An easy and comfortable Summer outfit, perfect for a day of scouring some far-flung thrift shops:
Un-ironed Brooks Brothers pink oxford, sleeves rolled, collar un-buttoned, with plaid Bermuda shorts and an old brown leather belt. Just something to throw on, but still it maintains a modicum of style and presentation.
The Boy, when it was his turn to get dressed, absolutely insisted on his own unironed pink oxford, worn sleeves rolled, collar un-buttoned, with an old brown leather belt and camo cargo shorts. The combination of camouflage and pink oxford is killingly stylish on a young boy, but leave it alone if you're out of high school. The more my son develops his own sense of style as a loose derivative of my own, the more I realise how much youth, and maybe even childishness, is the lynch-pin of the Polo/RL empire.
True, a father and son dressed in matching pink shirts may be "cute" to the point of "sickening", but when your son insists on dressing just like you for a day spent at the thrift store, it's hard to say no. Besides, with the current state of our collective standard of dress, I wil never refuse my Boy the right to wear a proper shirt by his own choice.
Incidentally, the days excursion netted quite a haul. Look for it in the shop over the next few days.
More impressive than your son'statse in clothes is the apparent ability to go thrifting with you.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience my children have an invisible time-bomb that starts ticking the moment we leave the house. There is no way of knowing when time will run out, the child will explode, and the days activities are over.
Could I as a parent somehow be the one setting the bomb? Of course not...never... not me.
Tip of the hat to Jr. in a pink shirt.
G,
ReplyDeleteIn lieu of a formal "Ask Guiseppe" section, I'm wondering if you could say a bit more about the unbuttoned collar? It makes sense to me in that I leave mine unbuttoned until I finish with my tie, and I unbutton for the wash and all, but...
Your thoughts, Sir, would be appreciated.
Also, you have much to be proud of, as a parent.
I've been on the hunt for a good pink oxford button down without spending a ridiculous sum of money, and unfortunately, I haven't succeeded yet.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty pick about the thickness and softness of the oxford material. I've been pretty happy with American Living (the Ralph Lauren brand for JC Penny's), but so is everyone else, and so the small sizes always go immediately before I get there. The price point is often $60 new, which is more than I am willing to pay (might as well buy a normal RL shirt, or even go for a Brooks), but give it a couple of weeks or months, and the price drops to about $15 per shirt. Well worth it.
Unlike you, my ability to find vintage stores/resale shops is pretty limited. And the ones that do exist are full of either polyester and other unnatural fabrics, or full of Abercrombie/Hollister. Goodwill sometimes has stuff, but even then, finding small stuff is near impossible...
Alas, my search continues.
The boy is growing tall it seems.
ReplyDeleteUnbuttoned collars and other ways of expressing Italian flair probably warrants a post of their own.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the shoes? I would pair boat shoes or a brown penny loafer with this, sockless ofcourse .
ReplyDeleteuhm this is a joke, right?
ReplyDeleteThere's almost always something laughable in anything I do or say. The boy, however, is no joke.
ReplyDeleteThis takes me back to my college days - 30 years ago! I had a dear male friend who said that he wore pink oxford shirts "because the girls love them and otherwise, I'm too manly to care". My eventual husband wears them, too. Did I mention that he is a retired Marine Corps officer? He's WAY too manly to care, too!
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