Tims are for hockey and lax bros. My kid sported bean boots. Both are worn by guys.
Please be careful about shopping for clothes and footwear too early, as tempting as it might be to shop sales. Between now and September, you son could easily go through a growth spurt.
If you son does band/orchestra, make sure he has a black pear of pants and a white shirt. If heâs like mine, no need to spend much on the pants because the black ones arenât going to get worn except for the concerts unless they fit some costume idea for something.
Good idea to keep it to a minimum as taste might change once actually at school.
Will warn you that Bean Boots often sell out in the more popular sizes (heights) and colorsâŠthough based on their recent multi-page advertisement in the Sunday times, perhaps they are going to ramp up production?
Iâm going to give away my secret about bean boots (I canât believe it!). Call the outlet everyday when they open. They will ship them to you for free at the outlet price. Remember to order a size down. We have quite the collection in our house!
I went back and read some of the older threads. I am an obsessive type and am now a little worried and have some additional questions. I like quality but donât want to spend a lot of $$ on clothes he will grow out of so I got J Crew and Ralph Lauren but all for great prices essentially what would have been for less $ brands. So-why worry? I donât want him to look ârichâ or like he is trying to be all âpreppy.â I just was raised to choose quality. My mother had very little when she was growing up. Her father sold fabric door to door (when he had a job). Her family believed in buying quality only-which meant one sweater that would last. I think it wonât be an issue re. the preppy side since after school he really prefers more of what one would wear to chill out (he will absolutely choose the most casual he has in his closet, hates button downs and polo shirts) and is more of an outdoorsman type than anything else. I realize I am being very obsessional but that is who I am. As far as the questionâI canât see in the Berkshire materials and I donât want to email prematurely. At your school what is the sequence: dress for classes, after school sports uniform . and then ? for dinner . . and then I am assuming whatever you want for study hall and hanging out. That seems to me like a lot of changes for one day.
We did not invest in any âqualityâ for BS as our son could care less if there were a horse, lizard, or sloth on the pocket. Also, given his rate of growth, it would have been a waste. Target and WalMart were fine for him and, as Iâve posted many times, he only brought about two weeks worth of clothes to BS and supplemented as necessary. Each day, he wore:
Class dress
Sports Uni
Shorts or jeans/tee shirt
I guess. I never asked. We let him do his own packing.
My point is, donât overthink this. Just donât send them naked and theyâll be fine.
Funny story, though. Because our last name is a known brand (but absolutely no relation), kids always thought he was from âthatâ family no matter how often he denied it. Perhaps they thought he was making an anti-statement with his clothes.
Pretty much concur with everything @ChoatieMom says. Although since my school was casual dress, 1 and 3 tended to be the same, since I was not going to change in the lockerroom into (1) only to change in my dorm into (3).
Depends on dinner dress code. For some, it could be clean sweatpants or jeans, a t-shirt and wet hair after a post-sport shower. If the school has things like seated meal for dinners some nights of the week, more effort for dressing up for that meal will be required.
At Salisbury the general sequence seems to be formal dress for classes and lunch (jacket, tie, slacks, socks, shoes, belt), then sports, and colored shirt and pants (no jeans) for dinner. I think Saturday evening through Sunday are casual. There are some different variations on different days, sit down dinners, etc., but that looks like the basic rule. I hope DS can get and keep it straight as to when he needs to wear a tie, etc.! I am with you about buying quality; Iâve bought some stuff off the J Crew outlet site lately (he likes it and things fit him well), and some shirts and Bermuda shorts at a consignment store â good brands in good condition, and DS was thrilled and grateful.
Going back to sadieshadowâs concerns mentioned in post #103: I donât want him to look ârichâ or like he is trying to be all âpreppyâ
I think having a few branded pieces is totally fine. Itâs not like he is wearing Prada (or other super $$$ designer clothing) head to toe (and believe me, there are kids at BS who can/do do this). I also subscribe to your âqualityâ philosophy. So my kids might have a Barbour jacket or a J Crew blazer, but itâs worn over some Target shirt/pants. For the most part, I shy away from logoâd clothing, but at this point, Polo is fairly mainstream. And J. Crew stuff generally does not have any logo that can be seen by a bystander.
Regarding the âpreppyâ thingâŠit is prep school after allâŠand heâs just conforming to dress code. I think a bigger concern would be that your son feels comfortable wearing the stuff. Or does it feel too much like a costume? When I was in college, one of my marketing professors always wore a tailored suit, a Barbour jacket, and a famous brand of swiss watch. When I noted this to him, he replied with something that has stuck with me to this dayâŠsaying âItâs just a uniform.â. I have seen the truth of that play out my entire adult lifeâŠsome trappings are just are just thatâŠa uniform.
@Choatie Mom: Donât worry, itâs a compliment! The fictional hero of the eponymous books (and 2 movies) is ex-military now living a sort of ronin (another thing to google) helping people out as he travels the US. One of his traits is that he generally does not do laundryâŠpreferring to buy new clothes instead.
my boys have a formal dress code; however, their favorite, canât live without non-dress code items are: fleece jacket, ugg-type slippers, flannel shirt, long underwear (REI is great for warm clothing and I love their cash back policy if you sign up for their one time $20 membership fee).
Also, Lands End no iron dress shirts have held up extremely well over the years.
@ChoatieMom , Please point me toward the brand that has a sloth on the pocket. Parents, donât forget the joys of thrift/consignment shopping. This is a boy thread, but I will mention that we recently left a consignment shop with 6 dresses (one prom worthy and each at least $250 retail), a top, a pair of $100+ jeans, and a Ralph Lauren shirt for the boy who came along for the ride. Cost: about $240. My son has really started to enjoy hunting for good stuff in thrift stores and on clearance racks.
We bought my son all new clothes for the start of his new school because he had worn uniforms all of his life. By Christmas, all of his pants were too short. Went to a thrift store and found him 6 pair of brand name pants for a grand total of $18. They were havng a half off sale but even without the sale, it was a great deal.
My kid sported bean boots. Both are worn by guys.
