for each age group. Young girls and boys are shopping for clothes in the same departments as their mothers and fathers making parents second-guess if they are too old for their wardrobe.
On a recent shopping trip with my favorite fifteen year old, I was told that certain shoes are mom appropriate and others are--quite frankly--too young for me. Mind you, the shoe department we were browsing through did not have a shoe section for teens, tweens or children. It was the "Women's" shoe department where I was under the impression that it was all fair game for me--a woman--especially since no price tag was under $250.00. But apparently I was wrong. (Welcome to parenthood.) It seems our Glam Kids feel entitled to wear upscale fashion just like their teen idols and will stake their claim on hip trendy styles by ousting mom to the sideline. Yep, if they want to wear it they'll tell mom it's too young for her.
And this phenomenon isn't just restricted to women and their daughters. Fathers and sons walk out the door looking alike as well and again not just in that freakish little man in a suit that looks like dad's way either. Men and boys have closets that are nearly filled with identical styles. Are dads too old to wear basketball shorts and tee shirts or have their sons just taken ownership of that trend? Can a mature man rock the skinny jeans now that eight year olds are running around in them? Does a dad have to pull out the suspenders to differentiate himself from his kids?
It used to be a fun sport to dress our children up in adult clothes and take silly photos of them (usually with a Western themed background). Now it is just frightening to see how quickly they are growing up.
Maybe this morphing of age neutral fashion is a result of hip trendy fun styles becoming too easily available via mass production in China or possibly in this information age it is just too difficult to persuade our kids that dressing like a youngster and not as a rock star / model / teen idol / pro athlete / famous actor is the norm. I won't discard the notion that as parents we have spoiled our children into a state of unquestioning entitlement, which has led them down the path of seeking their own personal rock star wardrobe. Either way, from birth until the post college allowance ending let down lull, our kids are living glam lives they have not even begun to fully realize.
Au revoir for now...n
Do you have Glam Kids with Rock Star Wardrobes?
