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Alarmingly, Miami University students are rocking V-neck shirts more than ever.
Let's be honest - V-necks aren't a very big deal in the clothing world. They're not exactly high fashion. In fact, they're pretty common. Skinny jeans aside, in most of Europe, the ratio of guys to girls walking the streets in V's is pretty even. Not so (yet) in the land of the free.
For those in search of the latest and greatest V's, obviously, you're going to want to start at trendsetting stores like American Apparel and Urban Outfitters.
Now, expectedly, for the past year or so, certain "fashion for all" merchants like Gap, H&M and Forever 21 (yes, they have guys clothes, too) have sneakily added V-necks to their collection.
Also during this time, niche stores like Pac Sun have jumped on the V-neck bandwagon. Now, mall trash everywhere is wearing V-necks, too ($10 each when you buy two or more). Not so long ago, the only T's Pac Sun sold were the ones with 50 Hurley logos on them. Sadly, those still exist. The semi-good news? Today shoppers have the option "to V or not to V," a relatively new phenomenon (at least for the guys section) in most fashion forward clothing stores.
Thankfully, for those who feel their sense of identity is being threatened by the sudden spread of V-necks to shopping malls across the country, the douchiest stores still haven't made the transition from "vintage," "faded," "ringers" or "1892" tees to stylish V's. Here's looking at you, American Eagle, Hollister Co., Abercrombie & Fitch, etc. The stores your mommy dressed you in as a middle-schooler are still stuck in their bird-on-(crew)-shirt ways.
However, V-necks have become trendy almost to a fault, so much so that mainstream pop-punkers All Time Low went so far as to make fun of not only their entire fan base, but guys who wear V's deemed "too deep" in their music video for "Weightless."
But back to Miami. Girls have pretty much always worn V's around campus, at least to class before it's little black dress time. I mean come on, technically, those solid colored shirts with striped sleeves that Oxford Flower and Sorority Shop sells uptown are freaking V's, and even they look pretty cool before getting Greeked out.
As for guys, it's not like Fiji has some V-neck design in the works (we can only hope), but there's still a fair amount of Miami males sporting V's to class. These most likely come out of a five pack of Hanes from Wal-Mart, which can be instantly hippy-fied just by adding some RIT dye colors to them. They even have tie-dye V's for sale at the Oxford Farmers Market uptown every Saturday morning.
So, will this trend toward V-necks endure through the winter into spring semester? Assumedly, the answer is yes (layers, people, layers).
At the risk of inspiring Green Beer Day shirt-makers everywhere, come March 2010, it's plausible that almost as many intoxicated students will be wearing green V's as regular T's.
Get some (before they're not cool anymore).
