Column: From Jack Rogers to horse stall chic, why the 'Southern Girl Uniform' is a thing
I remember the first time I found out Jack Rogers sandals were a must-have for Hilton Head Island High School girls. A friend pointed them out to me and said "They're like $140. Everyone has them."
Sure enough, the more I looked around, the more I saw them everywhere. Those hideous sandals that make the wearer's toes look like fat chunks of marzipan -- shoes that I thought had to be from a Carnival cruise ship gift shop -- were the current cornerstone of teenage mimicry.
It made me sad. Don't they want to be different from each other? Where's their spirit of individuality? "Jacks"? Really?
Not that I should talk. My own trunk of sheep's clothing included L.L. Bean Blucher Mocs in junior high. I still can't believe I begged for those. If you Google it, you will very clearly see that this is a shoe for a casual man and not for a 13-year-old girl who "designed" her own nail polish colors. But it was the price of admission back then -- the way I let my friends know that I was one of them, or as "one of them" as I could muster with my messy hair and braces from the War Criminal Collection.
We were a tribe. Just look at our feet.
"Girls use clothes, accessories and fashion to define themselves, make statements about their choice of peer group, and to establish their psychological identities," Dr. Stephanie Newman wrote in a 2010 article from Psychology Today on why teenage girls dress alike. "For some, the right outfit can serve as a conduit to the popular clique. For others, clothing choice allows them to fly under the radar."
It doesn't end at prom either.
Recently, I was waiting for a table at B. Matthew's in Savannah when the most amazing thing happened: A group of seven women in their 20s materialized, all wearing variations of the Southern Girl Uniform, that horse stall chic ensemble of jeans or leggings, boots, a peek of boot sock perhaps, plaid shirt, quilted vest or cardigan, with Ray-Bans, Michael Kors or Marc by Marc Jacobs purse -- maybe a crossbody -- and long, straight, glossy hair, sometimes with loose curls. I usually see it happen in ones and twos, especially in Bluffton or Charleston. But never like this. I felt like a photographer from National Geographic trying not to startle the wildlife.
I snapped a few secret photos and imagined a cacophony of seven internal monologues, each judging the next for stealing her look: "Why is she copying me?" "Why is she such a copier?" "Oh my God. Follower!" "She should've changed when she saw me ... well, when she saw me and her and her and her and her."
The truth, though, is that they likely didn't care or even notice they were dressed so similarly.
Dutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom's recently released book "People of the Twenty-First Century," is, as his publisher calls it, "an enormous and completely fascinating collection of 'anti-sartorial' photographs of street life." Page after page shows human beings' uncanny knack for unintentionally dressing alike, something New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham has made a career out of documenting in his daily search for trends. We fight for individualism and personal style yet we feel safest when we're visually seamless with a crowd.
It feels depressing. Every look belongs to a larger catalog. We sort and choose and judge and procreate accordingly. Are there any true trendsetters?
The first person who came to mind is Tavi Gevinson, the wunderkind fashion blogger who caught the attention of Anna Wintour at age 12. Now 18, Gevinson runs online magazine Rookie, the perfect place for individualistic girls to gather and express themselves.
But here's what I found: Even those with a strong sense of self seek like-minded souls, as evidenced by this delightful commenter: "I told someone the other day that my clothing inspirations were old men, flappers, hobos, various female punk-rockers, and Marie Antoinette ... I wish I had a girl gang to match with."
You know what? I don't doubt she'll find one.
Follow columnist and senior editor Liz Farrell at twitter.com/elizfarrell.
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This story was originally published February 13, 2015 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Column: From Jack Rogers to horse stall chic, why the 'Southern Girl Uniform' is a thing."