Try the all new Skirttm.
Be on the cutting edge of fashion! Say goodbye to restrictive denim and hello to all day comfort! Shock your elders! Wear Skirttm!
Posted on 10/29/2005 6:44:39 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
"Pajama Day" was once a novelty at school, the chance to be silly and wear attire usually reserved for the privacy of home. But these days many young people - 15-year-old Latrice Crawford of Madison included - are wearing PJs in public, anytime and just about anywhere.
Many people picture American teenagers dressed always in blue jeans. But in high schools today, students don a variety of non-denim attire - including patterned flannel pajamas.
"It's pretty much normal," said Crawford, a sophomore at East High School "People usually do it when they don't have anything else to wear or if they want to be comfortable."
Crawford's soft red-and-white pajama bottoms depict the Trix cereal logo and cartoon rabbit. Other girls wear pants covered with kittens, abstract shapes, or plaid.
Public pajama-wearing grew out of college students' long-standing habit of rolling out of bed and into class. Now, young people of all ages wear loungewear to school, and not just on laundry day. PJs are a fashion statement, with such retailers as Old Navy, Target and J.C. Penney offering an array styles for adults, teens, and preteens.
Some school districts, such as in Southfield, Mich., and Cherokee County, Ga., have banned pajama-wearing because the administrators think it's inappropriate.
However, the Madison School District's dress code does not mention pajamas. Skimpy and gang-related clothing is prohibited, but judgments about finer distinctions are made by staff on a school-by-school basis.
Principal Alan Harris of Madison East Middle School said students' casual apparel doesn't bother him.
"The line of PJs, sweats, and pants is not as clear as when I was in high school," Harris said. "We're better off saying, 'Is what you're wearing appropriate or is it too revealing?'• "
In contrast, Bruce Dahmen, principal of Madison Memorial High School, hopes to confine the trend to special PJ-themed days, such as during homecoming week.
"We highly discourage it," Dahmen said, and administrators pull aside individual students to tell them pajamas are not suitable for wearing at school.
But as much as some adults might disapprove, casual clothing that used to be reserved for bedtime is considered stylish, not scrubby, by today's youth.
Crystal Olmstead, 14, a freshman at Madison East High School, wears clothes that could be considered loungewear once or twice a week.
Olmstead - in light blue cropped athletic pants, a white v-neck T-shirt, and silver hoop earrings - said she doesn't just throw on old PJs; she matches them to make cute outfits. She said the clothes she wears to class "are probably in better shape" than her bedtime wear.
Grade school children also wear their PJs to school, although more creatively than the high schoolers.
When Angela Nash, whose 11-year-old daughter, Kiki, attends Sherman Middle School, noticed students wearing pajama bottoms outdoors, she was concerned that the thin flannel wouldn't keep them warm in the winter. Then she discovered the girls were wearing jeans underneath their PJs.
"They wear it like that to look cool," Nash said. "It doesn't really bother me that the kids do it, as long as it doesn't disrupt their education."
Kiki, who is in sixth grade, said sometimes her friends plan to wear pajamas to school on the same day, but she might do it by herself, too.
"If I was too tired to get up and find clothes, I'd just put on PJs," Kiki said.
Teachers have not banned pajamas at Sherman, but they do ask for some trend-modification.
"My teacher told us to pull our PJ pants up so you can't see our jeans (that are underneath)," Kiki said.
Kiki's male classmates don't wear printed pajama pants, but she described a comparable trend where they pull on athletic shorts over their jeans to be fashionable.
Retailers say the demand for pajamas only seems to be growing, and to the probable dismay of parents and school administrators, the trend may become more eccentric.
Valerie Bent, who launched the Las Vegas-based Big Feet Pajama Company this year, said she's heard from many people who want to wear her company's pajamas for outdoor activities - fishing, camping, and snowboarding among them. And some young people also have told her they plan to wear the one-piece, footed PJs to school.
"I'm a kid at heart. But I couldn't even imagine wearing these out in public," Bent said, laughing. "But I guess if you're really brave. ..."
I always thought it was tacky, myself. It seems to me they're just trying to attract attention to themselves. No way will I let my kids dress in public like that (they're 4 and 11, so there's little chance they'd try).
Bump for Mrs. NerdDad. She has the Wisconsin email list.
Those are too cute! I love 'em! :)
Kids are turning in to lazy slobs.
Hopelessly Midwestern
By Joel Mabus
If you live life in the middle and not on the edge -
You're hopelessly midwestern.
If a big Saturday means clipping the hedge -
You're hopelessly midwestern.
If you shop at Sears, drink a lot of iced tea,
You like to dance the polka and watch TV,
Then the jury is in and the critics agree -
You're hopelessly midwestern.
[Chorus]
Hopelessly Midwestern - cornfed boys and girls
Hopelessly Midwestern - square pegs in this big round world.
Now, you can go from sea to shining sea,
But right in the middle - that's the place to be,
And if you like it like that, you're a lot like me -
You're hopelessly midwestern.
If you wish every highway could be flat and straight -
You're hopelessly midwestern.
If you still think sushi looks a lot like bait -
You're hopelessly midwestern.
You like your potatoes mashed, your chicken fried,
Your green beans boiled and your apples pied,
And you ain't trusted nothing since Rock Hudson died,
You're hopelessly midwestern.
[Chorus]
If annual rainfall is a real hot topic -
You're hopelessly midwestern.
And if the Pocono Mountains sound kind of exotic -
You're hopelessly midwestern.
If you like Gerald Ford almost as much as you like Betty,
And a big corn field looks mighty pretty,
And you'd rather go to hell than to New York City,
You're hopelessly midwestern.
[Chorus]
Hopelessly... Impossibly... Irreparably Midwestern. :)
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