mirror ball 2: high school coolness

"In my high school years, the item of clothing I felt coolest in was __________________________."

Bo: My "punk" wrap-around sunglasses (this was 1981). I had a black pair I had decorated with hot pink tiger stripes, and a white pair with metallic purple checkerboards - I did the decorating by hand with masking tape and fingernail polish.

Celeste: there were so VERY many cool things in my wardrobe in highschool, since I made some/borrowed some/thrift shopped some. Think Molly Ringwald in "Pretty in Pink" - that was my life story. So, my favorite items were my worn-out white capezio's that I splash painted pink and purple as well as my pink framed eye glasses (costume jewelry, ya know)?

Winslow: jeez. high school only brings shuddering memories. I think... I think the coolest clothing i owned in high school was my silver velvet prom dress. yikes! sounds awful, but it was pretty hip.

Jen R.: My Dad's wedding suit - peacock-colored cotton trousers and a matching seersucker jacket. With a fedora, of course... it was the mid-'80s... And red Chuck Taylors.... and probably a red skinny tie.... wow....

Layne: In my high school years, the item of clothing I felt coolest in was my cut up black tee and my trusty (crusty?) chuck taylors.

Erin: Oh lord. Black velvet Betsy Johnson mini skirt with big red skulls. I saved my money for weeks to buy that skirt. Also, my knee-high combat boots, hand-painted Einstürzende Neubauten t-shirt and lip ring.

Steve H: I made a short-sleeve button-up shirt (bowling shirt style) out of black fabric; the yoke of the shirt was pieced vertical stripes of alternating black fabric and gold lame, and there was a little new-wavy triangle of gold lame on the corner of one of the pockets, too. I didn't have time to make buttonholes and sew on buttons before I wore it so I fastened it with little gold safety pins.

I swiped my other favorite shirt from the costume closet of the HS drama department-- also short sleeve button- up, it was dark green cotton with big maroon polka-dots, from the 50's or early 60's.

Brian: Imagine an erudite older woman working purposefully and dutifully at her station at the library, near the card catalogue. Though she has bifocals the duties of her job require constant removal and reapplication of her spectacles. To facilitate this behavior she wears a glasses chain.

My preferred cool clothing accessory was the glasses chain.

John: Two items of clothing from my high school years spring to mind. The first is a gray cashmere Calvin Klein crewneck sweater from the downtown Portland Meier & Frank. I obsessed over that sweater for months and finally saved the $100 from my job as a busboy (or was that when I was the janitor at the under-age gay disco?) to buy it. It went perfectly with my gray Calvin Klein pleated-front trousers with the skinny belt. I had stepped from the pages of GQ.

Then there was the navy beret from John Helmer. I pulled it down and to the right over my curls. On a school trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, I sat by the pond in Lithia Park, wearing my beret and playing my oboe to the famous black swans that lived there. The birds ignored me, but I felt SO poetic and sensitive.

Elisabeth: my denim bib overalls and my yellow painter pants. Even so, feeling cool was relative. I knew that I wasn't cool even if I was wearing 'cool' pants.

(Now I think I was cool to realize it wasn't about the pants at all!)

Dan B: In my high school years, the item of clothing I felt coolest in were a pair of short jean cut offs with slits up the side and 2 inch frays ( I felt sexy,confident and challenging) - combined with my wooden clogs - I was set for my first day of senior year at my prep school.

Lori: I felt the coolest in my soccer uniform.

Bret: There wasn't a thing in the world I could wear during high school that would have made me feel cool. Everything I wore, or could wear, could only make me feel more awkward and uncool than I already was. Yikes...that's pathetic!

P.S. I literally flunked out of High school because I read too much sci fi and fantasy. coulda had something to do with my uncoolness.

Chris H: In my high school years, the item of clothing I felt coolest in was my I.O.U. letterman style jacket with the black leather sleeves and red wool fabric. I was a walking advertisement for I.O.U. which at the time was the coolest clothing store at our local mall. Also... I would throw on a pair of Grey parachute pants (zippers)... high top converse and a Hawaiian shirt.... and of course the hair was curly on top and shaved short on the sides. RAD!."

Steven S: In my high school years, the item of clothing I felt coolest in was navy blue corduroy bib overalls.

Garris: Without a DOUBT the item of clothing I felt coolest in in my high school years was a drawstring pair of white pants with the classic Coca Cola logo (in RED script) written up the leg! I think I had to collect bottle caps (the metal ones by the way...pre plastic caps) and send in for them. I wore them OUT (and they most likely "outted" me without me realizing it). I think that once they got so freyed at the bottom I cut them off into ridiculously short shorts. I would still love to have those pants and,don't kid yourself,...I'd STILL look great in them!

Jacklyn: In high school I desperately wanted to be a beatnik but had missed the era of beatniks by quite some time. Not to be deterred, I got a gray sweatshirt and cut off the arms as well as cutting around the neck. I also cut the bottom so it would look ancient and worn. Then I turned it inside out so everyone would think it was sheepskin. I put on black tights and a black turtleneck and headed out for City Lights Books in North Beach on the weekends. I'd hang around the outside of the store. Sometimes I'd go in and browse anything existential. And sometimes I'd just walk around North Beach feeling cool and definitely beat. I loved that sweatshirt.

Brad: I have always considered myself a fashion plate, I had a Nehru jacket and jeweled neck chain in the 6^th grade (I couldn't even wear it to school because we had uniforms).

In high school my most memorable and favorite item of clothing was a pair of bellbottoms jeans, not just any ordinary bellbottoms these were mega bells. They were tight down to just below the knee than flared out. Each leg had a bell with a flat surface of 25" (50" circumference when worn) and they had the coolest white psychedelic paisley Appliqué pattern from the hem up 12" . They had to be the only pair in Yakima in 1972 (possibly the state of Washington). I loved those pants, it was like wearing a skirt, without getting beaten up.

I think shortly after that pair of bellbottoms came out, bellbottoms became passé, they had reached their vertex. I haven't worn bellbottoms since. How could I, I had reached nirvana.

Joseph: In my high school years, the item of clothing I felt coolest in was my burgundy velvet cap...it's style was a cross between something Prince would wear, as well as Fievel the mouse's hat, from An America Tale. But I did feel super cool in it.

Jeanne: Well, it was technically junior high, but it's too good not to count. I had a fabulous pair of hip-hugger low waisted white cotton gauze pants with a waistband of stars on a blue field and elephant bottoms (so much huger than mere bell-bottoms) that had a cuff of red and white stripes - I LOVED them, but I owned them during a growth spurt and before I knew it, they were too short. I was devastated.

My mom just happens to be an around can-do sort of handy woman. She immediately solved the problem by making them into a pair of short shorts with stars and an accompanying halter top trimmed in red and white stripes - probably the hottest ensemble I've ever owned (circa 1977).