Mountain lion fashion

Styles change every season, and this winter that change can arguably be called a reversion to styles some would consider better left forgotten. If your parents have their 80's wardrobe stashed in a box in the attic, it's time to haul it out, because vintage punk-wear is back with a vengeance. Animal and floral prints, socks with pumps, jumbles of necklaces, plaid flannel shirts and asymmetrical tops are all very chic right now.

If your folks are hogging all their freshly "in" clothes but you're not up to creating a whole new wardrobe, you can make use of the clothes you have to stay trendy – just slap some popular winter colors on that outfit of yours: blacks, grays and scarlet take the gold here.

If you quest to stay chic in the Springs, however, there are a few stores you can visit, two of which showcased selections of their products for the photographs adjacent and which, for the student willing to spend a little money, supply some of the most up-to-date seasonal fashions:

Idorü (278 N. Tejon St., 80903) keeps a ready stock of popular clothes, if you can afford to pay the right price. It is, however, not a shop to enter if you have any lingering doubts about your self-esteem – they only fit women's jeans for sizes ten and smaller – because the store caters to an elitist demographic. Don't expect a warm welcome if you don't fall into this demographic, or if you happen to think that haute couture matches well with emotional affirmation of one's self esteem.

Just blocks away, The Leechpit (708 N. Weber St., 80903), while perhaps not the most immediate or prescient in fashion sense, presents exponentially lower prices and pleasanter environs for the style-seeking college kid. The intricately designed (if crowded) little store offers a myriad of treasures for those who are willing to look amongst its racks, ranging from the fashionable to the make-it-yourself Halloween costume, and the Dressing Womb (a dressing room that is also an interactive vagina) is worth a trip by itself.