I Got My Shopping Start at the Limited Too

The first clothes I remember coveting were from the Limited Too. This is the old Limited Too before they became a preteen technicolor nightmare and before they were bought out by Tween Brands (really) and then converted into the cheaper and hilariously-named brand Justice. I was fuzzy on the details about how exactly Limited Too came to be the key to my fashion heart, so I called my mom.

LS: Mom, I have really strong memories of going to Limited Too with you at Lynnhaven mall when I was a girl. I know shopping together wasn’t always great fun for us, but I feel like at least in those early years it maybe was? Do you remember anything about it?

PS: We didn’t buy all your clothes there, that’s for sure. I think we just went there sometimes, because it was kind of expensive. I remember shopping there as kind of a signature event, it was a rite of passage when you switched over to there, when you first started caring about styles and brands. It was something we did for birthdays or Christmas. A special occasion.

LS: Yeah I have a memory of sitting in the living room at my birthday, maybe, and opening a present and the box being from the Limited Too and being so, so excited to open it.

PS: It was color coordinated, which I kind of liked.

LS: And I must have liked that for a while, too. I can definitely remember having scrunchies that matched my outfits. I think I must have kept the scrunchies long past when I wore any of the clothes, because I can remember them perfectly. There was a very light sea foam one with thin ribbing on it, and a darker teal one with wider stripes. An electric blue one. I can’t remember a specific outfit, really, but I remember it just being very nice quality and feeling really happy and great when I wore those clothes. Matching knits? I really don’t remember. I think this was during the same time that I wouldn’t touch jeans.

I’m trying to remember when this was. It must have been elementary school. I was over it by middle school, and I know I’d stopped coveting that brand before they switched over to the tweeny bopper thing. The internet says that was in 1996, so I was 12. I remember going into the new shop at the mall downtown and just being appalled at the glitter and cutesy slogan-ed shirts. Sequins. Flower power. I was way to mature for that. Ha.

Anyway, do you remember where the influence to buy Limited Too came from? Was it ballet people?

PS: No you weren’t really friends with them.

LS: Well, I was kind of friends with them.

PS: Not really. You didn’t really see them outside of class. Not regularly.

LS: Then who was it?

PS: You should ask your friends.

LS: I’m not friends with anyone I was friends with in elementary school anymore! Who was I even friends with in elementary school? I just remember being like, this is who I am. A girl who wears striped outfits from Limited Too with matching hair scrunchies.

PS: And now you never match.

LS: Yeah sometime in high school I switched to jeans with dresses over them and it’s all been a mess ever since.

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