Teenagers Need $2000
August 12, 2007 | Filed under Money, Style
There’s a regular feature in the Sunday Age‘s “M” magazine supplement, where you send fashion-related questions to a stylist (Sophie Hextor), who will then suggest the ideal outfit for you to wear to a particular event. This week’s question was:
I’m doing a week’s work experience with an indie-music record company and am not sure how to dress. I’m 17 and definitely don’t want to look corporate.
The superb advice given, and clothing pieces and accessories picked out by the stylist included a $462 Karen Walker blouse, $189 Nicholson shorts, $895 Vivienne Westwood handbag, and a $350 Sass and Bide vest.
I’m astounded. Since when would a seventeen-year-old looking for clothing for one week, need to spend almost $2000 to have the much-desired “rock’n'roll insouciance”, “rock-shock, razzle-dazzle clothes”, “faint disdain for anything that’s not cutting-edge cool” in order to follow the “ultimate style guide for any student-cum-budding-indie-music-mogul”?
I think what i hate most, is the fact that the stylist is almost encouraging teenagers to frivolously spend on overpriced clothing. My assumption is of course, that the average teenager doesn’t earn enough in any part-time job to pay for the items listed. Taking into account academic obligations and youth wages, a teen would find it hard to earn more than $150 a week – in my own teen years, that was the maximum I managed to earn during a school term when I was working a couple of hours every day, five days a week.
Whose money would they use then? Mummy’s and Daddy’s? Yes, let’s encourage our nation’s youth to have no fiscal sense, and to rely on one’s parents for everything. Let’s take $2000 out of the parental bank account so we have clothes to wear for one week’s worth of work experience. With a Marc Jacobs leather iPod case listed as the must-have accessory, one has to wonder how much of their (parents) money Sophie Hextor believes the average teenager has to spend in order to be ‘up to date’.
In an era of rising interest rates, soaring house prices, crashing stock markets, and a constantly rising cost of living, let’s teach teens to spend $900 on a handbag. After all, a handbag is much more important than saving for one’s future, right?
Yes, I realise the irony of my writing this. I don’t deny that I love designer brands, but I can honestly say that I’ve never spent more than $100 of my own, or other’s, money on any one item.
13 Responses to Teenagers Need $2000
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It’s very rare that I pay attention to your fashion posts but I agree with this one wholeheartedly. It took me six months to earn $2000. Money’s hard to come by, it shouldn’t be wasted on a weeks worth of clothes.
I also wonder how Hextor can advise people on which clothes to wear without taking into account their body shape and personal style – and their bank balance.
Tracey on August 12, 2007 #
P.S. You’ve added an extra ” in the Nicholson link, so the LJ cross-post is being displayed incorrectly.
Tracey on August 12, 2007 #
You haven’t spent more than $100 on one item? I had to buy my laptop with my own money and it definitely costed more than $1000. Oh, and cellphones too.
It’s really common for young people to work for a week and spend all they just earnt in the following weekend. My friend worked 2 years part-time and currently holds $300 savings? I worked 2 years including below-minimum wages for a year and I saved $5k+ out of $6-7k.
If I’m going to spend all that cash on a week’s clothing, I would treasure them too much to actually wear them in the first place. :(
Reply: Rephrase – any one clothing/accessories item. :)
Rilla on August 12, 2007 #
You’re not the only one who finds this fashion advice absolutely ridiculous. Who the hell is writing this stuff? Or who the hell is the target demographic for this magazine, anyways? Paris Hilton types? :( Not to mention, buying expensive name-brand clothing might just defeat the entire POINT of looking non-corporate. Sheesh…
Chantelle on August 12, 2007 #
The price isn’t the only thing that struck me. The idea of not wanting to look “corporate” bugged me. if you don’t want to look corporate, why buy 2000$ worth of brand new brand clothes (no pun really intended)?
Julie on August 12, 2007 #
Until I started working I always leached off my parents, however I would never EVER dream of asking for $2000 for a one week getaway, no mater how fancy-shmancy the destination.
True, I never really cared about what brand the clothing is, just as long as it looks good on me and it’s good quality material.
Vera on August 12, 2007 #
Oh even I’m worse than you! I’ve spent more than $100 on shirts and jeans..! Hehe, it really is ridiculous though. I work a Sunday shift and get $120. That’s phone, petrol and alcohol. I can’t work more or I’d fail school, and I still struggle to have a social life with that!! Saving is non-existant at the moment which is making my holiday at the end of the year look worse and worse each week. Bah, I won $70 on the pokies tonight though!
Patrick on August 12, 2007 #
Who the fuck spends $2,000 dollars on an outfit besides Oscar winners? Who writes this shit?
Even when I was fashion-conscious, I was floored by some of these prices…
Jordie on August 12, 2007 #
Heh, maybe this Hextor woman meant for the girl to use those clothes as inspiration, finding something cheaper that still looked similar? It’s the only reasonable explanation I can think of. Or else she’s just lost complete grip of reality…
Mari on August 13, 2007 #
And I’m iffy about spending more than 20 € on a piece of clothing. I spent three days thinking whether I should spend 40 € on a new pair of jeans that I actually needed. I suppose I am a bit too frugal at times. Which is undoubtedly and heavily influenced by my parents.
Kaisa on August 13, 2007 #
When I was 17 my whole outfit would cost around $20 (well, £10 – the UK equivalent) – I’d have not have dreamed about those extra zeros, let alone had the financial capacity to support an outfit costing them.
Jem on August 13, 2007 #
I must be devil incarnate because I’ve spent over $100 of mommy or daddy’s money on one piece of clothing before (prom dresses, coats, shoes – & I was really proud of the fact that one of prom dresses only cost $100…) but- $2000? for clothes to wear for a week? That’s ridiculous. Maybe the author of the piece has to suck-up to sponsors because she cannot be serious. Most teens don’t have that sort of money and even if they or their parents do – most parents wouldn’t stand for it. The kid is only working there a week – it’s not even like a real job.
Chantelle on August 13, 2007 #
I’m fairly certain my mother has spent close to a thousand dollars on a dress before. Maybe not that much exactly, but maybe somewhere between 500 to 800 CAD? In any case, it’s a ridiculously gorgeous dress and by wearing it to a number of different formal events (weddings, big birthdays, formal parties, benefit dinners, etc.) in different social circles I suppose you could say it was worth it.
Sometimes it depends on the outfit itself – What is it made of? How was it made? Where was it made? How many times could you wear this outfit, and if it’s a separate, with how many different other separates could you effectively pair this with?
Having said that, it constantly appalls me as to how any kind magazine or newspaper can offer fashion advice to “average” people when their “bargins” include $350+ dollar tops and $500+ casual dresses, jeans, skirts and shoes. My own local newspaper is utterly guilty of this. Their fashion department should be shot and replaced by people who actually know how to shop around this city and get a deal.
I do my major shopping once a year – Summer vacation in the states. I choose a state with little or no tax, then hit up their local walmart, target, mervyns, and ross (major discount stores in the US) and scour through them for reasonably fashionable pieces. You’d be surprised (OK, maybe not you) at what you can buy for under 20 bucks USD! :D
Chanel on August 15, 2007 #