December 8, 1999
DOWN HOME: Clothes dork
anticipates arrival of a new decade
___Fashion mavens and teenagers don't measure time the way normal people do.
___Most of the world is focusing on the imminence of the third millennium, of course. (Calendar purists poignantly point out the millennial moment still is a year and three weeks away, since the Gregorian calendar did not have a year 0.) Folks whose historical horizons are a bit smaller are talking about the 21st century, which is indeed 23 days away.
___Around our house, however, Lindsay and Molly have been much more concerned about the advent of the next decade--the '00s--and its potentially disastrous repercussions for their ward-robes.
Marv Knox
Editor
___"You realize that fashion repeats itself every 20 years!" Lindsay, 16, warned the other day.
___"Oh, no!" Molly, 13, lamented. "That means we'll be dressing like the '80s before long!"
___As a survivor of the tie-dyed-and-psychedelic '60s and the polyester-and-bell-bottomed '70s, I don't recall the dearly departed '80s as being so sartorially stultifying.
___"What's wrong with that?" I asked. "What were we wearing in the '80s?"
___"By the '80s, you were wearing pretty much what you like to wear now --khakis and polo shirts and oxford shirts and jeans," Joanna reminded me. Wives remember.
___"But you don't count, Daddy," Lindsay informed.
___"Yeah," Molly added. "By the '80s, you already were married, so you had given up on fashion."
___One of the girls--I'm not sure who; I've graciously blocked that tidbit from my memory--used "dorky" to describe my adult wardrobe.
___So, not only did I learn I'm decidedly un-hip, but I found out I've been over the fashion hill for at least 19 years, 342 days, and counting.
___The girls never satisfactorily explained--to my low-couture way of thinking, at least--what was so bad about clothes in the '80s. I always thought they were "classic," which probably only reinforces my standing as a clothes dork.
___They used words like "gross," "weird," "goofy" and "strange," which reminds me of the stuff we wore in the '70s, which looks a lot like the stuff kids are wearing now.
___So, I have a whole new anticipation of 01/01/00 and following, when we revisit the fashion stylings of the '80s and see who stays hip and who remains classically dorky.
___In the meantime, I'm hoping Christians will put on the "armor of God," including the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.
___That's a timely outfit for any millennium, century or decade.
___
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