A Constant Source of Disappointment

I love pleated skirts. Bonus points if it's plaid. I don't know if it's from a past life as a Catholic schoolgirl or what, but I am obsessed with plaid, pleated skirts. I own five and have to actively keep myself from buying more. It rarely works, though, and come this winter I will probably have accumulated another five.

But as much as I love pleated skirts, on the other end of the spectrum I loathe skorts. They bug me. Get off the fence and decide what kind of bottom you are; don't try to be both, because you will fail at both.

Plus, it's just greedy.

So, with all that in mind, you can see why I find this skirt so deeply disappointing.



It's plaid! It's pleated! It comes in four very bright colors! It's kid-sized, so it will be short and I won't have to hem it! It's $12.99! This is my platonic ideal of a kilt.

And then I pulled one off the rack, realized it was a skort, and recoiled in horror and dismay. My dream of buying all four colors for $50 crumbled. Because I am 24, and while I will wear a skirt meant for a 12 year old, I will not wear a skort unless I am playing tennis, and odds are, if I am playing tennis, it is my evil twin and I am tied up in a storage closet somewhere.

Target Cherokee Pleated Scooter - $12.99

The Kids Are Alright

It's been a long time since I was a tween. A long time. So maybe I've forgotten something, with the haze of the many, many intervening years.



I am, however, pretty sure that the upper arms of preteens are not more impervious to cold than their forearms.



I'm not going to criticize the shirts, because ultimately I can totally see a little 11-year old Amanda wanting to pull off this mini-rocker thing. As a tween, I lacked the self awareness to realize that I was not, in fact, a badass (case in point: previously mentioned flannels).



But seriously, won't their upper arms get cold? Won't their forearms get hot? And how do the arm socks stay up? Do they come with garters, Silk Spectre-style? Do they have elastic? If they are arm socks, does one always get lost in the dryer, like foot socks? I have so many questions about the engineering of this shirt, and so few answers.

Amended to add:
There are thumb holes in the arm socks - does this maybe help with the rigging apparatus? Does a pre-made thumb hole make it more punk? Wouldn't they impede any guitar playing, and therefore any actual rocking?

I must investigate this further.

Justice Graphic Tee With Armsocks