Brand name clothing & your tween/teen

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-26-2005
Brand name clothing & your tween/teen
22
Sat, 11-04-2006 - 3:09pm
On Thursday, I took a friend of mine to her doctors office in Charlotte. (About 2 hours away from here) Anyway...on the way home, we stopped by Concord Mills (a large 'outlet' mall). Quinn (my son, 13 yo) needed a heavier jacket & had told me he wanted a denim sherpa lined one or a Carhartt one. It's very unusual for him to request a certain style. I'm not sure where he saw this style at. While at the mall, I went into the Gap store & they had a denim sherpa jacket he wanted. It was $30 (which is fair). I bought him that & I saw a Gap hoody with colors that he likes. It was on sale, so I got it for him too.
He loved the jacket, but flat told me "Thanks for the shirt, but I don't like it." Of course I asked him why (it didn't matter too much to me, I was just curious so I won't make the same mistake). He said he just didn't like it. Then finally I figured out that he does not like brand names on his shirts. I've never thought about it, but his shirts do not have brand names on them, except he does have 2 or 3 Element tee-shirts. Element is the brand of skateboard that he has. He also has an Alien Workshop. (again, skateboard company) He said that if he's going to wear a shirt with the company name, they ought to pay him for advertising it for them. LOL! I thought that was pretty funny. There is a Gap store at a couple of the malls in our area & I plan to return the sweatshirt.
I just thought it was different because I've noticed that at his school a lot of the kids wear 'brands'. Albercombie & Finch (or whatever), Gap, Apostrophe (I think) & some others come to mind.
The way Quinn dresses is his own style. He has several rock artist & rock band tee-shirts (Jimi, Led Zep, Kiss & Greenday). He has 2 or 3 Monty Python tee-shirts. A lot of the kids have never even heard of Monty. (shock!) He has a few skateboard tees. And tee-shirts with guitars on them. He has a few tees with skulls on them. And he has a couple of Stewie tee's (Family Guy's weird baby) His favorite thing to wear when it's cool is a long sleeve tee-shirt with a short sleeve tee shirt over it. (Common style, I like to wear them too) He also has a couple of work shirts by Dickies that he wears.
As far as jackets, he has khaki brown cord jacket with a BAM logo (Bam Mergera) patch along with an electric guitar patch & a Thrasher logo patch. No one else in school has anything like it. He's had several boys ask were he got it. I 'fixed' it up for him. (I had a mother to call me last week asking about the jacket. She said that her son has asked for one several times & she had not seen it. I told her to get the jacket off Landend's Outlet on-line & order patches from Ebay, but asked her to please not duplicate the ones Quinn has. LOL) He also has another jacket. It's a sweatshirt zipper type that we paid $8 for. It's black w/a scorpion on the back. And another solid hunter green one.
As far as shoes go, he likes Vans sneakers. I try to buy them when we are my brothers in Orlando (there's a Vans outlet there). They are tough, hard wearing shoes. It's the only shoe that he will outgrown before they wear out. (Nikes & etc. wear out first with him) I will buy him a pair of high top sneakers for basketball though.
I like that Quinn likes to look different, but one thing that drives me nuts is he does not like to dress up. He doesn't like button up shirts unless it's a work shirt. He doesn't like sweaters (too hot) So, occasionally we have a disagreement this.
Anyway...what sort of style does your teen have? Are they a 'brand' person?
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-17-2004
Mon, 11-06-2006 - 9:45am

My daughter is less brand conscious, and more style conscious. Her style would best be described as preppy. She wears Ralph Lauren, Gap, Abercrombie, American Eagle, and Talbots. I require her to dress with a certain degree of modesty (no bellies or short skirts), and I prefer well made clothes in good fabrics. I am a pretty good shopper, so I am able to find things at 50% off. Recent brands she has requested are North Face jackets, Ugg boots, and Chuck Taylor Converse sneakers.

I can deal with all of the above. The problem is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I live in a town with a lot of money. While most would be described as upper middle class, we have more than our share of multi-millionaires. This has brought a some high end boutiques into town, and a new level of brand shopping. The high school girls (and some middle school girls) are wearing $200.00+ jeans (Rock and Republic, Antik, Red Engine, ect),have Prada or Coach purses, and Lilly Pulitzer dresses. I am not even going to attempt to keep up with this level of brand shopping.

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-28-2004
Mon, 11-06-2006 - 11:01am

>> Ugg boots<<


I just bought DD a pair of periwinkle and a pair of fuschia Uggs from Marshall's. They were $59.00. That is pricey BUT I bought a pair for her for $40 at Limited Too last year. They were CRAP.






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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-17-2004
Mon, 11-06-2006 - 12:09pm

I am hoping to find a pair at Marshalls. I am NOT paying the $119.00 price at Footlocker.

Were the boots at Limited Too Uggs, or boots that looked like Uggs?

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-28-2004
Mon, 11-06-2006 - 12:14pm

They were UGG lookalikes. Which made me consider. If I'd spend $40 for the knock offs...what's $20 more for the real deal, that will last longer?


It made sense in my head....LOL!






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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-01-2006
Mon, 11-06-2006 - 12:38pm
I bought hannah a pair of knock off ugs at the gap a few years ago for $45 - She loved those things. :)
DH has a pair of uggs he wears all the time in the winter.







iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2005
Mon, 11-06-2006 - 8:52pm

Connor (13, 8th grade) likes Levi jeans and most American Eagle Outfitter clothing. (mostly for the fit... he can buy right off the rack and never try stuff on there and it fits really nicely). He refuses to wear anything from Abercrombie (He has moral issues with their advertising)and while he does have a few Gap items, he doesn't care for writing on his clothing much. Most of the Gap clothing is just basic solid Thermal T's. His style is simple. Button down shirts not tucked in, Thermal long sleeve T's, Hooded sweatshirts, Polo shirts and jeans.

He would never wear a shirt with an animated charactor on it. He says that sort of thing is lame.

Shoe wise he wears New Balance sneakers or hiking boots.

BTW...My son has no clue who Monty Python or Stewie are.

Stacy

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-07-2007
Sun, 10-07-2007 - 1:47pm

What are some of the name brand athletic wear your kids wear? My 11 year old daughter is asking for yoga clothes and I am totally lost?


iVillage Member
Registered: 06-29-2006
Sun, 10-07-2007 - 4:01pm
Not TOO into brand names here....I'm kinda glad about that, too.
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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-01-2006
Sun, 10-07-2007 - 4:53pm

those converse sneakers are big around here



iVillage Member
Registered: 08-11-2007
Sun, 10-07-2007 - 10:29pm
It depends with Gabrielle.She is 11 and she would like to buy most of her clothing in JR.stores.Howevr,they don't always fit her.She can still wear a 12 slim at Limited Too in pants.Howevr,she perfers to get her jeans at Deila's.She can wear a 00 there and she claims they are not as tight in thighs.They do fit her well.She also likes some of their graphic tees.She wants the ugly Betty one in the worst way.She will wear the brand name on a tee shirt,but it really does not matter to her.Most of her shirts from aerpostale or Abercrombie do not have the name on them.I actually hate abercrombie,but she does have a jkt from there.I just don't find their sales people very helpful,and if I'm paying that much money fro something they should act like they want you in the store.BOthe Limited Too and Delia's are wonderful in this way.The sales manager at Delia's knows Gabby by name and is always happy to great her.She also wears the extra small tee shirts from Aeropalstle,Delia's and Hollister.Some of these shirts are actually smaller than her size 12's.She does have a Dooney and Burke purse.That seemed to be the main CHristmas present last year for the girls in her class-a designer handbag.Heck when I was in 5th grade I was playing with Barbie dolls

Laura


mom to Gabrielle