Teach Your Child Style by Setting the Perfect Example
Teach Your Child Style by Setting the Perfect Example
Teaching your child to be stylish starts with setting a great example. You might be thinking, “Easier said than done!” or “What if I’m not a fashionista myself?” The answer is simple: start with yourself. Let’s explore how you can achieve this together.
Begin with Your Own Wardrobe
Agreed, it’s a great motivation to first organize your own wardrobe before helping your child. Start by creating a versatile base of essential items for yourself. Believe it or not, you don’t need as many pieces as you think to achieve variety and happiness in your wardrobe. The key is to remember a few essential rules.
Avoid Impulse Buying
Before purchasing another item, ask yourself if it’s truly necessary or if it’s just an “Instagram syndrome” purchase (for a photo or a one-time outing). In 57% of cases, our purchases are impulsive rather than driven by real need. When it comes to children’s clothing, the likelihood of impulsive buys is even higher at 99.9%.
Trust me, both you and your child can create fantastic daily outfits with around 10 essential pieces.
Enhance Your Base with Accessories
For moms, accessories and jewelry can organically complement a good base wardrobe. For children, focus on items like tights, socks, and small elements. These details can create a sense of novelty, making it feel like you’re not wearing a uniform every day. This trick works well even with a prescribed dress code, such as school uniforms.
Avoid Gender-Specific Colors
Many moms still adhere to the “pink for girls, blue for boys” rule. But then, don’t be surprised if your daughter wants to wear only glittery skirts and unicorn tops to school. From a young age, she’s been shown that a girl’s wardrobe consists of shades from dusty rose to fuchsia. But what’s wrong with natural colors like beige, brown, khaki, green, or gray? Nothing. In fact, these colors offer much more versatility in creating outfits than a pink and lilac palette.
Consider Oversized Clothing
Some might argue that children outgrow their clothes quickly, necessitating frequent wardrobe updates. However, oversized clothing can be a great solution. These pieces are no longer seen as “grow-into” clothes but are trendy and current. Fashion to the rescue!
Allow Your Child to Choose
As a mom of a three-year-old, I can attest to the importance of giving children the right to choose. It makes them feel heard and confident, just like mom. However, offering choices should be done wisely. Instead of simply saying, “Decide what to wear,” and risking your child getting lost in a sea of options, use a smarter approach. Offer 2-3 suitable options based on the occasion, season, or weather. This trick, borrowed from my own mom, has been successfully tested on me, my younger sister, and my daughter.
Teach Mindful Shopping
Start as early as possible. Even if your child doesn’t fully understand now, rest assured that you’re planting seeds of eco-consciousness regarding purchases and wardrobes. When your child grows up, they won’t have issues with capsule wardrobes. After their first independent shopping trip, you’re more likely to find a versatile skirt or dress in their bag rather than a neon sweater with Disney characters.
For more insights, follow stylist Ekaterina Pirozhok on Instagram @dress.u.by.
