Saturday, July 22, 2006

Nerd girl talks about fashion

When i was between 7th and 8th grade my family moved across the country from Virginia to Seattle. I was 12 at the time and a real pre-adolescent mess. Tall, skinny, questionable fashion sense and personal hygiene skills, self-conscious and with ugly military issue glasses.

It was a culture shock to move to the rowdy place that was my new school from Virginia, where people were (at least i thought so) polite.

In Virginia, there was a dress code and girls weren't allowed to wear pants to school, ever. Which is really fucking stupid in the middle of winter when there's a snowstorm and we are all waiting at the bus stop freezing our girly asses off. Sometimes we would wear pants under our dresses, but we had to take them off before getting on the bus. There was always this very amusing little strip tease as we spotted the bus coming and had to struggle to get the pants off over the shoes before it arrived.

Anyway, my first day of school in Seattle was the first day that the dress code had been abolished. I was amazed at the ripped jeans, short skirts and T-shirts. (I was a pretty prissy little thing back then.) Also someone grabbed my non-existent tit in the crowded hallway. It was terrifying.

After school that day, my mother came to pick me up and take me clothes shopping. I found this absolutely lovely pair of slightly too short pants with a fetching pattern of green and purple flowers on a light yellow background. Yum. I was cool.

I wore them the next day and some girl came up to me and said: "Those sure are some high-water pants."

My reply: "I don't know what brand they are."

I get a laugh out of this now, after i finish cringing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You tell the story of my younger life. My pants were always, and I mean always, above my ankles. Before crop pants were cool. "High waters" were not cool. I cringe with you in sympathy. From one tall chick to another. Thank God for "tall" options in most good stores!