If you walk into your local high school, chances are, you'll see Chanel earrings, Coach Handbags, and Ed Hardy apparel everywhere you look. Today's teenagers are obsessed with expensive fashion designers, and it's definitely a growing trend - - even in these tough economic times. Their obsession cuts deep holes into their parents' pockets and it begs the question: why? Why do kids like designer clothes so much?
Fifty years ago, the country was still recovering from the Second World War. Grown women and their teenage daughters bought fabric from the fabric store and sewed their own clothes off of patterns. Flash forward fifty years later and the average teenager owns at least one designer product. In the time between the 1950's and today, there was a major shift in what was considered normal. One can logically deduce that that shift owes mainly to the advent of mass media.
Everywhere we look, we see billboards and commercials telling us what's in and what's trendy. Teenagers are amongst the most impressionable age groups. When a teenage girl is confronted with a pretty, sophisticated model sporting a Dooney and Burke handbag, she naturally thinks that if she owns one, she too, will suddenly become classy and pretty.
Marketers know how to market products. They know who their target audience is. Today, everyone aspires to be young. Who better to set the trends than teenagers? Teenagers are the epitome of what's young, cool, and lively. When an adult wants to appear younger than they are, they emulate the fashions of teenagers.
But that's only the half of it.
Teenagers are largely dominated by a pack mentality. Like all human beings, they long to be accepted by their peers - - particularly the popular ones. That need for acceptance manifests in conformity. Emulating the models they see in magazines is the tip of the iceberg.
Those teenagers whose parents can afford it own designer clothes. Their less financial adept classmates long to look the way these rich teenagers look. They are under the impression that if they look rich, they're more likely to be accepted. What better way to look rich than to own designer clothes?
So, the less well-to-do begin whining to their parents, telling them that if they don't get the designer purse they so desperately need, that they'll be cast out of teenage society. The sad thing is, they probably will. Designer clothes are a status symbol amongst young people. The concept of name brand products bringing prestige is so ingrained into their minds that they sincerely feel as though they're outcasts if they don't conform and get the same bag that everyone else has.
But what's the cost? They get the designer handbag they want, and meanwhile, their parents are struggling to put food on the table. What's more important: livelihood or a status symbol that will fall out of vogue next season? That's the real question, and that's something the parents of today should ask their children next time they huff and puff when they don't get the jeans they wanted.