My own fashion models

I like picking out clothes.  I’m a big fan.  Just not exactly for myself right now.  Because I basically hate the way everything looks—because growing and birthing a child changes things.  So I’m working to get things squished back to as close to the way they were as possible, but it’s slow going.  Though I can excitedly tell you that pants that were too tight in August now fit comfortably, if not even a bit loosely.  But for the time being, my boys are my fashion muses.  Liam is easy and fun.  Old Navy and Baby GAP are my BFFs when it comes to dressing little Liam—and they are always running sales so I can get things for cheap—like this outfit, which is a personal favorite of mine.

I like dressing the bitty in little boy versions of big boy clothes—I’d be 100 percent okay with him wearing this outfit when he’s five or fifteen.  Heck, if I could find that shirt or those shoes in Andy’s size, he’d have them.

As for Andy, his style is changing a little.  He had mentioned a while ago that he wanted to dress a little nicer.  I’ve been trying to help him out with that, and come up with a few suggestions.  My first was that we could see if Lauren could take a picture of Jeff every day, so he could see what a fashionable man looked like.  Then I thought maybe we should just move next to them, but neither of those seemed like they would work out.  Major sad.  Then I thought we could drive to Louisville and check out Jon Harris’s closet, but that seemed like it could be an awkward conversation to have.  (Hi Jon and Carrie—how’s Parker?  We need to come see him soon…and you know, look through Jon’s clothes:) Love you guys!)

But then I finally hit on the best plan of all.  Make Andy dress like Ben Wyatt.  A fictional character from Parks and Recreation. You see, for a long while, I thought Andy should try the Ted Mosby look from How I Met Your Mother….but Ted has a variety of looks, and Andy’s not really a sweater vest kind of guy.  But Ben Wyatt—Ben Wyatt can be done.  Ben Wyatt is my jam.  So last night while we were watching a repeat of Parks and Recreation, I pointed out Ben’s style—plaid or striped dress shirt with a slim cut, a skinny tie, and either jeans or chinos.  See below.  Perfect.  It’s casual, but dressy.  It’s put together without trying too hard.  And it would be great for Andy’s casual office.  There is no dress code at Andy’s office, which is great, except that sometimes it can run too casual.  And the best part?  Andy agreed—he liked Ben’s style and thought he’d enjoy trying to recreate.  Amazeballs.  Andy has pointed out that he would prefer to be dressier, but his dressy clothes were more like what my Dad would wear…or his own Dad.  There is nothing wrong with the way that either of our dad’s dresses….but they are 20-30 years older than Andy.  He’s in his 20’s, he doesn’t need to dress like he’s in his 50’s.  

So I’m helping a brother out.  I ordered two plaid shirts from Ebay this morning…one from the GAP and one from J. Crew (oh J. Crew….you steal my heart) and two skinny ties.  By using Ebay, I got them all way cheap.  So now I just need a few more of each….shirts and ties, and a few pairs of pants with a more modern cut, and he’ll be set for his new Ben Wyatt wardrobe…and I, for one, can’t wait.