Hot Topic is a store with a predominance of Goth/Punk/Emo/generic/newest 15 year old fad clothing, jewelry, cosmetics, stickers, books, posters and T-shirts with band logos or quotes on them. This is where your child can find fishnet stockings, flame designs, chains, spiked belts and chokers, anime colored hair dyes, band shirts, corsets, multi-zippered and redundant pants with legs locked together by criss-crossing straps, even straight jackets (black and shiny of course, not the hospital beige muslin as in a real psychiatric facility).
The Hot Topic store/look has been a phase for 2 of my 3 teens. It was a brief phase for the eldest, because at 6'4" he physically outgrew the standard sized Hot Topic clothing options so elected instead to buy things that fit at the tall man's store (in all black).
My youngest still fits in the sizes available but moved out of the Hot Topic mental phase. During the peak of her "spikiness" Hot Topic was the only place she would shop.
I try to pick my battles carefully with teens. I don't feel I should forbid most, if any fashion statements but sometimes I do yearn for something "pretty" on my delightful daughter or I may decline to pay Hot Topic's outrageous prices. This little ditty expresses my feelings about shopping at Hot Topic with my daughter.
Hot Topic Mommas
Hot Topic Mommas
Fantasize about Laura Ashley
Are grateful if this is as bad it gets
Shop on Ebay for bondage pants
Wish there were bigger sales racks
Like the dresses, postcards and some of the shoes
Prefer Manic Panic to Kool-Aid for a stable red(or purple)
Have a chain all their own to hold their keys
Know what it is to have their kid set off a metal detector
And use it as a “life lesson"
We have moved on. See
I enjoy being a girl.