I still have a pair of my Guess jeans from high school! They’re faded and torn at the knees (probably deliberately) and they certainly don’t fit my old body. I only recently came across them in a box and for grins and giggles, decided to keep them.

I didn’t grow up wealthy but we were decidedly middle class and I was an only child so I had stuff, including a couple of pair of Guess jeans: this pair that buttoned up the front and another that buttoned and zipped at the side. I also worked at a local store at the mall when I was in high school. They sold all the “cool” clothing brands, including Guess jeans and Esprit clothing, so you can imagine where a lot of my earnings went.

A funny story: when I was 15, a friend’s mom drove her daughter, me, and another friend from our hometown to see a Duran Duran concert in the city. The day after the concert, we were at breakfast wearing our concert t-shirts and our Guess jeans. Another group of teen girls were mean mugging us and one of them commented, “What are Guess jeans? Did you get them at Wal-Mart?” Oh, the horror. 🤣Typical teenage age bitchiness. I don’t care where I get my clothing now but as a fashion conscious little girl, I was mortified. This must have been before Guess jeans were the shit.