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With age comes wisdom
-- and fewer tube tops

ASSOCIATED PRESS

There's a showdown coming in our schools, not over education, but over the state of girls' dress, or rather, lack of dress -- the flooze factor.

While reading Susan Essoyan's story in this newspaper two Sundays ago, illustrated by two typical teen girls in their favorite skimpy get-ups, I had to laugh in the way that some do when faced with an argument so futile that it repeats itself decade after decade in this Puritanical society.

As an adult, I felt sorry for the school administrators who must deal with the time-wasting issue when schools have more pressing problems. It's only going to get worse. A quick trip to the mall this weekend revealed acres of flimsy, lacy lingerie-style camisole tops.

With clothes costing a fortune, it would be a shame to leave the pretty things hanging in the closet -- the reverse of women my age who buy pretty things specifically to hang in the closet until the perfect occasion materializes. But if girls don't police themselves, there will probably be school uniforms in their future.

Uniforms are not the solution, as clever private school teens have been known to alter their uniforms to their liking -- so strong is the urge to let individuality reign.

As something of a female Peter Pan given to bouts of floozy dressing myself, however, I know where the teens are coming from. No doubt many women of my generation can relate to that.

"Remember what we wore in high school?" a colleague asked.

Yup. Pretty much everything worn in schools today, although we weren't so casual as to wear short shorts. Instead, we wore dresses so short we had to sew matching bikini bottoms for modesty's sake, floor-length bare-backed jersey dresses, halter tops with jeans, midriff tops tied under the bust and tube tops.

The main difference between then and now is attitude. Back then, we were fashion innocents. My friends and I sewed all our clothes. We had no red carpet or pop music role models. In Style and Lucky magazines did not exist. I had to take my fashion cues from a man, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, hence my undying love for leopard prints.

Today, girls can admire and study every inch of pop stars' bodies and know that with a little effort they can achieve the same seductive effects.

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STAR-BULLETIN/2004 Teen dress norms in schools is once again controversial.

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While I'm all for personal expression, there are limits to what society can take. I have to remind myself of that every time I go shopping. It hurts me to reject a cute black chiffon miniskirt with velvet belt and rhinestone buckle, not to mention that dress pictured in the window at Guess-Ala Moana, in baby blue and covered with sequins and beaded fringe, but I've had to walk away for the sake of decorum.

That's what this issue is really about. It's not entirely about dress, but respect. That is, respect for the institution of school. You are not on stage. You are not there to star in a fashion show. You are there to learn.

So save the skimpy attire for the clubs. What? You're too young to be admitted? Exactly.

As grown up as students might want to be, real maturity comes in being able to make wise decisions, no matter how humbling that might be. It involves sacrificing some individuality for the sake of civility.

Over time, those with any sense of fashion and style will learn there is beauty in restraint, and it takes more chutzpah to go against the crowd than to join it.

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