I dress reasonably nicely but I rarely follow the latest trends. This failure to follow trends has become more pronounced in recent years because fashion designers have ceased to believe in busts and hips. While I would have made a great Gibson girl, as figures go, I�m not today�s fashion icon. I�m Marilyn Monroe figurewise. I�m not Iman (or whoever�I�m not even sure what name to put in here.) I therefore am unlikely source of fashion advice but I�m going to give some nevertheless.

Don�t go to the juniors� department or teenage stores to find a dress for your teenage daughter unless she�s going to the prom. There are no dresses, even at the teenage Mecca of a mall, except prom dresses and dresses more appropriate for streetwalkers. I suppose this is not news to many with teenage daughters but I�ve been slow to get the news because I usually make Kat�s dresses. After yesterday�s experience, I�m likely to continue to make Kat�s dresses. While the shopping trip ultimately was a success, too much luck was involved for shopping for dresses to seem a viable option.

We never did find a dress in the juniors� department. Eventually, we found a very classy dress that was appropriately youthful without being trashy but I had to convince her to go into the misses department to do it. By the time we found the dress, my feet were tired and my brain even more so. The dress we ultimately found was on sale, which was good because it would have been unaffordable at full price. I can�t describe the dress here yet because it is for an upcoming dance and I�ve been told that the information is classified and some of my readers (Hello, B-O-Y!) do not have the correct security clearance yet.

Still, I couldn�t help but wonder what the selection out there says about our views of our teenage girls. The good girl/bad girl dichotomy has been taken to extremes. When it comes to fashion, a teenage girl is seen as either a fairy princess or the corner hooker (although some of them wear more sedate clothing than some things found in the juniors� department. In my job, you learn such things.) A real, full-faceted teenage girl with charm, a bit of sass, fun, and sense who would wear a dress does not exist within the fashion world of the juniors� department although she can wear many (but not all) of the t-shirts, sweaters, and jeans.

The home-sewing me (I almost wrote �the home-sewer me� but looking at trashy clothing doesn�t have to cause one to inadvertently trash one�s self) is offended on another level. The quality of the fabrics used and the quality of garment construction is so inferior in the juniors� department. That difference between dresses in the misses department and in the teen area is not reflected in the prices.

So, if you head out to the stores with your local teenage girl to look for a dress, don�t say you weren�t warned�although if you discount the advice because of its source, I�ll understand.

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