Back To School
How Not to Be a Geek…..

…Or at least how not make your kid into one, too. Wendy Bounds with a shopper’s guide to what’s hot in the hallways.

Beth Weigand committed a prime parental faux pas last year: She went shopping for her 13-year old daughter, Rebecca, without consulting her. No drastic purchases, just a couple of shirts – but in flowers and chambray instead of the darker solid colors that were “in.”

“Well, I thought they were cool,” Ms. Weigand says of her picks, which still hangs in her daughter’s closet, price tags attached. This fall, Rebecca has given Mom an explicit list: a backpack with lots of pockets, a vest (no flowers, thank you) and cargo plants – but not the old style with pockets on the thigh. “The new look is pockets down by your ankle,” says the Raleigh, N.C., ninth-grader-to-be.

Phew. Every year, parents brave the frustrating rite of back-to-school shopping, trying to balance what their kids deem “hip” with what they find appropriate and affordable. The task has grown even more complicated now that so much school fashion revolves around accessories that many parents have never heard of, such as black writing paper and strands of beads for the feet.

“We forget as parents that school is their whole social life,” says Haley Hill, fashion director for Teen People magazine. “If you wear the wrong thing and people think you are a geek, it’s hard to reverse that.”

To help you navigate the stores, Weekend Journal set out to develop some parental Cliff’s Notes. Just as Pokemom trading cards and minibutterfly clips were defining trends of last year, we checked out the items that are likely to dominate the hallways this year. We got input from designers, teen-magazine editors, retailers and kids nationwide. Because while parents certainly want their children to be individuals, sometimes a little conformity can’t hurt.

Body Accessories – Nyoshoos – Pronounced “No Shoes,” this fad took flight during the summer on the bare feet of babes at camp. It’s like a necklace for the feet: Each pair consists of two strands of tiny beads with cool names such as Eve and Purple Haze. The beads run in an elastic strip down the foot, attaching around the ankle and one toe.

Creator Richard Buckman is betting that, once school starts, kids will wear them under sandals and loafers. Seaheart, his one-man shop in Montreal, shipped about 5,000 pairs this summer.


Article and Photos by Wendy Bounds
article partly reproduced with permission from 20/08/99 edition