There is something about summer that makes me pick a style and stick to it.  When I was younger, summer was time to bring out the hippie chick in me.  I sought out the long flowing skirts, a touch of tie dye and the leather sandals (although perhaps vegan would have been more appropriate) that just had a single loop over a toe here and an arch there.  Maybe it is because of living in New England for so long, but now summer brings out the opposite in me.  I like the cool clean look of classic navy, white, stripes, and tailored clothes.  With an added pop of colour from some fun and fabulous accessories.

For the children, I have two goals…okay maybe three.

1. Keep them cool and covered. Covered enough to go down a slide that might be hot at the playground.  Covered enough so that whey they fall and skin their knees it goes through the clothing first (I prefer ripped fabric to ripped skin.)  Covered enough to help with sun protection.
2. Dress them so they look decent.  (Decent is a relative term.  Sometimes, decent just means that they are covered.  Other times, it means that their favorite t-shirt, a tantrum-worthy item of clothing, is clean enough to pull out of the dirty hamper.)  In my ideal world, decent means they are wearing an outfit I bought with all the pieces together as they were meant to be worn.
3. Dress them appropriately.  In our family this means brands are okay but we’re not a walking billboard for anything from IronKids to Disney.  The children have their IronMan IronKids shirts from when they ran the race, and of course they’re allowed to wear it, but we don’t spend money on a piece of clothing that looks more like an ad than a piece of fashion.  Low cut, no cut, racy, spacey.  These are not what I want my children’s clothing to be saying about the person wearing them.  I want my kids to be able to express themselves through their clothing, but if they really want something that I don’t like, I try to find out what it is about the clothing that they’re after and we find a way to choose a shirt, top, dress, pair of shoes that keeps us both happy.

So back to Summer and classic, perhaps “nautical chic” here are some sales you might want to check out to update their summer wardrobe.

Polarn O. Pyret, that is opening a store at The Street Chestnut Hill soon, is having their Best Basics Bi-Annual sale from now until June 12th.  You’ll find the classic navy, white and red, t-shirts.  You’ll find a selection of their ECO 100% organic clothing.  The Best Basics sale includes:  tops, bottoms, swim, outerwear, and their classic Swedish stripes collection.

Classic American “nautical chic” has many brands attached to them from some of the the original brands Ralph Lauren, Polo, Brooks Brothers, Tommy Hilfiger, and so many more, but many of the original brands branched off and tried new things, while others are returning to their preppy roots.  Then there are newer brands like Vineyard Vines and for all your boy’s and men’s summer accessories Bird Dog Bay that do a few things and a few things well.

Vineyard Vines has their Whalehouse warehouse sale coming up.  Jodi Grundig over at Mom’s Favorite Stuff has a great recap of the winter sale to show you what you can expect.  The Whalehouse sale runs from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and starts, tomorrow, Friday, June 8th and ends June 16th.

Other stores where you may find some great pieces for the summer:  Mini Boden (online or at Nordstrom stores), Crew Cuts, and Petit Bateau.  Petit Bateau even has a great offer to join their email list and get 25% off your next order.  Crew Cuts has 25% off online with the code: SUMMER or you can shop in store.  The sale goes through June 9th, 2013.  Heading over to Petit Bateau and Crew Cuts now to stock up on some of our favorites!