"And again, with feeling..."

The last post was far too sappy. I'm not sure what came over me. Time for a good rant! Today I went clothes shopping. Can you guess the topic yet? I would like to lodge an official complaint against the clothing industry, especially the mainstream manufacturers of "fashions" for teenage girls. They hardly qualify as clothes at all. Most items can be worn only a few times before they fall apart - and that's if you don't wash them. Who decided that shirts as thin as tissue paper were a good idea? They don't keep you warm, they lose their shape almost immediately, and as a college student I don't have unlimited time to devote to making sure my clothes don't fall apart in the process of becoming clean. Most of the jeans I saw were way beyond distressed. They were anguished, tormented, tortured even. If you want your jeans to have holes, make them yourself (climb a tree, maybe?). I even saw "distressed" shoes. Personally, I like my feet to be warm, and if I'm going to pay a heinous amount of money for shoes I want them to last. I've never understood why taking fabric out of a garment increases its value. The axiom that you get what you pay for doesn't seem to hold up.

Quality aside, the clothes themselves are making fashion statements that ought to be censored. (Note: if you're thinking "hey, I like to dress like that!" - I honestly don't care how you dress if you're a nice person. I just don't care to do the same myself.) Yes, I know why the shirts are so thin (if you're going to wear a practically nonexistent shirt, at least go back and read my bra rant - there are some things we don't want to see) and low-cut, the jeans so tight, etc. I am fully aware that everyone has the right to dress how she wants, but it would be nice if there were a few more (mainstream) options between tart and frumpy old lady. I also wish the trends hadn't trickled down first to tween clothes, then little kids, and now even toddlers and infants. Little kids ought to be wearing comfy clothes (and so should big kids, if you ask me - comfort rules).

If the world were slower-paced and people cared a little more about quality, I would vote to bring back tailors and dressmakers. How amazing would that be, to have someone custom-make clothes just for you? As it is, I'm far to lazy to make my own clothes, so I'll just sit here and complain. I will add that I did manage to buy two pairs of jeans (fray- and hole-free, I might add) at the Gap, which has maintained a certain level of quality in its clothes. I'm also sometimes a fan of New York & Co. But two stores out of the whole mall worth shopping in? We as consumers ought to demand a lot better.