Wardrobe Wednesday: Neon Animal Print

May 16, 2012

Hilary

I’ve said many times that children’s clothing companies need to start making mommy sizes (though I just noticed Gymboree is doing that). Every time I walk into a Gap Kids, I feel envy towards little girls who have access to the colorful, sparkly, and based-on-long-gone era collections while the grown-up styles are rather basic (for lack of a better word). However, when it comes to styling my own daughters, I take a lot of inspiration from women’s fashion and accessories. The way I see it: if it’s something I would like, I’m going to find the mini-me version. I don’t look for something sophisticated or sexy (ugh Toddlers and Tiaras!), instead I look at colors, prints, whole ensembles, and accessories. For example, my inspiration for this post came from the Falchi collection of clothing and accessories at Macy’s (I spotted it in InStyle magazine during my few hours of Mother’s Day quiet bliss). I loved this neon animal print bangle ($36), shown as the inspiration piece below, and so I went on a hunt for neon animal print children’s clothing. Sounds so specific right? Well it wasn’t much of a hunt at all; the trend is everywhere! And can we talk about the animal print iPad sleeve for a second? One size fits all ages of course!

Here’s a quick styling tip (see picture below product info): You want to avoid an overload of animal print. Pair the Baby Phat dress below with a denim jacket from Lands’ End. With the green bows, you have a little more wiggle room since it’s a small amount. Pair them with a graphic tee from Children’s Place or just add a little pop of personality to a neutral dress from Old Navy. Of course, your Fancy Girl will most likely mix all different kinds of prints and patterns; try and resist correcting her choices and instead enjoy the fact that she is being creative with color and dressing herself!