[fashion] Style and GRACE

While trolloping around the mall with my mom yesterday, we were on the lookout for some twill (or cotton) shorts. Scratch that, I was on the lookout for twill/cotton shorts, she was on the lookout for shorts that resembled a nun's uniform. Ah well, we agree to disagree. After disapproving of the ones I originally wanted from a certain Eagle establishment, we started to hunt in the not-so-obvious choices for a person of the teenage kind. After realizing that the stores for my age group will have shorts that challenge underwear and the ones for her age group will have gross Mom-clothes, we were both about ready to give up the fight. But not so fast! H&M comes to save the day, with 2 pairs of shorts that MY WHOLE FAMILY APPROVED OF (consisting of me, the self-proclaimed fashionista, my mother, the confused and weary shopper, and my father, the adamant anti-fashion warrior). I know. I'm pretty sure the heavens opened up and God smiled on me (He usually does a condemning nod). After buying the shorts and doing a very subtle victory dance, we were homeward bound, but not before my mother shared her predicament with me. Basically, she would prefer to not wear open-toed shoes in the summer (...) and wishes that there were more cute closed-toed shoes in the summer. Although I do not agree, I am the only one allowed to judge here, because hey, she's my mom :)

After this cute little anecdote, you might be wondering, "What's the point of this, Camille? Why the long story?" Well, I'm getting to that, so calm your pants. All this made me wonder, has mass fashion really gotten this bad? Why do the stores treat everyone the same? Every summer since 2007, I have had to be on the lookout for new shorts because a) I can't fit the ones of last year and b) they can't fit me. So I'm forced to go out to the mall and try to find a decent pair of shorts (rare). Last year I started to notice a pattern. Every summer, mall stores get huge supplies of itsy-bitsy underwear jean shorts that end of on the legs of my peers all too often. In low stock and few colors are bermuda jean shorts, and some stores now dare to sell the awkward in-between jean shorts for unfortunate children with parents like mine. AE dared to be different this year with a few colors of twill shorts, but, sucks for me, they were still too short. And how hard should it be to find summer-colored shoes IN THE SUMMER? Not every open-toed sandal should be worn (I know I've seen some that are borderline catastrophic), and not everyone has the feet to bare all. Why does every summer have to begin with the same stores with the same recycled and reworked merchandise from last year trying to get new customers by pretending it's a new collection? Honestly, I'm insulted. And it's also pretty sad.

"To have survived, she would have had to be either more cynical or even further from reality than she was. Instead, she was a poet on a street corner trying to recite to a crowd pulling at her clothes."
~Arthur Miller about Marilyn Monroe