The Summer Style Edit: Children ☀️🌈
Cute Enough for the Photos, Practical Enough for Everything Else
Children’s summer fashion has one enormous advantage over adult fashion.
You’re allowed to have fun.
Want strawberries on a dress? Fine.
Dinosaurs wearing sunglasses? Excellent.
A T-shirt in a colour so bright it could probably be seen from space?
Absolutely.
For the next instalment of the Hayls Beauty Tales Summer Style Edit, we’re tackling children’s wardrobes — and my priorities are very simple:
Comfort. Practicality. Personality.
And preferably something that survives an encounter with an ice lolly.
Start With Clothes They Can Actually Play In
This sounds obvious, but children’s clothes need to work for children’s lives.
They’re going to run.
Climb.
Sit on the floor.
Roll around on the grass five minutes after you’ve specifically asked them not to.
Summer clothes should let them do all of that.
Look for soft cotton, breathable fabrics, stretchy waistbands and shapes that allow plenty of movement.
A beautiful outfit that requires a child to stand perfectly still isn’t really a children’s outfit.
It’s a photography prop.
The Summer T-Shirt Collection
This is where I’d have fun.
You need the basics, certainly, but children’s T-shirts are such an easy place to let personality come through.
Animals, dinosaurs, flowers, rainbows, favourite characters, sports, space, cars, cute slogans — whatever they’re currently obsessed with.
And yes, I think children should get some say in this.
If the seven-year-old wants the ridiculous shark T-shirt and you know they’ll happily wear it twelve times this summer?
The shark wins.
That’s a much better purchase than the tasteful beige top they refuse to touch.
Shorts That Can Survive Childhood
For everyday summer adventures, comfort wins.
Cotton shorts, jersey styles, denim, pull-on shorts and practical cargo styles all have their place.
Yes, I know.
I threatened to confiscate terrible cargo shorts from the men in our last edit.
Children are exempt.
They actually have things to put in the pockets.
Usually stones.
Occasionally a leaf.
Sometimes something you’re better off not investigating.
Dresses Made for Twirling
Summer dresses for children are just delightful.
Give me gingham.
Give me florals.
Give me fruit prints and little embroidered details and cheerful colours.
But again, we’re looking for something they can move in.
Soft cotton dresses, T-shirt dresses and loose sundresses are brilliant because they can look lovely without feeling overly formal.
Add leggings or cycling shorts underneath if that makes playing more comfortable.
Pretty and practical are allowed to coexist.
The Matching Set Is Having a Moment
I love a children’s matching set because someone else has essentially done the styling for you.
Top.
Shorts.
Done.
But you can also split the pieces up and wear them with other things, which makes a good co-ord surprisingly useful.
I’d particularly look for colourful prints, stripes and little summer motifs.
They’re adorable in photographs without requiring much effort.
We appreciate this.
One Smart Outfit
Children don’t need an entire wardrobe of occasionwear they’ll grow out of approximately six minutes later.
I’d rather have one reliable smarter outfit ready for summer parties, weddings, family meals and celebrations.
A lovely dress and cardigan.
Or smart shorts/trousers with a shirt or polo.
Keep the shoes relatively versatile too.
Then when someone suddenly announces a family event you forgot was happening, you’re not panic-shopping on Thursday night.
Don’t Forget the British Summer Layer
You knew this was coming.
Sunshine at 2pm.
Arctic expedition by 6pm.
Every child’s summer wardrobe needs something they can throw on.
A denim jacket, lightweight cardigan, zip hoodie or little overshirt can live in the car or bag ready for the inevitable temperature change.
For younger children especially, layers are your friend.
Shoes Need to Pass the Running Test
Children’s summer shoes need to do rather more than look nice.
They need to survive playgrounds, parks, beaches, holidays and whatever mysterious activity causes a perfectly clean shoe to become filthy within eleven minutes.
I’d keep things simple:
Trainers, comfortable sandals and something suitable for water or the beach.
If you’ve got an occasion coming up, add a smarter pair.
And please don’t buy the summer shoes six months early because they’re adorable.
Children have an astonishing ability to grow an entire shoe size approximately four minutes before a holiday.
Hats Are Part of the Outfit
Sun hats are practical, obviously, but they’re also another opportunity for personality.
Bucket hats are particularly useful because they work with so many casual outfits and come in every colour and print imaginable.
Let them choose one they actually like.
Because the world’s most sensible sun hat provides remarkably little sun protection when its owner has removed it and thrown it underneath the pushchair.
Let Them Develop Their Own Style
This might actually be my favourite part of children’s fashion.
We’re watching the very beginning of someone’s relationship with clothes.
One child wants everything pink.
Another refuses to wear anything except dinosaurs.
One loves dresses.
Another wants shorts every day.
One apparently wakes up and chooses to dress like a tiny eccentric art teacher.
Let them experiment.
Within whatever practical boundaries you need, clothing can be a lovely, harmless way for children to begin expressing their tastes.
They don’t need to understand fashion.
They just need to know:
I like this.
The Children’s Summer Capsule
If I were putting together a practical summer wardrobe, I’d start with five or six T-shirts/tops, several pairs of shorts, a couple of dresses or matching sets depending on preference, one smarter outfit, a lightweight layer, trainers, sandals, a sun hat and swimwear.
Then I’d add personality through prints, colours and accessories.
And because children grow quickly, this is one category where I absolutely wouldn’t dismiss second-hand shopping, hand-me-downs and clothing swaps.
A gorgeous little summer dress doesn’t become less gorgeous because another child loved it first.
Fashion Should Still Feel Like Play 🌈
That’s the biggest difference between this edit and the women’s and men’s versions.
Adults spend years learning fashion rules.
Children haven’t discovered most of them yet.
And perhaps that’s rather wonderful.
Wear the rainbow shorts.
Put the sparkly shoes with the dinosaur T-shirt.
Carry the tiny handbag containing one toy car and half a biscuit.
Summer is short.
Let their clothes be fun.
Next in our Summer Style Edit, we’re tackling a particularly interesting wardrobe: teenagers — where trends, individuality, budgets and the desire to absolutely not wear whatever Mum suggests all collide.
Love,
Hayls x