Back to School Fashions: Little Boys

Since I posted a bunch of great back-to-school fashions for little girls yesterday, it's only fair that I post something similar for little boys today, right? I used to think that boys' clothes were nowhere near as fun as girls' clothes - and that may be true for dressy clothes, but for everyday, casual wear, it definitely isn't any more. Boys have cool cargo pants, awesome graphic tees, and fun sweatshirts and jackets. And here are some of the best - and the cheapest.

My daughter is generally capable of putting together an outfit that is reasonably coordinated; my son, however, will throw on anything he can find, whether or not it matches (and whether or not it's clean, for that matter). So these pre-matched sets are great. Minions go with minions, lions with lions, Batman with Batman. Even my fashion-challenged son can manage that. And for $11-$13, you can fill his closet with these goof-proof sets from Burlington Coat Factory.

 

 

Boys go through tee-shirts like nobody's business, both in terms of having them always be in the laundry, and in terms of ripping or staining them past wearability. So stock up on these solid, striped, and print tees from Old Navy, at $6 or $8 each.

My son is very hard on pants - not to mention that he outgrows them very quickly! So this is another item we stock up on. Since he sometimes struggles with buttons and zippers, I love these elastic-waist cargo pants from Old Navy. $17 a pair.

 

Although he'd much rather wear graphic t-shirts every day, I like for my son to wear polo shirts every now and then. It's easy enough to find plain colors for $5 or $6, but these brightly-colored striped polos are still less than $10 at Crazy8.

 

 

Speaking of graphic tees, head over to Macy's for a ton of graphic tees for $7 each. Not only the Avengers, TMNT, Spiderman, and Star Wars, but Super Mario, Finding Dory, Lego, and lots more. You'll definitely find your boy's favorites here!

 

 

And if you want something warmer, JC Penney has great long-sleeved graphic shirts for $12 each. Stock up on Spiderman, Batman, Star Wars, the Avengers, Lego, Sonic the Hedgehog, Teen Titans, Paw Patrol, TMNT, and more.

 

 

But if you're at the other end of the spectrum and want something cooler, Kohl's has a collection of cotton shorts from $8-$12. Casual enough for comfort but a bit dressier than athletic shorts, these rugged shorts are the perfect balance between the ratty loose shorts he wants to wear and the crisp, dressy shorts you'd like him to wear. And most important, they have nice, deep pockets for whatever he might find out on the playground and need to bring home with him!

Happy shopping!

Shopping: Men vs. Women

When I was a little girl, every December my dad would take my sister and me Christmas shopping for Mom’s gifts, and then my mom would take us shopping for Dad’s gifts. The trip with Dad would go something like this: “First we’ll go to Lechmere and get her a new clock radio, then we’ll go to Service Merchandise and get her a silver heart locket, then we'll go to Sears and get her a navy turtleneck, size medium, and then we’ll stop at CVS on the way home and get her a bottle of Jean Naté.” The trip with Mom would go something like this: “We’ll start at the Mall.” That pretty much summarizes the difference between the way men shop and the way women shop.

The difference is especially pronounced when it comes to clothes shopping. This point was really driven home for me yesterday when H took a long lunch break and went clothes shopping with me. Forgive the tangent, but I need to throw in this explanation. I weigh exactly the same as I did before I got pregnant with my son, yet many of my pre-pregnancy clothes no longer fit. This seems to defy the laws of physics, because I still have the fabulous baby boobs, plus I seem to have a good deal more “junk in the trunk” than I used to (apparently contents settle during childbirth as well as shipping), not to mention a somewhat rounder belly than I remember. Something on my body must be thinner than it used to be, but I’m not sure what. But the bottom line is that most of my summer clothes from two years ago are going back into the attic and I need to get some new summer clothes!

H was mystified the first time I went into the dressing room with the exact same pair of jeans in two different sizes. He was even more mystified when I came out and announced that they didn’t fit. He simply couldn’t comprehend that there was not a size of that style of jeans that would fit me. It didn’t occur to him that one size could be too small in the thighs and the next size up could be too big in the waist. This is not surprising considering that 75% of his wardrobe comes from Costco. For those of you unfamiliar with Costco, it is one of those “big box” stores where you can buy anything from snow tires to a wedding cake to a chainsaw to suntan lotion. They also sell clothes – but they don’t have dressing rooms. This is not a problem for H (nor for most men), because he knows what size he is. He can pick out a pair of pants in any style at any store in the country and if they’re a 38 long, they will fit him. I, however, have pants in my closet in sizes 6, 8, and 10, and they all fit me. And I’ve tried on other pants in those exact same sizes that absolutely do not fit me.

So of course women shop differently. We have to! We don’t have the option of planning out a trip ahead of time and deciding to buy a pair of khaki pants from store A and a red cocktail dress from store B. We may have to go to stores C, D, E and F before finding khaki pants that fit right, and we might end up with a green cocktail dress from store B but then have to return it after finding an even better purple cocktail dress at store G. Women have to be more open-minded about these things, or else we’d end up walking around in ratty old jeans and white T-shirts every day.

Actually, that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. If only I could find a pair of jeans that fits…