Breeze Perspectives: Appalled at the apparel now tailored for youngsters
Posted on February 4, 2008
Recently I went into Hollister and held up my size in a sweatshirt, only to find that it covered only half of me. I began to look around and noticed that I was closer to the age of the mothers than half of the customers in there. Most of the girls I saw appeared to be about 8 to 12 years old. I then ventured into American Eagle where I found the same phenomenon. I remember commenting to myself, “Am I too old to be shopping here now?”
Since when are stores like American Eagle, Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch for children? When I was younger, I don’t remember me or anyone else my age wearing this clothing. I remember the “cool” clothing for that age when we were younger was stores like Limited Too. I did not start shopping in these stores until I was 14 or 15 years old. At that time, I was one of the younger ones in there. Now I go into these stores and feel old.
I’m not sure if children are just growing up faster now or if these stores are targeting their marketing toward younger children. I still love the clothing of all of these stores, but it makes me wonder whether I am too old to shop there. I have had several friends notice the same thing. They have all said that over the last few months, they have noticed a change in the ages of the average shoppers at these stores.
Many people who are college-aged seem to be switching to Express, New York & Company, the Limited and various other clothing stores. Though some of the switch may just be that we are entering the workforce and favor this type of clothing, I believe a lot of this is also due to the demographics of many stores gradually becoming younger. Some stores like the ones mentioned previously aim their clothing toward college-aged consumers, which makes it feel more suitable to shop there.
Some stores, such as American Eagle, do not seem to be changing their clothing in order to adopt to these younger demographics. I do not know if it is just me, but I have found that some other stores seem to be changing their sizes to adjust to this change. Since there is such a variation in the appeal to this younger demographic, it leaves me divided as to whether it is the stores or the children.
I have started to notice that even some of the advertising campaigns for some of these stores contain younger models. So when I examine these changes, it makes me think that the stores are out to change their demographics. I do not know if this change was intentional or if it has just come about over time.
At the same time, I see young children acting a lot older than our generation did at that age, which makes me think children are growing up faster now. This makes me wonder if stores will continually have to lower their demographics to accommodate this trend of children growing up faster.
Either way, this change seems to be gradually booting our generation out in order to make way for the next one. I hope that these stores will not completely change their sizing and styles to accommodate younger shoppers to the point where college-aged people cannot shop in these stores at all. It is OK for them to bring the demographics down to a point to get a fresher perspective, but I hope they do not surpass this point.
Rachael McDaniel is a senior SMAD major.
