"Happy Skulls" clothing
 

After the last "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, wearing skull clothing and accessories became a huge big deal around here (only Goths had worn it before). Claire's and Limited Too have been full of it. Now the thing for the younger ones is "happy skull" clothing and accessories. Usually the skulls are pink on a brown background and they're smiling. Somehow, smiling pink skulls are a huge contradiction--like the pink camouflage clothing all the kids were wearing last year! "Skulls 'n' Cherries" are another combination we're seeing a lot of.

Anybody else think this is an obvious ploy on manufacturers' part to make scary stuff more acceptable to younger kids? :confused:

I think it's a bad, bad trend that will hopefully end soon.

I want to throw up everytime I see any clothing with the "happy skulls" on it.

My step-daughter just turned 13 and the Limited Too happy skulls bathing suit was on her wish list. I just could not bring myself to purchase it for her!

I just got a Ross-Simons' catalogue and noticed some skull & crossbone jewelry - aimed at adults. Wasn't cheap costume jewelry, either!

I see skulls and crossbones everywhere now. I write for a fashion blog and a baby blog, and in both areas it's still widespread. I thought the trend was slowing down, but there's been a lot more jewelry with it at Shopbop in the last couple of weeks. I sort of liked it at first, but I'm ready to move on now. It's getting really old.

Hmm.. when my son was 8 months old, I bought him a shirt with happy skeletons who were celebrating Dia de los Muertos... The shirts were specially made & only sold in this boutique. I thought it was appropriate for my son to wear.

But then again, DH & I still frequent goth clubs.. ;)

It's still better than Bratz dolls.

And it should have stayed that way. Damn posers. It's those preppy type girls who want to try to be "different".

I felt the same way! I have a purse that my student aide from a few years bought me last summer. She works at Aerospotle and they were on sale so she thought of me. It's kakhi with a rhinestone skull and bones on it. I haven't seen the "happy skulls" though. Of course I have been collecting skull stuff since I was initated in 97 so I am pretty picky about the skull stuff I buy now.

I know of a girl who dropped at least 3 groups during recruitment because she was creeped by the skulls/bones/spooks in their symbols. I wonder if this happens often?

I think it depends on how the chapter handles it. My chapter always had two groups of girls, the ones who were big on the sailboats and the ones who preferred skulls/bones. Because of this, we always tended to use violets on most items. We used s&b's on party shirts when we were paired with guys a lot, because most didn't exactly want to wear sailboats or violets around campus. We were also pretty open to questions and explained to all pnm's what it meant (Faithful Unto Death). I think the fact that we didn't try to hide anything or make it seem scary made a huge difference.

I must admit I am a s&b's girl.... I have tons of skull related items. I use them to decorate my classroom at Halloween. The kids just think I am "cool" cause by middle school most are over cute halloween decorations are want something kinda scary. At this point though I get new stuff every year from former students who know I collect. After we finished the school play this year the other director even sent me a pirate flag to hang in my classroom (We did Pirates of Penzance) that was left over from the set!

Sometimes I'm jealous of the Chi O's because they have cute skull and crossbones stuff...most of us try to leave each others' things alone, so skull and cross bones and anchors are kinda off limits. I've always liked them, but I don't get happy skulls.