Local winter fashion defies

common sense
Combination of mini-skirts and boots is antithetical, inane

By Melissa Tav
The Collegian

I WAS STANDING IN line at the Justin Timberlake concert a few weeks ago and something really funny happened.

A girl standing next to me tripped — hard.

She actually had one of those awkward semi-acrobatic trips.

You know, the kind where you trip over a crack on the sidewalk, then lurch forward a couple of inches and land shakily on your feet, only to lose your balance and trip yet again, down onto the cold hard pavement.

Mind you, I really don’t consider myself a mean or insensitive person (really). But I confess, with a hint of shame, that when she tripped, I laughed — hard.

In fact, I was laughing so hard that tears actually formed in my eyes and I was forced to run off (and hence, lose my coveted spot in line).

I found myself in some secluded spot near the west end of the Save Mart Center gigging in all my shameful glee.

After all, I didn’t want the poor girl to see me laughing.

Now, that would have just been rude.

And honestly, it was not the fact that she tripped that had me laughing. It wasn’t that at all.

It was the fact that she tore her tiny tank top with the words “Justin, Marry ME!!” emblazoned on the front.
It was the fact that she got her very short miniskirt smudged with dirt.

It was also the fact that she was wearing open-toed pink pumps at least two sizes too big for her.

Now keep in mind, it was less than 40 degrees out and positively bone-chilling, and yet here she was, a girl no older than one, wearing next to nothing during one of the coldest winter spells in Fresno’s history.

Now THAT right there is funny. In fact, it’s kind of hilarious.

But she wasn’t the only knowing victim of the cold.

That night, the Save Mart Center was swarming with female JT fans of all ages dressed for a night out on the town -— as if it were June in Miami.

I’m a girl, so I understand the need to want to look cute for a concert (especially if the artist you are seeing is someone you remember going fanatical over in middle school during the inescapable boy-band period), but come on.

Face it folks, it’s cold outside.

I actually ran into a friend of mine at the concert and needless to say, she was one of the many girls freezing her tush off.

I asked her why she was dressed so scantily and her response was cute, but a bit naïve.

“I wanted to look good for Justin!”

That’s fine and it would have made complete sense if she had gotten floor seating, right next to the stage, close enough for her to feel his sweat — but she wasn’t.

She was actually sitting two rows in front of me in section 210, also known affectionately as the nosebleed seats.

Justin was a mere tiny dancing object who we could barely see, no matter how many times we zoomed in with our handy camera phones.

If we couldn’t see him, then he sure couldn’t see us.

My friend was aware of that, but she looked cute, so who cares if it was freezing, right?

I guess she was just trying to bring sexy back, but that’s kind of difficult when your lips are blue and shivering even while you desperately try to dance along with “My Love.”

I see this on the campus all the time. Fresno State in the winter time is like a fashion show.

Girls are dressed in “barely there” clothes in an effort to impress that cute boy that sits next to them in class or simply because they want to look good for their own benefit.

It even happens with the male crowd.

I understand that they have macho standards to abide by, but seriously. Aren’t you cold?

Even a little bit?

Leave the wife beater and gym shorts for the basketball court.

It’s okay to bundle up boys and girls.

It is very possible to look both attractive and fashionable in a puffy coat and nice warm boots.

Try it sometime. You’ll feel so much warmer inside — literally.

Forget bringing sexy back. Let’s bring common sense back.

Melissa Tav is a junior at Fresno State majoring in Mass Communication and Journalism.

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