What Are The Hot Back To School Looks?

The economy’s lousy. Gas prices are through the roof. But despite that, kids are going back to school next week.  And since kids will be kids, appearances matter.  And if they’ve recently sprouted up a few inches, like post-hurricane grass in the sunshine, some new clothes are probably in order.  So we asked some Parkland students what the hot items will be this year.

And luckily for everyone’s wallets, many trends seem to be a carryover from last school year, so if that stuff still fits, or you’d rather try the consignment shops before the mall, your teens and ‘tweens can still be styling.

Skinny jeans. For guys and girls, pre-school to high school, this wardrobe staple, best in a dark wash, became popular last year.  Upper Macungie resident and Parkland High School sophomore Natalie Schlegel predicted that skinnies will continue to be the most trendy, but flairs will see some popularity again this year, and the more traditional bootcut jeans may still be around, too. 

What about the colored denim being featured in some fashion magazines?

Schlegel raised an eyebrow and said, “I don’t think people at our school will be doing that.”  

Yoga Pants. For the girls, they’re the most popular alternative to jeans, and again, it’s a trend carried over from last school year. Schlegel said that at Parkland High, the most desirable are Victoria’s Secret’s yoga pants – usually with the chain’s signature “PINK” logo emblazoned across the backside.  

High top sneakers.  When asked what kind, 12-year-old Bailey Puckett, a soon-to-be seventh grader at Springhouse Middle School, immediately replied, “Nike.”  And, explained Schlegel, for those choosing the popular brand, the preferred color of the iconic “swoosh” symbol may vary among different social groups.  Whatever the brand, or the color, though, the shoes are great with skinny jeans.

Sandals. While it’s warm enough, guys and girls will be sporting sandals, but very different styles. For the guys, it’s black casual slides, which Springhouse Middle School eighth grader Mo Ramadan referred to as “slippers.”  And they’re often worn with socks – preferably Nike.  For the girls, the big trend is flat, gladiator-style sandals – without socks.  Only until it gets cool, though, then the sneakers reign, or….

Boots. Specifically, the very plush Ugg-style boots. “They’re really expensive,” said Schlegel of Uggs, “but people will still buy them.”  And while college students have been known to pair the boots with everything from bootcut jeans to skirts over the years, Schlegel and Puckett both agreed that they’re best with skinny jeans.

While plush boots, sandals and sneakers can be found in just about any school, there’s one style that’s been reserved for a slightly younger crowd: sparkly shoes.

Alyssa Solt, director of Nativity Lutheran Church’s Early Childhood Education Center in Allentown, said girls’ slip-on shoes covered in glitter (a staple of the Target shoe department) are hugely popular among the pre-school set. 

The Sketchers brand of shoes has taken the love of sparkle one-step further with its “Twinkle-toes” line of shoes and boots that actually light up.  A variety of other manufacturers have followed suit, and pint-sized fashionistas in the making are taking notice.

Accessories.   Schlegel noted that in general, young people seem to be accessorizing more, and added that one of her back-to-school purchases was a long multi-strand necklace.  

Twelve-year-old Ciara Alvarado, entering seventh grade at Springhouse Middle School this year, said earrings are also getting some attention.  She noted that most of her friends have two holes in each lobe, and the girls are wearing small diamond-type studs. Unlike many of her friends, Alvarado also has her cartilage pierced, at the top of her ear.

However, Schegel said that in high school, a lot of the girls do decide to pierce their cartilage, but added that another big trend is “gauge” earrings, designed to stretch the hole in the earlobe. Once (and in some areas, still) trendy with counter-culture males, Schlegel said the guages are much more popular with the females now.

For the guys, holes in both ears, or just the left are acceptable.

And, in the “what’s old is new again” category – parents in your 30s, do you remember the “slap bracelets?” The thin, fabric-covered length of tensioned stainless steel that looked like a bit like a ruler, until you slapped it against your wrist and it curled up like a bracelet?  They’re baaaack. 

An employee at a local office- and school-supply store noted that the updated version of the early ‘90s’ fad is selling well, and Schlegel said she’s seen the them being repurposed as a hair accessory.

Speaking of hair accessories, we apparently have Beyonce and Steven Tyler to thank for this one: “hair flair.” The former had strands of tinsel woven into her hair for the Grammy awards this year. The latter sported hair extensions made of feathers on American Idol.  And at Sweet & Sassy at the Promenade Shops in Saucon Valley, girls can have a long slender feather and piece of tinsel clipped into their hair for under $20 ($12.95 for the first feather, and an additional $1 to add a piece of tinsel). Both feathers and tinsel come in a dizzying array of colors, and salon manager Gabrielle Siwert says the trend is huge, across the age spectrum.

“It’s amazing,” Siwert said of how quickly and universally the trends get adopted. Something might start with one age group, but then, “a three-year-old sees, and a 20-year-old sees it,” and they all try it out, whether it’s feathers in the hair, or nail polish with a “crackle” texture – another hot trend with girls.

Puckett and Alvarado were familiar with the feathers-and-tinsel trend, and while Schlegel said she’d heard of it, none of her high school friends had tried it.

Solt hasn’t noticed many of the elementary or pre-school girls with feathers in their hair, but she said there’s definitely another trend on the rise.

“All the little girls are coming in with adult-looking haircuts: the wedge, or the reverse where it’s longer in the front and shorter in the back.    Kids used to come in with long straight hair and bangs.”  She added, “There’s no way mom gave them a home trim, they’re going to the hairdresser’s.”

Finally, any article about back-to-school trends would be remiss to leave out the one item seemingly in every backpack:

Cell Phone. “It’s like a mandatory thing, you have to have your phone,” said Schegel.

There seems to be bit of a difference in phone preference depending on age, though.  Middle school students Puckett, Alvarado, Ramadan said, with no hesitation, that the iPhone was the phone to have – much more so than the Andriod phones. But in high school, Schlegel said that while the iPhone is definitely gaining popularity, the phones with the flip-out or slide-out keyboards have been all the rage. 

Because, apparently, no one uses phones to talk anymore. 

“They don’t call people at all, they just text everyone,” she said of her friends. 

For now, though, she’s resisting that trend.  “I want to call them, ask them the question, and be done with it.”

For the record, Parkland School District does not allow phones in class. They are to be turned off and stored in the lockers -- a rule that the students said gets broken.

“I have my phone in my pocket all of the time. I don’t follow the rule,” admitted one, who shall remain nameless.

Some parents, though, either by luck or careful teaching (or a combination of both) aren’t being pressed for particular items.

Upper Macungie resident and mother of three Deborah Zolotareva said her kids – in grades 1, 2, and 6, look forward to getting a new backpack and lunchbox each year, but that they’re not too concerned with the trends right now.

“I think it’s the way we’ve raised them, that just because everyone has it, doesn’t mean they have to.”

She clarified though, that if one of her kids did show an interest in a particular item, she wouldn’t automatically rule it out.  But she wouldn’t automatically buy it, either; it’s something they’d discuss. 

“I’m trying to set myself up in a good way,” she said.