The teenage years are prime time for mingling, moviesand the mall. There are places to go and mon... Teen Fashion Flair is a Fa

The teenage years are prime time for mingling, moviesand the mall. There are places to go and money to be spent -- onfashion. Interestingly, despite teenagers' obsession for fashionindividuality and independence, parents have become a welcometag-along, according to a survey by BizRate Research study of 1,068online buyers conducted for leading comparison shopping search siteShopzilla (www.shopzilla.com). About three-quarters (76%) of parentssay they will play wardrobe buddy and shop with their teen for promattire.

Already topping the apparel searches on Shopzilla are promdresses. Undoubtedly, one of the most monumental events for a teen isthe prom, and Oscar fashions are influencing today's youth looks.Teens and parents can shop ABS -- known for their post-award-showlook-alike designer duds for just a few hundred dollars. Shopzillaalso has hundreds of prom dress styles ranging from $20.99 to$1,695.00.

This year, a few looks that were worth imitating were MichelleWilliams' canary yellow chiffon Vera Wang dress; Sandra Bullock'sstrapless blue Angel Sanchez; Jessica Alba's bronze, ornate Versace;Lindsay Lohan's stylish form-fitting Christian LaCroix gown;reminiscent of Tinseltown's golden-age sirens; and, finally, JenniferLopez's timeless and elegant chiffon Jean Desses gown.

Even videogame developers are catching on. Computer game websitewww.TheSims2.com, whose main audience consists of female players,offers Oscar dresses that can be downloaded on the games' communitywebsite. Keira Knightley's Vera Wang dress is the most downloadedfollowed by Reese Witherspoon's vintage Christian Dior.

Is there a paradigm shift in parent and teen relations? Nope. Thetruth is parents come along for the shopping ride as the human ATM. Alittle more than half of respondents who are parents with teenagers(58%) say that their teens do not have part-time jobs, although 71%say that their teen pays for their clothes some of the time. Mostparents (68%) say that they tend to spend more money on their teen'sclothing that they do on their own. As long as mom or dad is spendingthe cash, they will always have a say on their teen's fashion choices.

The majority of all respondents (83%) agree that teen fashion isprovocative. A little over half of parents say they have argued orexpect to argue with their teen over choice of clothing. Regardless,parents believe that they are the most popular shopping partner fortheir teenagers, but parents become more pivotal and hands-onregarding teen fashion during prom season.

About three-fourths of parents (76%) say they will shop with theirteen for prom attire. With prom being one of the bigger events in ateen's life, an overwhelming 90% of parents plan to start shopping fortheir teen's prom outfit at least one month in advance. Over half ofparents (57%) say they have set a budget for their teenager's promattire. Of these parents, only 19% plan to spend over $250. Morespecifically, one-quarter will spend $100 or less, 56% will spend$100-$250.

"Everything that leads up to the big dance, from the dress to theboutonniere, need to be planned out well in advance," says HelenMalani, chief shopping expert, Shopzilla Inc. "Prom is a monumentalevent for teens to feel their most glamorous and elegant, but to getyour teen that red-carpet look without going into the red, it is wiseto pay a visit to sites like www.shopzilla.com first!"

The study, conducted by BizRate Research, a division of ShopzillaInc., was based on a point-of-sale survey with a sample of 1,068online buyers from February 14-16, 2006.

Shopzilla, formerly BizRate.com, is the most powerful andeasiest-to-use shopping search site on the Web. With an index of morethan 30 million products from more than 70,000 stores, Shopzilla usesShopRank, a proprietary patent-pending algorithm, to help shoppersinstantly find virtually anything on sale from anyone, anywhere on theWeb at the best price. Shopzilla also features powerful comparisontools and BizRate consumer reviews of stores and products, the Web'slargest and most trusted consumer feedback network. Every weekShopzilla prepares millions of shoppers to make smarter, moreconfident purchases and sends them directly to the checkout page ofthousands of online merchants. Shopzilla also operates the BizRateconsumer feedback network, which collects approximately 1 millionfresh reviews per month. Shopzilla powers shopping search for many ofthe Web's largest consumer sites including AOL, Lycos, Time Warner'sRoadRunner, and many others. Founded in 1996, the Los Angeles-basedcompany also operates sites in the United Kingdom, France, andGermany. Shopzilla is owned by The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP), adiverse media concern with interests in national television networks,newspaper publishing, broadcast television stations, TV retailing andlicensing and syndication. For more information, visitwww.shopzilla.com, the smarter way to shop.

-- Flirty (12 percent), romantic (8 percent), vintage (7 percent), sophisticated (6 percent), flashy (2 percent), and dramatic (1 percent) came in at the bottom of the list.

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