BFF - the label has been showing up increasingly often in the streets. It is shorthand for "Best Friends Forever", a term that has been popular with teenage girls for some years now. The brand specializes in winter coats and rain jackets - in other words, clothes that protect one from the elements. The twist is that these are designed in such a way that they give someone other than the wearer a certain amount of control over the jacket. The core idea is that one is protected by a loved one - hence the name. It is an intriguing concept, and it's quickly becoming this winter's big trend. Our reporter went out on the street in search of BFF-jackets and their wearers. It turns out not only teenage girls are sporting these new clothes.
Marissa (27)
Right outside the BFF-store I meet Shania, Marion, Agneta, Cathy and Marissa. Marissa is already wearing her new coat - a black, knee-length BFF down mantle. She looks very happy about it. "Today is my birthday," she explains, "so we're having a girls' day. Some shopping first, then we go to the movies, a nice restaurant, and a couple of bars tonight. This is my birthday present - isn't it beautiful?"
And what about the 'restrictions' of a BFF coat? "Yes, these clothes all have ways to make you dependant on others, that's why they bought it for me of course," Marissa laughs. "This mantle for example has zippers that start in the armpits and go down all the way to your wrists. When those are fully zipped up, your arms are kept by your side so you're pretty helpless. The sleeves are also long enough to cover your fingers completely and can also be closed with zips. As you see, they wasted no time doing them all up." Marissa wriggles her arms while she says that, and it's clear that her arms are indeed securely kept by her sides.
So why did the girls buy this mantle for Marissa? Shania says: "Marissa is just the craziest girl I know. She's always wandering off and finding things and fidgeting around - like a toddler in a toy store. This coat has some great features - look at this." She bends over and pulls some strings in the bottom part of the mantle. Marissa tries to walk but finds her steps now severely limited. Because it's quite cold, the girls decide Marissa should have her hood up. Despite Marissa's weak protests, Cathy ties the hood firmly around her face. "That's the nice thing about this," she explains, "we can decide what's good for her. Marissa will be in that coat the rest of the day, and every next time we hang out together. Doesn't she look snug in her hood? We'll probably keep her like that all day."
Marissa smiles but her eyes betray her uncertainty and she doesn't sound too sure of herself while she says: "They're just kidding, you know."
Mark (14)
Mark is wearing a blue BFF down jacket. It looks completely ordinary though. When asked about his BFF jacket, he explains: "My mother bought it for me. I have to cycle to school every day, and my mum always insisted I wore my hood, but I usually didn't. But this jacket has a hood with a time lock. She sets it at 30 minutes, and then it's impossible to take the hood off or unzip the jacket until the timer has run out."
He shows me the LED display which is hidden under a protective flap on his collar. It can be set at any increment of 10 minutes, up to a maximum of six hours. Has it ever been locked for longer than 30 minutes? "Yeah," Mark admits, "on a school trip once, some of the guys put my hood up and locked it for the full six hours. I had to stay like that the rest of the day - in the bus, in the museum. That was really uncomfortable. It's a thick hood so I got really hot that time."
What does Mark think of his jacket? "It's a bit annoying sometimes, and it can lead to some embarassing situations. My mum also often locks me in the hood when I have to get groceries or stuff like that, and then I can't take it off inside. But it's not as bad as I feared. I've actually come to like wearing the hood. At first I was ashamed to arrive at school with my hood up, and some guys laughed at me. But now everyone's used to it, and they know I can't take my hood off so nobody bothers me about it. In fact, sometimes during recess I lock myself in for 10 minutes, just because it's a nice feeling."
Steve (22)
I spot Steve, a 22-year old student, when he leaves the supermarket . More accurately, I spot his parka, because Steve is hidden completely underneath it. The BFF parka is knee-length and has a snorkel hood which extends about 15 cm in front of his face. The opening has been pulled quite tight, shrouding his face completely in darkness. At the end of the hood clearly dangles a small padlock.
"My girlfriend's idea," comes the muted sound out of the big hood. "As soon as she heard that 'protection by a loved one' commercial, she got me this parka. Every time I leave the appartment, she zips the hood up completely and locks it. For classes, shopping, hanging out with friends, it doesn't matter. She has the only key, so I can't go to bars without her, or do pretty much anything when she's not with me. I just spent half an hour in the supermarket just to find what I needed, because of this hood, and I also kept bumping into people. It's pretty much impossible to maintain any social contacts other than the people I meet with my girlfriend."
The complaints come out in a steady stream. So why does he put up with it? "Because I love that girl," Steve sighs. "Anyway, I guess everything was a bit bottled up as well, and I had to let off steam. I'm not allowed to complain about the parka. She says if I whine too much, she'll buy me the BFF down suit instead and lock me into it permanently."
I guess Steve did not quite get that his words were meant to be published in a newspaper article. Let's hope nothing too bad comes of that...
Chloë (16) and Anja (16)
But of course, although all kinds of people are wearing the BFF clothes, this article would be incomplete without showing off a pair of teenage girls who are actual best friends - then intended audience for the BFF brand, one might say. Chloë and Anja are wearing identical ankle-length bright pink down mantles. Their heads are snugly encased in the hoods, with a thick fur ruff framing their faces. What's the catch about their mantles?
"The zipper has a magnetic lock," Chloë explains. "It can only be opened by pressing the magnetic key against it. And the key to my zipper is worked into the cuff of Anja's sleeve, and vice versa. The lock can be closed without the key, but it can only be opened by Anja's coat. So when we leave for school in the morning, or for shopping, like today, we lock ourselves in and we know we'll have to stay that way until we're together."
Has this led to any awkward situations? Anja says: "One day Chloë was ill. She had texted me to let me know but I'd seen it too late, so i was already locked in. So I sat at school all morning in my coat, with the hood up. I was very hot and sweaty but I thought of poor Chloë who had a fever so I felt a bit of suffering was fine. During lunch break I visited Chloë so she could unlock me - I needed to pee real bad by then!" Both girls laugh heartily at the anecdote.
BFF is certainly the most interesting brand we've come across in recent fashion trends, and in the end our reporter couldn't resist going into the BFF store herself. She ended up spending a full hour inside, and what do you think - she came in at the editorial office wearing a new, bright red down jacket. What sets it apart is that it has mittens attached to the sleeves. The sleeves themselves are narrow enough that you can't just pull your arms out of the sleeves without opening the jacket first. As the shop assistant has explained, if the hood is put up and tied (with non-elastic drawcords), it covers the zipper and makes it unaccessible. Because of the mittens it's impossible to get out of the hood, and thus out of the jacket.
And yes, when she arrived here she was wearing the hood - the shop assistant had politely asked her if she wanted it up, and in a daring moment she had said yes. We helped her out, of course... but only after she promised we could put her hood up again when she leaves for home tonight.
