Teenagers are extremely conscious about how they look and often obsess over details that adults disregard as important. They do not dress up in the same way that we do. Some teenagers’ self-consciousness generates a horror of drawing too much attention to themselves. As a result, they go for the “not-looking-very-dressed-up” look. Others enjoy getting all the attention they get and will wear just about anything to get it. Here we will discuss the impact of fashion trends on teens.
The clothes we choose reflect our mood and style. They, in some way, also reflect one’s overall confidence. A person’s confidence level significantly affects how other people perceive and respond to them.
Self-expression through Fashion
Teenagers are probably the most fashion-conscious humans on earth. Fashion and image go hand in hand and both have a huge impact on a teenager’s lifestyle. To them, fashion is incredibly important because it’s a way of showing the world who they are or who they want to be. Different teenagers have different personalities and for this reason, there exist clothes in different styles, sizes, colors, and fabrics. While some people would rather shop around in malls, others prefer to shop online on websites such as Teenage Clothing Online UK for more variety.
As people grow up, they form their sense of self through the clothes that they wear. Teenagers use fashion as a route to express themselves as well as their affiliations, gain social status, and bond with their peers.
The adolescence phase is marked by the search for personal identity and what adolescents wear plays a huge role in forging that identity. Teenagers express themselves through clothes and hairstyles. What a teenager chooses to wear is a way of individuating themselves and demonstrating how they want the world to see them. However, with pleasant alternatives and good choices of wardrobe, such as one found at ninjacosmico.com, teenagers can be made to choose their clothing wisely.
Factors Affecting Teenagers Sense of Fashion
The young generation tends to imitate anything they see others wear as long as it looks “hip” or “in style”. Teenagers are quick to follow fashion trends in order for them to fit in. Fashion changes with seasons and so do most teenagers’ wardrobes. Let’s look at the factors affecting their sense of fashion:
1. Peer Pressure
Peer pressure largely affects a teenager’s daily choices on matters like alcohol and drug abuse, fashion and style, the kind of friends one has, as well as academic performance. Peer pressure can either be good or bad.
Research has shown that teenagers will dress in a particular way to stave off mocking and humiliation from peers. They feel that if they dress in inappropriate clothes they could end up losing their friends. You will notice that teenagers will go shopping together or ask for advice on how to dress up for an event, say, a birthday party.
A majority of teenagers are influenced by people around them because they feel that they somehow need to fit in. Duplicating the fashion around them gives them a sense of belonging in today’s world. Teenagers use fashion to keep friendships and bolster their self-esteem by “mirroring”. More often than not, adolescents will dress alike because this provides a sense of affirmation and a sense of belonging to a peer group.
2. Body Image
This issue mostly affects teenage girls. The media and magazines influence, in some way, on a girl’s physical look. For instance, when a skinny model is on the cover of a magazine, the teen will do whatever it takes just to look like them. This has resulted in many lifestyle changes amongst teenage girls and unhealthy approaches such as eating disorders.
Along with their peers, the internet also influences teenagers’ body image issues. Comparing oneself to what you see on the internet can negatively impact body image which is closely related to fashion and style.
3. Media and Magazines
Teenagers use magazines and media to evaluate what the upcoming trends are so that they may know exactly what to buy and what not to buy. Fashion shows/ magazines play a huge role in affecting a teenager’s lifestyle and sense of style as most of them buy clothes after looking through the latest magazines. These magazines affect, in a large way, the selection of a teenager’s clothes.
Most fashion magazines target teenagers, particularly girls. The magazines will put popular celebrities dressed in fancy clothes on the cover to attract young girls. You will hear her say, “Oh look who it is. I totally have to get that outfit”. These magazines then endorse the stores and companies where the celebrities buy their trendy and latest styles.
4. Celebrities
Teenagers will idolize the celebrities that they love. They look up to them for some fashion inspiration. When a teenager sees their favorite celebrity dressed in something that they love, they will go and buy the exact same outfit just to look like them. They will then show off the clothes to their friends.
Teenagers watch all types of reality shows to try and keep up with favorite celebrities’ styles. They will even look up to celebrities for hairstyle ideas. Basically, teenagers discover themselves through external stimuli. Celebrities provide the external basis from which teenagers will benchmark their opinions, thoughts, and associations.
Even though celebrities may not explicitly try to persuade their audience to go with a particular flow, they subconsciously alter their audience’s ideologies. Once a celebrity publicly endorses a piece of clothing, this creates societal acceptance and has a positive impact on the overall brand image.
5. Designer Brands
Adolescents are preoccupied with social acceptance and coolness associated with the clothes they wear. For this reason, teenagers will exhibit a more brand-oriented decision when they go shopping. Most teenagers will go shopping at stores where they sell quality high-end designer clothes.
When teenagers do not have the money to shop at high-end stores for designer clothes, they get stressed up. They feel that since they cannot afford the clothes they will not look good, and they will not fit in.
What is the average amount a teenager spends on their wardrobe? What are some of the styles associated with various social groups? How much can you tell about a person’s character from the clothes they wear? What is your fashion style and what does it say about you?
Teen fashion Trends
Fashion flair is everywhere. Fashion is important to those individuals who love the latest styles and expensive wardrobes. Teenagers dress to impress. Leather, silk, and suede mean “I pay a lot to look good.” Not all teenagers are interested in dressing fashionably; some dress comfortably or casually, but less expensively than those fashion-conscious individuals.
You can tell a lot about a person by just observing the clothes they wear. If a person dresses simply but neatly, he is an ordinary person with his own style. If a person dresses sloppily or wears unmatched clothes, his attitude may be seen as negative. When a person dresses expensively and matches from head to toe, he or she will appeal to the fashion-wearers.
Some teens spend as much as $200 to $300 a month on clothes, and that is okay for them. I prefer casual clothes that say I am more interested in looking neat and not overdoing things
To be perfectly honest, I do judge people on what they wear because I have found that clothes reveal a great deal about a person; from what kind of music people like, to what kind of mood they are in, to what type of personality they have.
There are those who are obsessed with fashion and style and pour endlessly over fashion magazines and spend hours shopping. And then there are others who are indifferent to fashion. They simply think of clothing as a means of covering the body and keeping warm. Most of us, however, fall somewhere between these two extremes.
I attend a school that requires a uniform, and I am most grateful. It is an agony for me on weekends to decide what to wear. I spend approximately $1500 a year on my wardrobe — this figure would definitely be higher if I did not go to a school that requires a uniform. MARIME’ SUBRAMANIAN Georgetown Visitation
Fashion is a very important part of a teenager’s day-to-day life. Peer pressure has decided a lot of today’s fashion trends — whatever one person has, everyone else feels that they have to have it to be popular. In public high schools, fashion is very important in creating an individual “attitude.”
Teenagers spend a lot of money on their wardrobes trying to fit in, yet maintain their own individuality. Some teenagers spend anywhere from $600 to $1000 on just one article of clothing such as a jacket. But it all depends on the individual.
Today, the drug trade has allowed many young men and women the opportunity to buy very expensive clothing that they would not normally be able to buy. Other teenagers try to duplicate these styles so as not to become outcasts. On the other hand, some teenagers choose to express themselves by wearing whatever pleases them. Clothes can tell you a lot about an individual; it may say they are strong, independent, and different.
I love to buy nice clothing. I am not a very trendy person, but I do buy some of the latest fashions. My style of dress says that I am an individual, but I love nice things. KERRIE BROWN Eastern
Teenagers pay a lot of attention to their wardrobes. That’s how they get their boyfriends and girlfriends. In most schools, they pick the girl and boy for “Best Dressed” to be placed in the yearbook. All students try to dress nicely.
The average teenager spends more than they can afford to on clothes — about $3000 a year. I spend $4000 to $5000 a year on my wardrobe. Some styles that students like to wear to school are sweatsuits, jeans, anything green and gold, and just regular clothes.
You can’t tell much about a person by their clothes. Some people think that if they have expensive clothes, it means they have a lot of money. That is not true. I wear expensive clothes and I am broke. I don’t have a fashion style; I just wear what I want to wear and what I can afford to buy. SALAH BENSON Spingarn
Fashion is an interpretation of a person’s character. How you choose to express yourself is something that comes from inside. Many adults choose to believe that all teenagers share expensive tastes well beyond their means, but I think this is not true.
Anything from jeans to silk can be seen in an atmosphere where different social groups live. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the poor will dress poorly, it just means that, like the rest of society, teenagers dress as well as they can within their economic range. I don’t think we should be criticized for placing such an emphasis on appearance because America is an appearance-oriented society.
Like a well-dressed family man living one paycheck from homelessness, you can tell nothing, by the way, a person dresses. Clothes don’t make the man — a personality does. ANGELA FOX Anacostia
Teenagers value fashions as highly as they value themselves and their families, which to me is an atrocity. The values of today’s teenagers have declined immensely over the past decade. The respect for human dignity has been taken away by the outrageously priced, high-fashion clothing in stores today.
Some teenagers are doing anything from selling drugs to selling their bodies to get fashionable items. Crime nor pain matters to today’s teenagers where fashion is involved.
When I see teenagers wearing $600 to $1000 rhinestone-covered jean jackets, I wonder where their priorities are. Nothing in the world should make a teenager want to spend close to a thousand dollars on one outfit. If teenagers want to be naive and buy every fashion item that is marketed, so be it. Sooner or later they will realize they are foolish and become intelligent adults — after all, we all learn from our mistakes.
What you wear has a lot of influence on the type of friends you have. Most D.C. youths, including myself, fall into the trap of buying name brands or expensive clothing. Most people will not admit to this, but just ask how many people will notice whether a person is wearing a Gucci or Used outfit instead of a wearing a Puma sweatsuit.
Usually, the people who wear expensive clothes are very popular in school and around their neighborhoods. This is one of the reasons young people sell drugs today.
The teenagers of the 90s feel that their wardrobes are very important. They feel that being in the “in crowd” depends on how they dress. On the other hand, not all teenagers think like this — all some care about is getting a good education; they feel that they will have plenty of time later for a fashionable wardrobe.
The amount of money the average teenager spends can range from $100 to $1000 or more. No one can tell you what the average teenager spends.
You can tell a lot about a person by the way they dress. If a person had on something that doesn’t match, they would be considered a ‘Bama. You can get different vibes from different people, but usually, it is the right vibe. RESHAWNER MARTIN Wilson
Fashion is very important to teenagers in order for them to express their individuality. Teenagers dress to be different. Some are willing to pay any amount of money just to get something that is different — that nobody else has.
My style of dress is influenced by the fashion of Mexico City where I am from. I dress differently from a lot of my school friends, but apparently, they like how I look because they often ask me where I buy my clothes.
I have found that I can dress economically by mixing and matching a few articles of clothing to make many outfits. What does this say about my character? I guess this means that I am frugal, but I have a good imagination. MARTHA MARTINEZ Bell-Multicultural “Speak Out” Topic For April 19:
It has been proposed in Congress that Maryland should annex the District of Columbia in order to give District residents full voting representation in Congress. Currently, the District is represented by Walter Fauntroy, a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives (since the District is not a state, it has no representation in the Senate). This proposal comes in the wake of demands from District residents for separate statehood and has prompted strong rhetoric both for and against it.
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By Rida Khan
