Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette!
Today's video is about 8 tips on how to dress well with kids, babies, and children.
If you watch this video, you probably know being a parent is hard messy work; between
the boogers, sicknesses, illnesses, puke, daycare trips, and everything around, it's
really hard to remain well put together and stylishly tailored.
I can speak from experience because I have an infant daughter and my clothes certainly
are more stained than before.
She'll put everything in her mouth starting with the tassels on my shoes, the tie in my
neck, and she likes to pull my pocket squares, and eat the boutonnieres.
I love to play with her, I carry her around, I'm laying around it with her at the floor,
so the big question is, how do you remain stylish when doing all those things?
The reality is your clothes will get dirty, they will get stained, and it's better to
just accept that.
Now, you never want a precious suit to be in the way between you and playing with your
child, so here my 8 tips to stay classically elegant without ruining clothes at the same
time, while building a great relationship with your kid.
So first of all, be keenly aware of what can and cannot be cleaned very easily in your
wardrobe.
That means check out the tags, a wool sweater is harder to clean than a cotton sweater.
Same thing with a cashmere sweater, you probably have to bring it to a dry cleaner which is
a huge pain in the bum and therefore, once it gets stained and
you leave it at home because you don't clean it, the stain will set in and the sweater
is ruined.
So what about suits and jackets?
I still wear them and I roll around them on the floor playing with my daughter because
I just like to dress up, at the same time, I just accept that every once in a while,
I'll get some snot on there, I'll get some spit on there, and I just have to live with
it, and ideally, I have a little wipe with me so I can clean it off right away.
Of course, I also don't wear my most cherished clothes when we have dinner together and she
throws the food all over because that's just a recipe for disaster.
Which brings us to the second point, don't wear clothes around children that can't get
dirty.
So if you come home from work in a suit, change right away.
You may even have to enlist the help of your spouse or your partner so you can keep the
dirty fingers away from your clothes while you do that or you could even change
beforehand and then just walk in with your wardrobe back.
In my experience, an essential tool is having a burp cloth because it helps you to wipe
things off your kids faces or hands before it touches your clothes.
The best burp cloths I've found are actually cotton diapers
and they're really soft so they're not harsh on your baby's skin at the same time, they
are easily washable, you can even bleach them, and they're just a godsend.
In the beginning, I was like why on earth do we need 20 of those?
Now I'd say 20 are the minimum because they get dirty quickly, you have to wash them,
and you always want to have something handy so you protect your clothes and other things
in your house.
The third tip is to keep a second set of clothes always handy.
For example, my father brought his daughter to the daycare, she screamed, he had coffee,
he spilled it all over himself and had to go to the office with a huge coffee stain
on his shirt.
Mess with children are unpredictable but what is predictable is that they will happen.
So if you have a kid, you'll likely have a second outfit already so just do the same
for yourself.
Ideally, you have something that is very versatile such as a white dress shirt, maybe even a
light blue one, a red tie, maybe a blazer, and a pair of slacks, that way, you always
have something that you can wear and exchange and you don't have to embarrass yourself just
because you had kids that spilled stuff on you.
Four, adjust your everyday wardrobe so it better suits your family.
You never want to be at distance with your kid or not play with them simply because you
don't want your clothes to get stained.
So that means adding more easily washable items to your wardrobe; that could be a pair
of corduroys in the winter, a pair of cotton khakis in the summer, maybe a cotton polo
shirt, or when it's a little cooler in between the seasons, cotton sweaters, cotton cardigans,
or cotton vests.
The great thing is they're easy to layer over a shirt and a tie, they can be worn even without
a jacket but it looks more well-put-together and dressed.
These items also allow for layers underneath and if you haven't already done so, please
check out our respective guides on the website here.
we have something about sweaters and cardigans as well as vests.
Because things can get stains so easily, it pays to have multiples of an item that you
really love.
Is it a pair of corduroys that you want?
Maybe get a second pair so if something is stained, you can always wear the other pair.
In my experience, bowties last longer than neckties because there's nothing dangling
down that kids can pull on.
Of course, if you carry your baby facing you, she'll likely be pulling your bow tie and
in that case, it maybe pays to skip the neckwear for a day, otherwise, it'll get easily stained
and it's hard to dry clean.
I also suggest you consider wrinkle resistant dress shirts and by that, I don't mean the
non-iron dress shirts because ultimately, they don't really exist.
Some of them are treated with a formaldehyde and it makes the shirt feel plasticky but
the capability of being wrinkle-free kind of disappears after a few dozens of washes.
Pretty much the only brand I've seen out there that has a good product is Eton of Sweden,
it's a more natural process and it's not iron free
but you get a lot fewer wrinkles, the problem is they cost 300 bucks off the rack which
is more expensive than custom shirts.
So, it's really a hard investment.
In my experience, a super 80s yarn which is thicker than a super 140s yarn, wrinkles a
lot less and when you wash it and hang it up on a
hanger, let it dry, you can wear it without ironing it.
It's not perfect like an ironed shirt but it's also not super wrinkly.
If you want a crisp shirt, check out our guide on how to iron a shirt like a pro at home,
it's really helpful and I'll share lots of details there.
Last but not the least, it means stocking up on easy to put on and off shoes such as
loafers, maybe boat shoes, they're just easy and you
can't always tie your shoe if you have a kid on your arm so it's really wise to have something
that could wear that is stylish but also convenient.
In the winter, maybe you opt for Chelsea boots, in the summer, boat shoes and loafers.
Five, become a master for home stain removal and treatments.
The sooner you can take care of a stain, the less likely it is to remain in your clothes.
Also understand what kind of stain you have, for example, if you've an oil stain, you have
to blot it maybe with a kitchen towel, try to have it absorb as much as you can and then
have it cleaned accordingly later on.
The longer the stain sits, the more it settles in and the harder it is to remove.
I suggest you just quickly google the remedy when natural stain happens with a specific
item, that way, you can take the right course of action.
In an ideal world, you also have a little Tide stick with you but that's a little thick
and bulky.
I have this kind of Shout wipes in my wallet, they're easy to bring along, and you'll always
have something when you need it.
Six, find a reliable dry cleaner.
Now, dry cleaning for your suits and jackets is not good because it usually shortens the
lifespan but sometimes, it's inevitable.
I found that keeping a close relationship with my dry cleaner and tipping them well
helps me to get things back earlier and they also treat me well and sometimes, even work
on something after hours if I need it urgently.
Some dry cleaners even offer a pickup a delivery service for free or the marginal rate and
I strongly suggest that because with kids, time is a rare good.
Always keep in mind, not all dry cleaners are created alike and if you have expensive
custom garments, it's not wise to send them down the road where everything is machine
ironed and washed in a way that may actually damage your garments.
Seven, cover up at mealtimes.
Rather than investing in an apron, actually get a chef's jacket which is just as inexpensive
as an apron but it covers your sleeves and everything.
It is also white so you can easily wash it and bleach it and it will definitely help
you protect your clothes.
Personally for me, that goes a step too far.
I just remove my jacket when I eat next to my child and make sure that we have a cleaning
cloth before she starts eating so we can wipe her mouth and her hands down when she's done.
Eight, last but not least, accept that some things will get ruined.
There's no way around it, you just have to accept it, and maybe put things away that
you really cherish and they're irreplaceable until your kid is not so dirty anymore.
In today's video I'm wearing a typical dad outfit which consists of a polo shirt that's
easily washable because made out of cotton same thing with my pants which are seersucker
which are very wrinkle resistant naturally but can also be easily washed so great combination
for my shoes of a pair of tassel loafers easy to get in and out of I paired them with some
over the calf socks from Fort Belvedere in brown and green to pick up the color of the
shoe just to create a little bit of contrast
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