Chicago - Parents can expect a withering look or an impatient wince if they remind their teenager to change out of pajamas before heading off to school these days.
Pajamas, especially the bottoms, have become a comfort-driven fashion statement. Mock ballet slippers with or without socks are all the rage, leggings are being worn under ripped jeans, and pink sweat pants may be what your teenager craves.
The vagaries of youthful dress habits have confounded department stores and the fashion industry for years, and many parents don't seem to have a clue about the ensembles kids will put together.
"I think parents want to keep buying clothes for their kids but my parents don't exactly understand the styles right now," Victoria Loong, one of five 15-something classmates from a suburban Chicago high school who agreed to participate in a panel discussion on fashion trends, said with understatement.
"My grandmother always says, 'Oh, I'll never buy you any clothes,' but she always does," said classmate Madeline Rippin. "My grandparents buy clothes that I might have worn when I was 5."
Department store chains like Macy's, part of Federated Department Stores Inc., say they offer all the pieces but avoid dictating outfits to rebellious teens.
"It's only trendy when it's subversive and counterculture," said Rachel Gillman, a spokesman for Leo Burnett, a Chicago-based advertising agency that works hard on spotting trends.
"On occasion kids do come up with trends of their own," said Melissa Ryan, a trend spotter for Macy's whose job title is "trend correspondent." "It starts on the street and trickles upward to the designer level."
LOOKS FROM THE 1960s ARE BACK
Don't look now but your teenage daughter may wear her hair shoved to one side with a mini-skirt and leggings -- a look that recalls the long-ago 1960s or 1970s of their parents' youth.
"It's been out of style for so long that it's coming back," Loong said.
"People wear sweats sometimes but that's usually guys," said Claire Bunschoten, 15. "Girls like to wear the pink sweatpants from Victoria's Secret."
That's Victoria's Secret of sexy lingerie fame, although not from the racy part of the catalog, the panel said.
Schools frequently bar students from wearing hats or midriff-bearing shirts -- but dress codes sometimes can't keep up with the style changes.
"Sometimes you'll see kids in their full gym uniform," after administrators deemed their original outfit inappropriate, Bunschoten said.
Pajamas, a word that originated in ancient Persia, are a staple of evening wear in China. In the West, loose-fitting pajamas have become loungewear worn outside the home.
"Girls mostly wear the ones with the designs. Boys wear the plaid," said teenager Elizabeth Crowell.
"People just want to be comfortable, I guess," said classmate Melissa Fore.
Some styles morph into others. The all-black "goth" look has evolved in some teenage circles into "emo" -- short for emotional -- that features contrasting black, white, red and pink stripes, heavy eyeliner and a devotion to the New Jersey-based band My Chemical Romance.
The girls disagreed on what was coming next. "Skinny pants are coming back," said one. "They're not really flattering," said another.
Asked whether parents would be better off giving cash this Christmas instead of trying to pick out clothes for them, the quickest response came from Loong: "I wish."
