Border Town Fashion... Yes, it's different

There is no doubt about it; fashion in border towns is different from the rest of the U.S.

Hispanic style had a significant impact on the fashion and trends we followed. Older members of the community might not have felt this influence, but as high school-aged teenagers, everything from the way we did our makeup to the kinds of shoes we wore reflected Hispanic style.

When I started out to write this blog, I thought I would do some research first. I searched far and wide for articles, opinions, blogs, anything that talked about this subject, but I found nothing. I found articles in fashion magazines about the influence of Chinese style and the influence of African-American style, but none about how Mexican style impacts U.S. fashion. So I’m going to write what I know about it, because I experienced it first hand.

First of all, let’s talk about the jewelry. Gold, gold, and more gold. You won’t find Hispanic girls wearing silver or even white gold for that matter. It’s all about the yellow stuff – and lots of it. These 7 day bracelets (or semenario bracelets) were one of the most popular things to wear. I’d say starting in about 4th grade girls began wearing these thick, gold bangles. Often they covered about a ¼ of their small arms, but that didn’t stop the trend. In fact, like the bigger the bracelets were the better.

The same went for earrings: big and gold. Pretty much all of the girls wore hoops. Other styles just ceased to exist. Guys on the other hand wore diamond studs.

And as for necklaces, it seemed that everyone owned one of these script name necklaces. Of course, in gold.





In addition to jewlery Hispanic makeup trends influenced the girls at my high school as well. To shape their eyebrows, instead of plucking or waxing, many of the girls just shaved them off and drew on new ones. One arched line of dark, brown eyeliner replaced their original eyebrows. What always made me laugh was when they didn’t draw them on quite right. Too high of an arch left them with a constant look of surprise. I always wondered what they looked like when they washed their faces at night. I mean, you don’t sleep with your makeup on, so that means the eyebrows come off too. I guess this trend ruled out swimming as a hobby as well.

One of the other makeup trends was wearing thick, dark lip liner. Usually lip liner is blended into the lipstick color for a more natural look, but many of the girls drew a thick, dark line around the outside of their lips and just left it there.

This is a picture I found on the internet of a girl that represents both of these trends.




As for our hair, there was really only one way to do it: long, with layers, curled under at the ends with a thick curling iron. Bangs were optional, but when girls did have them they were big and curled like Selena’s in this picture.



I’ve also noticed that Mexican fashion had an influence on our shoes. Usually when women dress up, stilettos are the shoes of choice. But in Bisbee, you wouldn’t find any thin heels, only chunky ones. Chunky, platforms like these were what the girls always wore.