Do all teenage boys dress the same in your area

[pastypirate]

Firstly this is not a personal dig at any child. I only have dds. Also there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the clothes I describe as in they are neither offensive nor inappropriate.

I live in the south west in a city. All the teenage boys I see out and about dress the same. They wear matching tracksuits mainly in only black, navy, dark grey or v occasionally sort of beige. They wear black puffa coats usually north face. They wear air force ones mostly or v similar looking trainers.

I haven't seen a teenage boy deviate from this in a few years now. No jeans, no colours unless it's a football strip, no dms or even converse.

They all have v similar haircuts too shirt on the sides and longer on the top with a kind of side floppy fringe.

There are some themes with the girls - baggy 90's clothes but it's nothing like as uniform as the boys.

I know fitting in with trends is a teen thing - I was one but can't help feeling the 2020's is more conformist than ever.

A friends ds who is about 17 told us he occasionally wears a t shirt to school with anime stuff he likes on it. He is told by his peers this is really 'out there' for style. He feels weird about it.

My nephews came down from the midlands at half term. They are also dressed like this. They are year 6,8 and 12.

Is this a down here thing or is rest of uk like this?

Where I live in London, wearing this uniform is actively making yourself a target if you’re a teen boy. My ds wouldn’t wear a black puffa (esp shiny), or matching black tracksuit etc, and honestly I would be having words with him if he wanted to (for safety reasons, rather than style)

edited to add sentence in brackets

I’m sure we weren’t that different at that age - it was all about fitting in. Just swap the black Nike / North Face stuff for stone washed jeans and bomber jackets.

That's great because you buy he what he wants. But if you only bought him what you want him to wear that is awfully controlling.

In September I happened to be coming out of our local small supermarket when the brand-new sixth formers came out of school for lunch. It was like a light-grey, athleisure-clad army bearing down on me!

Seems to be a broccoli head haircut where we live abroad

Not sure how flattering it is

DS lives in sports tshirts joggers and hoodies but doesn't yet care about labels. He hates shopping so I just pick up stuff when I'm out. I have had to take him more recently as he had a growth spurt but is quite skinny so it's been hard to find the right waist/leg ratio. I'd be quite confident about choosing stuff he likes though. DD on the other hand has been a pain in the arse very opinionated about clothes since she was 2!

DS fell in love with a cricket jumper on our last shopping trip. Think Peter Davidson’s Dr Who outfit. He plays cricket so it wouldn’t look out of place. I have to admit it would look great on him but he’s not quite confident to pull it off yet.
I love seeing him moving away from a “uniform”.
He has also pinched a lot of DH’s “vintage” wardrobe. Lots of old t-shirts mainly Ben Sherman.
He’s a bit of a clothes horse, is a perfect height and shape for modelling so most clothes look good on him. He turns heads when we are out and about. He had a bit of a rough time through Covid so it’s great seeing him blossom and his confidence grow.

There is a lot of that where I live. It seems to transgress education facilities too.

What I was saying should then have read let them choose. Which is what you are doing rather than dictating what they wear

However I would add to that it's probably good to make them learn how to buy their own clothes because otherwise they end up like my father who at 77 is still incapable of choosing an outfit unless my mum buys it for him. They have been together since he was 19. If she goes first he will literally be wearing the clothes she bought until his dying day unless I step in!

The complete disappearance of jeans for boys is quite strange to me. It used to be a uniform but DS never wears them. And definitely not chinos. 😆He's at an independent school and the roadman look is strong there same as everywhere.
A friend of his turned up at football practice in what they thought was jeans and they all took the piss, until phew they realised they were cargo pants so that was ok.

I've made my DH stop wearing blue jeans as I've realised how dated they look. It's like someone wearing flares in the 80s.
My DH's nephews live in SA, and their style looked so different to the UK when they came to visit. Quite long hair, jeans - the 'preppy look' which was fashionable 10/15 years ago when they left the UK.

my 17 year old doesnt really care about fashion, so long as there are no labels or slogans on his clothes. I still buy them for him as he really isnt bothered. I am though, and so he mainly wears vintage AllSaints, and he hasnt a clue.
He has shoulder length curls. And is very tall and thin, so at least its a brand that fits him

My 16y old is very suddenly and very recently into light blue jeans. Has 3 pairs now. Same with 18y old at uni who until recently would not be seen dead in anything other than Nike trackies. Crocs are big in halls, inexplicably. Think the jeans might be having a resurgence. 13y old actually paled when I suggested Jeans, but does allow some cargos, as long as black or grey.

Strange cos I though cargoes became Dad jeans back in the late 90s.

It all comes around ...

My mum definitely disapproved of my clothes in my teens. I wore grungy or boho type clothes I would never have trusted her to buy me anything (my dad would have had slightly more idea)

I can cope with my kids choices and dont want to be controlling but it's slightly annoying if we go out to eat somewhere nice and basically DS chooses an allegedly better pair of joggers to wear (but they're still joggers! 🤣)

One of DS's friends was wearing the roadman outfit along with white crocs with stuff put in the holes. DS has some Yeezys that I think look like something a 70 something American woman would wear.

DS, who is 14, has developed himself a bit of a look I've never quite seen anyone else wearing. He wears big flappy Dickies trousers that he rolls up to expose quite a lot of ankle, (usually) white socks, Vans, oversized hoodie and a curtain haircut (he has dead straight hair, no broccoli haircut or fluffy Edgar for him!), usually concealed with a Vans beanie. It looks better than you'd think, I promise...

(yep, he's a skater)

This reminds me of when Adrian Mole goes on a date to the rollerskating and is told to wear a sleeveless tshirt, high vented shorts, a hoop earring and a Sony Walkman. He has none of those things so goes in his school PE kit.

My son wears his dad’s old jeans that he had kept in an oh so optimistic ‘they might fit again some day’ way…..

I lived next to a huge sixth form college. 95% of the boys wear black joggers, black puffer, black hoody and black or white nike trainers. Including DS.
I laugh because one of the big reasons he didn't want to stay on at school was because of having to wear a uniform.
Now he just wears a self-imposed one.

I live in a big housing estate in Ireland, in a city suburb. OP you have described my DS exactly, and all other teenage boys around here. They walk around in small groups looking identical. I have driven past and waved at DS multiple times to discover it wasn't even him 😁

It's interesting about the hair through isn't it? When I was a teenager, having curly hair was quite unusual, most people has straight hair. Now they almost all seem to have curly or wavy hair that they can pile up on top and out at the front. My 16y old had ultra straight very fine hair until puberty and then boom! It suddenly curled up into a mass of ringlet curls. So unexpected. Something in the water?

Older one stayed straight and younger one has settled on wavy.

No, there is more variation where I live.

My ds likes quarter zips, chinos and straight jeans, and plain tees. He's a fan of Ralph Lauren tops too. I like his style.

"I have driven past and waved at DS multiple times to discover it wasn't even him."

Same. 😆

lol, that’s so true! My 52 year old husband wears those, my teen wouldn’t be seen dead in them!!!

A friend of mine got her DS trussed up in chinos and a blazer for a dinner out. A blazer 😁He looked like a clone of his dad. My DS would also not be seen dead in either.

My DS is 19, and I think just a bit too old for the Nike look - it seems to have taken hold in the last year or two for the younger teens.

DS lived in shorts for years (I think he secretly aspires to be a postie) but has suddenly got into 90s vintage clothes - baggy Wrangler jeans or cargo pants and sweatshirts. I quite like it.