Boy Mom Madness {Dressing Southern Gents}

at 04.30

Day four of our Boy Mom Madness series bring all sorts of thoughts on boy style and boy mom style!

As a follow up to my Dressing Southern Tots post, I thought it high time that I follow up with my thoughts on dressing Southern Gents. I’m going to venture a guess that I’m not the only one out there whose boy could live in gym clothes and be happy as a clam. But, they have finally accepted the fact that there are days and times when they are going to have to head to the closet for something nice… be it a suit or simply plaid shorts with polo shirt.

We lean towards the preppy, and favor Southern staples like seersucker and bowties.
Favorite brands:

Vineyard Vines (tees, bowties, polos, shorts, swim trunks, button downs)
The Beaufort Bonnet Company (monogrammed bow ties!)
Polo Ralph Lauren (polos, plaid shorts, swim trunks, button downs)
Lilly Pulitzer (grab it when you see it… boy stuff is rare; love shorts and swim trunks)
Lands End (sport coats, pants, slacks, polos, sweaters, vests, button downs, tees)
Kelly’s Kids (great option for coordinating siblings…critter shorts, polo shirts, plaids, button downs, seersucker suits)
Leatherman Ltd (flip flops and belts… I purchase at Polka Dots in Savannah)

Other tips:

I buy the majority of their clothes a season ahead once they go on sale, and then splurged on a few can’t-live-without full priced things once the new lines came out.
I buy basic khacki and navy shorts at Target. Picked them up for this season yesterday at $8 a pop.
I also pick up a few solid color polos at Target each year and monogram them.
While I don’t have any luck passing down play clothes, tees and gym attire any more (they are so ratty), the nicer things I buy DO survive two boys and usually cousin Jay as well.
Our dress shoes of choice are tan bucks and sperry topsiders.

I keep hearing from friends with older boys that they will, at some point, embrace wearing nice respectable clothes. For now, it’s just another way I torture them :-) Feel free to comment with YOUR favorite places to shop for your little gents!

Be sure to hop over to the other boy mom blogs and check out their style posts!