Every generation eventually reaches the point where younger people’s fashion starts looking less like style and more like a dare.
That is exactly where Commander Kuma finds himself in Issue #19 of Bear With Me. His students walk through school wearing oversized hoodies, layered chains, chunky sneakers, fuzzy hats, mismatched pants, and combinations that somehow make complete sense to them.
To Kuma, it looks like three different outfits had a meeting and decided to work together.
A lot of teachers probably recognize this feeling. You spend years working with young people, so you think you are still fairly current. Then a student uses a word like “drip,” explains an outfit’s “aesthetic,” or shows up dressed in something you would have never imagined wearing to school.
Suddenly, you feel your age.
The funny part is that students are usually completely confident about it. They are not wondering whether the outfit works. In their minds, it already does. The teacher is simply the one who has fallen behind.
That does not mean teachers dislike student fashion. Most understand that clothing is one of the ways young people experiment, express themselves, and figure out who they are. Still, understanding the purpose does not always mean understanding the outfit.
Sometimes all a teacher can do is smile, hold the coffee, and remember when “drip” meant there was a problem with the sink.
