Trends for the smaller set

Press, 5 December 1989, Page 24

Trends for the smaller set

Accessories are tons of fun at the best of times, but they make extra fun Christmas presents for children.

Hair accessories for girls come in an enormous range this year, the biggest they have been for ages. Bows, bobbles, sequins, hearts, fruit, comic characters, velvet ties, leather ties, hair bands, coloured clips — anything at all is very much in favour this summer, particularly with younger girls who like to wear several items at the same time.

Beads and bangles have always been a big hit with the smaller set and there are plenty around in lots of nice colours, many with matching earrings. Earrings are around this year in huge variety, not only in designs for pierced ears but also in clip-on styles. This is a welcome trend as it has been hard to find fashion earrings for those without pierced ears. Teenagers are not wearing much in the way of jewellery except earrings and leather, woven or silver bangles and wristbands.

• Watches are an item that have changed from an expensive once-in-a-lifetime gift to a disposable fashion toy. The news this year is that digital faces are definitely out, except with children from the ages of about five to eight or nine years old, who can’t read the time the “old fashioned way” on analog faces with hands. All those years of telling people to cover up in the sun may finally be paying off, with hats much more in evidence lately. Boys favour the baseball cap, foreign legion style cap with cloth covering the neck, or Australian outback styles. Girls tend to favour straw hats or sun visors. Older teenage boys will wear straw hats, particularly in the Blues Brothers mould, biit younger ones won’t.

Going to the beach means something to put all the gear in and bags are around in great numbers in summer colours. Teenagers seem to be favouring large bags that can be carried with one arm through one or both straps. Although sports bags are popular in various types of nylon and synthetics, many are also going for the knapsack look, which is this season available in pastels for the first time. Straw baskets have been popular for the past few summers and there is no reason to think they will not be again, as are the woven African bags with leather straps and fastenings and

indeed most large, casual bags made of natural materials.

Boys are paying more attention to personal appearance and grooming than they ever used to and a great many use mousse and gel on their hair. Even very small boys love to put their hair up in spikes and gel is available for boys, notably as part of the vei7 popular skull and crossbones and Mickey Mouse ranges. Fun things for girls in the companion Jelly Bean Generation and Thoroughly Minnie ranges include junior make up, toy false fingernails and hair products. For really cheap stocking fillers that are guaranteed to be popular, try some of the zinc ointment for faces which is now available in many shades other than boring old white. In fact, the younger generation like to plaster several different shades at once anywhere on their faces that could conceivably be attacked by the sun.

White socks, bright socks, fluorescent underwear and Batman toothbrushes also fall into this category. In fact, anything with a Batman symbol on it, starting with stickers at 35 cents and going up to $69 skateboards.