Generation Envy

A recent conversation with one of the baristas at my favorite coffee place really got me thinking.

First, she was born in 1991, which doesn't really compute with my brain, though it should - college freshmen this year were born around 1991 and 1992.

She thought that it was awesome that I was both a child of the eighties and that I came of age in the nineties. I think that it's hilarious that she thinks that, as I feel like we got a little short-sheeted.

First of all, the eighties. I was young enough to avoid the lacy gloves and bustiers, but not young enough to avoid stonewashed jeans. Oh no, not young enough.

Leggings, oversized sweatshirts and t-shirts, jellies!, thick socks, and pegged jeans. What the fuck were we thinking?

And don't even get me started on crimped and permed hair. Shudder.

I had to show Bri what "pegging" my jeans meant by putting my foot up on the counter and carefully folding my pants to one side and rolling them up twice. She thought that it was awesome... Well, we did too, didn't we?

Then the nineties. I think that the first half can be summed up, at least for me, in one word: grunge. Flannel, clunky shoes, mixing feminine with masculine, and trying every day to look like Angela Chase.

My absolute favorite outfit in 1992 was a pretty flowery dress, pulled together in the back with an elastic clasp. I had a lacy white vest to wear over it, and to top it all off? White socks and Doc Martens.

Of course, those shoes were the Payless version of Doc Martens, because there was no way my mother would have bought the real thing for me. She wouldn't even buy me the ones from Payless because she thought they were the ugliest things she had ever seen. Don't get me wrong - my mom never criticized anything - not my wardrobe choices, not my life choices, nothing. But she fucking HATED those shoes.

And I looked AMAZING. Let me tell you.

(This is where I would include pictures if I had any way of scanning them and if I had any idea how to make them picture-sized and not 8x10 sized. I have no idea how to do things.)

And now leggings are coming back and it's a little more than irritating.

I've heard that you are not to take part in a wardrobe fad if you were old enough to live through it the first time. That's why I think that no one my age should be wearing leggings except maybe for recreational activities.

Oh, and I saw someone wearing stirrup pants, too. And jeans with zippers at the ankles!

I think that once the next decade rolls around, and we're forced back into grunge attire, I won't be so annoyed. It really wasn't that bad. Flannel is comfortable!