Just the other day I was talking to my parents about a baby picture they have of me wearing white sneakers, navy blue shorts, a white button down shirt with a navy blue bow tie (clip on, I assume), and a tan, navy checked blazer with no lapels.
How I pulled off a blazer with no lapels is beyond
me, but needless to say, not only was I looking good, I was very preppy.
There are numerous pictures of me wearing clothes more fit for a country club
gentleman rather than a toddler who’ll probably just smile and then spit up on
his new navy blazer.
Nevertheless, I think my mom was on to something when she used to dress me. It’s shaped the way I dress today.
Go back and take a look at your baby or adolescent
pictures. Often times we rolled, crawled and then walked around in onesies and
footies.
But look at the way you dress now. Notice any resemblance?
If you don’t, that’s okay too. Maybe your parents
set you down in diapers and spoke baby gibberish to get you to smile for
pictures, but most of the time your parents dressed you up to
go meet relatives, to go to school, to go to church, etc.
Why did all of that have to stop when we got older?
I see nearly everything as an occasion. Am I
wearing a blazer to do everything? No. But I do think about how I look before I
do anything. Why? It’s out of respect for the occasion.
We subconsciously had that when we were babies. Everything was an event. Well, guess what? It still is.
Life is an event. When you go eat lunch with your
friends today that’s event. When you go to the mall or go to class (yes, I said
class) those are events.
Some people don’t even dress well to things that actually are labeled “an event." Have we lost that sense of style we had when our loving parents dressed us each morning?
I say we bring it back. If you were a prep growing
up go ahead and bring back those cropped khakis with the deep creases and that
bow tie. If your parents dressed you in t-shirt and jeans for everything, buy
some vintage T’s, fitted jeans and some cool sneakers with little lining so you
won’t need socks.
If you wore suspenders, go ahead and channel your inner Larry King and bring those back too.
Don’t worry about what people are going to think. You didn’t care when you were a baby, did you? If someone asks you about it just say, “I’m bringing back my baby style” or “this is my 1989 swagger” (I was four years old then), or whenever you were born – bring it back.
So if you see me walking around with a blazer and a bow tie this fall, don’t be alarmed, it’s probably because I’m bringing back my baby swagger, the best – and most precious - kind there is.
