What’s hot and what’s not: Back to school fashions

As summer winds down, it is not only athletes who busily prepare for another school year.  Teens, especially girls, get themselves into a state of confusion over whether they have succeeded in recognizing and being a part of the current styles in hair, clothing and fashion. 
It is all-important, and it begs comparison to changes and styles through the generations.  We all know that styles come and go, and that sometimes a cycle repeats itself with many years between.  Hopefully, bell-bottom trousers are not one of the repeat styles, but who knows. Let’s compare some of those changes through the years and try to understand why some older folks wonder what the current crop of teenagers is coming to. 
In today’s high school society, a popular hairstyle is longer hair usually worn with a ponytail.  This is especially true with high school girl athletes.  A popular dress item is the scoop neck blouse or tee shirt, and the most common footwear is either boots or sandals,  Short skirts or ripped jeans also occupy favorite status for girls.  
One other item that drives some parents to distraction is the new fad of body art- some evident and some in rather hidden locations.  Tattoos and belly button and nose piercing provide just two examples of the emerging new style.  Whether that will last is anyone’s guess.  Styles for boys remain much more conservative and traditional, with longer hair complementing some boys’ style, and even shorter hair popular with others.  Jeans remain the popular dress for everyday wear.
Today’s teen styles present a much different picture than that of generations ago.  It has been a long time, for example, since girls wore poodle skirts or later, mini and maxi skirts.  Saddle shoes were popular for the girls, and almost every boy had “penny loafers” or shoes with a penny tucked into the tongue of the shoe.
One of the biggest differences for both boys and girls can be found on the basketball or volleyball courts.  In the 50’s and 60’s boys wore basketball uniforms that clung to the legs and were so short that they almost cut off circulation.  Today one is almost afraid that the uniform will fall to the floor because of the extreme length of the pants.  Some styles will recycle, and will become popular once more.  Some we can hope never appear again.
But let’s go back to school fashions popular in the 1950s and 1960s. 
For many students going to a one-room school in the  1950s, attire was a pair of Osh Kosh overalls and a Roy Rogers cowboy shirt. During the winter months, since many students walked to school and back home, up hill both ways, warm clothing including long johns were a necessity.
From a one-room school, students went to a larger school system, like Blooming Prairie or Austin. Clothing in the larger school then became casual and sporty.
Rock star Elvis Presley and young movie star James Dean had an effect on male attire and grooming. Many teen boys copied Elvis’ long sideburns and also combed their hair from side to back with a duck tail (DA) in the rear.
James Dean’s hair style was similar to that of Elvis and he also popularized the bright red jacket that was notable in the movie, Rebel Without a Cause. Fashions, tight jeans for boys and poodle skirts for girls, were impacted by the movie West Side Story.
Boys wore white t-shirts and some would put their cigarettes in the short sleeve as soon as they got off school property. Long, thin belts were also popular.
Because Blooming Prairie and surrounding schools were predominantly rural, summer time became a labor intensive time for most boys.  Making hay with a mower and a team of horses and a haystacker machine occupied much of the early summer.  As crops ripened, cutting grain with a binder, shocking the cut grain into miniature pyramids, and then transporting them in hay racks to threshing machines kept teenagers pretty busy. No one liked shocking grain very much, but a big group of farmers all getting together to do the threshing actually proved a fun time on the farm threshing machine
As we entered the 1960s, sport shirts and slacks were the going rage for boys and horn-rimmed glasses, the nerdy style, were the in-thing.
For girls in the 1960s, poodle skirts were still popular but mini skirts began to take over and were applauded by boy classmates of the girls. Not long after, the maxi skirts tried to rival the mini skirts.
For the present, boys and girls have more lenience in what they wear. Long, baggy pants are popular for boys and leggings and skirts being the items to wear for the girls.
Many schools have differing dress codes, most ruling out the wearing of caps and most not allowing bare midriffs.
For the boys, short hair has come back. For the girls, long hair is in, with the pony tail still being popular. Facial hair is now popular for many young boys, something that was not allowed years ago.  Probably one big reason for clean shaven teen boys was that most of them couldn’t grow much facial coverage.
Eyewear has also changed with many students wearing contact lenses. The nerdy glasses have also returned for both boys and girls. Fancy frames are often worn by girls with boys wearing more conservative frames.
Fashions definitely come and go, and many come back again. Some we hope never do make a comeback! Take a look at your parents’ high school yearbooks and see how fashion styles have changed over the years.