Girls' Fashion
Buy and sell girls’ clothes, shoes and accessories in Panama.
A tulle party dress bought for one birthday often does two or three more before the bodice gets tight, and by then it is still far too pretty to give away. Girls’ clothes are full of pieces like that, alongside everyday dresses, leggings, shoes and hair clips, from baby sizes up to the stages Panamanian kids’ shops label preteen and teen. They change hands new and pre-owned, and the older the size, the stronger the opinion of the girl who has to wear it.
Girls’ clothing, shoes and accessories, and the age when she starts choosing:
until school age a parent picks almost everything and practical wins, which means girls’ clothing that survives the washing machine and girls’ shoes with a strap she can close herself. Somewhere in primary school the choice passes to her. Shops mark the shift by moving the older sizes into preteen and then teen ranges, and the styles change with the label: fewer ruffles and cartoon prints, more of what older girls wear. That matters when buying second-hand, because a preteen piece has to suit a girl who can refuse it, not just fit her. Girls’ accessories such as hair clips, small bags and sunglasses cross that line more easily, since none of them is sized. The same shift ends most hand-me-downs between siblings: from school age, a brother’s things go to boys’ fashion.
Party dresses, from full tulle to washable cotton:
they come in two broad kinds, and the difference decides how often one gets worn. A full tulle dress with a satin bodice is made for the party itself: layers of net over a lining, often sequins or beading at the waist, and a skirt that only looks right if it was hung up rather than folded. The lining is the part to check first. A soft cotton layer under the tulle stops the net scratching her legs, and an unlined dress is the one a girl wears once and then refuses to put on again. The other kind is a cotton or linen dress with smocking or embroidery, smart enough for a birthday lunch or church and plain enough to go in the machine and come out again the next Sunday. Tulle wants a hand wash and a careful dry, so it lasts exactly as long as somebody is willing to look after it.
Snags, sequins and cake on a second-hand party dress:
show up best with the dress turned inside out, starting with the lining and then the tulle along the hem, which catches on shoes and chair legs and picks up small holes that cannot be mended invisibly. Run a hand down the rows of sequins or beads for gaps, work the zip or the buttons at the back, and check under the arms for sweat marks and the skirt for cake and juice, the stains that stay. New, a party dress from a Panamanian kids’ shop runs around $35 to $60 at ordinary prices, and designer labels go towards $190. Second-hand, the tulle sets the price far more than the label does: a dress with a flattened, snagged skirt is hard to move however much it cost, while one whose skirt still stands out after two parties is the dress other parents are glad to pay for. A smocked cotton dress is valued on different things, the state of the embroidery and whether the colour has faded on the washing line.
Daylight photos of the tulle, the lining and the back fastening:
let a parent judge a party dress from home, so hang it up, shake the skirt out and add one shot inside out. Give the size on the label and how old she was when it last fitted, say how many times it was worn and point out any snag or missing sequin rather than hoping nobody notices. If the shoes or hair clips she wore with it still go together, list them as one outfit, because a parent shopping for a birthday on Saturday would rather sort dress, shoes and clips in a single trip. A mother coming in from La Chorrera or Aguadulce for a dress will still want to hold the skirt up to a window and run a hand along the hem before she pays, and it is worth letting her.