Color Me Confused

Ella Gunderson is an eleven-year-old girl who is tired of wearing the skimpy, over-sexed clothing designed for girls her age. So she’s doing something about it. She wrote a letter to a department store to complain about the clothing they’re selling.
The story has been picked up by the media who have now turned to the teen fashion guru’s for their take on the story. These guru’s are busy nodding their heads in agreement with Ms. Gunderson, but I don’t think they’re quite getting it yet. Allow me to illustrate my point.
Read these first two paragraphs from an Associated Press story on Ms. Gunderson:

During a recent shopping trip to Nordstrom, 11-year-old Ella Gunderson became frustrated with all the low-cut hip-huggers and skintight tops. So she wrote to the Seattle-based chain’s executives to complain. The industry has been getting the message: A more modest look is in, fashion experts say.
The shy, bespectacled redhead has since become an instant media darling, appearing on national television over the past two weeks to promote modest fashions instead of the saucy looks popularized by the likes of Britney Spears.

So far, so good right? A mature young girl decides that she’s tired of searching for clothes that don’t make her look like a tramp so she’s doing something about it. Makes perfect sense to me. But in the next few paragraphs the train jumps the tracks.

“We like to call this new girl Miss Modesty,” said Gigi Solif Schanen, fashion editor at Seventeen magazine. “It’s such a different feeling but still very pretty and feminine and sexy. It’s just a little more covered up.”
Shoppers are starting to see higher waistlines and lower hemlines, and tweeds, fitted blazers and layers are expected to be big this fall, Schanen said.
“It’s kind of like a sexy take on a librarian,” she said. “I think people are tired of seeing so much skin and want to leave a little more to the imagination.”

See what I mean? This fashion editor isn’t getting it. Eleven year old girls don’t want to look “sexy.” They don’t want to look like some fashion guru’s vision of a trampy librarian, got it? They want to look like eleven-year-old kids who aren’t yet at the point in their lives where they have to be saddled with the responsibilities that come with sex and looking sexy.
Sex shouldn’t be part of the picture yet.
People in the “fashion industry,” much like their entertainment industry counterparts, have no idea what people want, as evidenced by this quote from the same article.

“There is just sensory overload. Kids are going to say enough already,” said Buzz’s 24-year-old chief executive, Tina Wells. “The next big trend I see is kids are going to look like monks.”

That’s right you friggin’ idiot. Kids are going to be getting funny haircuts and dressing in brown smocks.
Jeez, get a clue.