If I’m not mistaken, tomorrow is the first day of school for all NYC public schools. Which meant that this dreary day was, in some circles, the last day of summer. There’s a high school full of hoodlums around the corner form me and I’m already bracing myself for the noisy crowd on the street every morning.
Now it may be just this particular schook, but every year I’m shocked at how bad the kids dress. I’m not saying that in a “kids today!” way. I’m saying that in an “I can’t believe how little effort you bother making” sort of way.
I was thinking about this recently because I came across this fabulous collection from Life Magazine’s archives of high school fashions from 1969. (Thank you, Retronaut!) Now they look cool. I’m not expecting today’s kids to be all weirdly retro or anything, but man, just some sort of effort would be appreciated.
I remember how much thought I gave to the first day’s outfit every year. Despite all that brainpower used, I only can conjure up one of my first day outfuits. It was the first day of junior high. I actually wore a menswear type three piece suit. I was so ridiculously fashion-forward. It’s true, I was. If you know me now, you’ll know I’m fashion-lazy, if not fashion-backward. But junior high, baby, I was on it.
So check out these awesome pictures while you’re downloading The MC5’s “High School,” which, not so coicidentally, came out around the same time as these pictures.
margauxville 
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