euro style for my little man

A friend of mine made a comment on my facebook page that she’d love to see more style posts about how I dress my son. It’s no secret that in Italy parents take as much care into dressing their mini-me as they do in dressing themselves!

The culture of putting your best foot forward and having a “bella presenza” applies as much to children as it does to adults in Italy. Now, this isn’t to say that Italians don’t want kids to just be kids, it is more about giving kids a respectable social presence and making them feel part of society.

We bring our son EVERYWHERE with us, he’s been to many aperitivos, museums and galleries, social events, festivals and even eaten in a 3 Michelin star restaurant by the World’s best Chef!!

He gets his clothes dirty and plays on the ground just like all the other kids, even if he is wearing “nice clothes”, our philosophy is they can always be washed!

So, I’ve decided to post a bit about his outfits, to give other moms out there some inspiration for their own little boys. Especially since, when I was pregnant, everyone told me that you can’t have as much fun dressing boys as you can girls, but I am having a GREAT TIME dressing him!

If you follow my style posts you know that I usually share not only what I wore but where I went, and for my son I’ll do the same!

The Reason He Dressed

During our trip to Rome we spent the Saturday at the Bio Park, I’ve done a full post all about the “zoo” here. On Sunday we went to Explora the Children’s Museum for his birthday party and on the Monday we tried to go back since there was so much to see. IT WAS CLOSED so Gillian and I went for a long walk instead!

So on the Tuesday I thought I would make another attempt at Explora since there was so much to do at this Children’s Museum that you could easily go a few times and not get bored.

My son and I caught the tram in Rome’s Pignetto neighborhood, but after 10 minutes our tram stopped working because of a technical malfunction (we are in Italy after all!!). All of the trams on the line got backed up behind us and the commuters going to work had to get off and walk to the nearest subway or finish their commute by foot. We didn’t know the area, so eventually I asked another tram driver on a line that was working if he went anywhere “fun”, turns out it was the direct line back to the BioPark, so I decided to have another day at the zoo!!!

And so back we went! WE got to see all the animals we missed the first time around!

This was a very different experience since it was just he and I and we had a nice mommy son day chatting about the animals and talking about life!

What He Wore

He got this super cute sweatshirt from Gillian for his 2nd birthday! It is by the French brand dis une culeur and I absolutely ADORE IT ON HIM!

The Little Boy Dress Shirt!

His plaid dress shirt underneath is by Polo Ralph Lauren. One of the keys to dressing your little boy in an “Italian” way, is to put a collared dress shirt under a light sweater. It gives them instant chic and makes them look like little men. From a North American perspective this may seem like Italians are trying too hard to make their little boys sophisticated, but this actually serves a practical purpose.

It Italy there are often temperature fluctuations between standing in the sun vs.It the shade, add in humidity and a slight breeze and you got yourself the perfect recipe for a cold! Or even worse, the dreaded “mal di gola”, which I’ve written about here. Italians dress in cotton layers to prevent getting over hot and sweating and then going into the shade and catching a chill (aka getting sick). So you would first put a cotton undershirt on a child, then a cotton dress shirt and then a light sweater to ensure that you can always pull off a layer if they get too hot, but also allowing them to be well-covered to prevent a chill!

His pants are by the French brand Grain de Ble, which has many stores throughout Italy. They are not cheap by any means but are reasonable and a few times a year have great sales! I really think their clothing is very functional while maintaining a great style (also without being OVERLY stylish) and I stalk up at their sales!

These pants are lined so they are perfect for the winter months, where snowpants are too hot for Italy, but jeans are a little too cold. They have all kinds of great cargo pockets that have obviously never been used!!

His shoes are real leather ankle boots from Zara Baby and I love them. I love Zara baby shoes and find them the perfect balance between style and comfort, they are made very well and give excellent support which is a must for growing feet.

So there you have it! My first Italian kid style post, what do you think? Do you want to see more of his style? I would love to hear how you dress your children and what you think about dressing little kids like adults!

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