by Rachelle de Bretagne

Created on: February 17, 2009   Last Updated: June 14, 2009

Mesh shirts and tank tops made a statement, though the obscurity of this statement was what would eventually decide the fate of both items as ineffective. The shirts themselves became mundane, and in comparison with alternatives available tended to be worn by those with little imagination and style.

The tank tops on the other hand played their part on the stage during the late sixties and early seventies, in an attempt to address the need to clean up show business's image. The clean cut image of singers like Donny Osmond gave the clothing a short-lived statement of status, though compared with the bad boys of pop, turned out to be exactly what the youth of the day were not looking for.

Death of a fad.

So why did these fashions die such a death, and why haven't they made a come-back? The simple fact is that the statement they make is boring. Middle aged men come to mind when thinking of mesh shirts. Retired sportsmen and wannabe trendies, who never really made it past the first goalpost, carried on wearing them, giving them a name synonymous with dull.

Ralph Lauren tried to make these trendy, and although he took center stage for a while, what happened is that parents expected children to dress in a certain manner. With these expectations comes a price. Children want individual style, and mesh shirts just didn't fit the bill or give any credence to their street credibility. Scour the pages of eBay. Look at who sells what, and if these were a fashion statement, how come there are over 3500 items being sold second hand?

Lack of finesse.

From pale colors to stripes, what these bring to mind are lost kids like Kevin Arnold's geek friend in The Wonder Years, still going through puberty and not quite the man. Kids have seen and associated with the image of immaturity, but really don't want to admit to being part and parcel of what immaturity means. Give them the choice between this and looking like their favorite movie star or musician, and there really is no alternative but to get away from the spotty child image portrayed by mesh shirts. Even Kevin's father wore them, and a lifetime of wearing the same things speaks volumes about lack of imagination.

Tank tops.

Tank tops also took a huge drop in popularity because of image. When you think of tank tops, the instant image portrayed is that of grandfathers, sitting in an armchair. Who wants that image? Other images portrayed by the media are of very immature children whose clothing is chosen by grandma. There

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