Status clothes on kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We only buy at thrift stores/ goodwill/Salvation Army. There are so many Patagonia/North Face corporate branded items for $8. My kids currently work for two law firms, a finance shop and tech start up based on their closet. And yes, I had to google most of the companies.

Have you confused Patagonia and North Face with being “elite” or high end??

[Anonymous]

Personal opinion: I find it weird when middle and high schoolers wear Ivy shirts. Not pretentious. Just, like, nobody used to do that, you know? But I don't think most people blink.

And I'm not wealthy enough myself to know about less-obvious wealthy vacation destinations, so that would sail right over my head.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We're French. We don't look French to Americans because we're not Caucasian. My kids have worn plenty of French items over the years.

My husband once worked for a certain well-known company and brought home apparel from it.

What you're missing is that in those circles there's no specific message attached to it. People wear what's available.

You sound embarrassingly insecure.

OP here and I am not bothered by this, but my husband told me that "many people" find it pretentious. I don't care either way.

But you also misread my post because I wasn't talking about wearing "French items". I was talking specifically about t-shirts, hats, and sweatshirts advertising the name of luxury vacation destinations. Not wearing something with French words or something. But something clearly purchased at a luxury destination indicating the person had been to that destination.

PP you replied to. Oh, I understood you perfectly. We go to certain places that your husband might consider fancy, and buy stuff there, in France or elsewhere.

Your husband is showing his class insecurities, OP. You need to educate him. Tell him he will always have more than someone else. Right now, somebody looked at your husband and thought he was pretentious. He has a car, he has a home, he dresses in normal clothes, right? Well, to a certain group of people, that's already rich and smug! Other people will always have more than he has. He needs to accept that and live his own life.

I find it hilarious that your husband would criticize the barely upper middle class, and not the staggeringly wealthy who own private jets, for ex. What does he mean by pretentious? Does he think people "plot" what logos they're going to display on any given day? Does he think they're not as rich as they want to signal? If it's a company shirt, that's stupid.

Your husband is just not making sense. It's his anxiety talking.

Lol, Madame -- I think you are showing your insecurities, actually. My husband is from a much wealthier background than I am, and attended an Ivy. This came up because we recently attended a reunion at his alma mater and bought our kid a sweatshirt, and my husband is embarrassed when the kid wears it because he thinks other people find it pretentious.

But by all means, do keep posting paragraph upon paragraph expounding on your feelings on this subject -- I've been reading these posts to him and every time you say "I am French" he gets a good laugh.

Au revoir mon cheri!

OP, you ASKED for opinions. Why are you criticizing this poster for sharing an opinion that missed the mark? Maybe you shoud have shared this context when you asked the question instead of dismissing a poster who guessed wrong based on the limited info you provided.

I asked what people thought of kids wearing clothes like this, that all. French lady decided to make a bunch of assumptions based on that question (which no one else did). She didn't "guess wrong," she assumed a bunch of stuff because she was dying to judge and condescend. That's her problem.

You seem like the judgemental one, seeing as you have a bee in your bonnet over this days / weeks later. Unclench!

+1

OP is being rude and unkind. PP may have made assumptions but this is an online forum where opinions (which OP asked for) comes w assumptions. If OP is so bothered by others’ calling her DH poor and no class, then she should’ve included that info in the original post.

This thread is irrelevant. Who cares what company or school logos that “average” folks dress their kids in. Why does it matter? Are you and your DH so bored w your life that you need an anonymous forum to settle a pointless and judgey argument.

Stop clutching those pearls. Don’t think you know how and I am sure you will write something snarky back since you are the type that always wants the last word.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personal opinion: I find it weird when middle and high schoolers wear Ivy shirts. Not pretentious. Just, like, nobody used to do that, you know? But I don't think most people blink.

And I'm not wealthy enough myself to know about less-obvious wealthy vacation destinations, so that would sail right over my head.

I’m not a sports person but people have been wearing shirts, sweatshirts, hats from professional and college since I was a teen in the nineties and I’m sure before then. My kids have been wearing Red Sox and patriots gear since they were born. Many first baby gifts were of Boston sports. I remember the teenage boys representing various college sports teams when I was in high school. Maybe if it is Georgia tech or Boston college it isn’t pretentious but if you are wearing Yale it is??

[Anonymous]

DH is a sports guy and he wears various sports shirts whether it is tennis, golf, football, etc. For almost any Christmas or birthday, I may get him a New Jersey or t shirt or his favorite team.

I have two sons and I also get them their favorite teams. I buy spirit wear from every school my child attends. If I’m wearing a fcps public school shirt, it may go unnoticed but maybe if it is from a private school, it is showing off? I have kids at both public and private and have many shirts from both.

[Anonymous]

My dad was a biglaw partner my entire childhood and adolescence. I'd occasionally use/wear his firm swag if it was suitable for my purpose (a jacket that was appropriate for the weather or a water bottle that was the right size for whatever I was doing), but it is weird if you're choosing these items for the purpose of showing off the firm's name.

[Anonymous]

I would consider none of OP's examples to be status clothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We only buy at thrift stores/ goodwill/Salvation Army. There are so many Patagonia/North Face corporate branded items for $8. My kids currently work for two law firms, a finance shop and tech start up based on their closet. And yes, I had to google most of the companies.

Have you confused Patagonia and North Face with being “elite” or high end??

Dp. No, pp is referencing the "elite" job swag that OP directly discusses in the first post.

Law firms don't make their own clothing. They buy Patagonia/North Face items that can be "corporate branded."

[Anonymous]

We get most of our sweatshirts from the thrift store. Perhaps many other people are like OP and are embarrassed by the Ivies because our nicest sweatshirts are all Ivy league schools from the $3 bin.

My 5th grader now collects thrifted Ivy league clothes and thinks it’s funny to wear them to school, often in combination. Last week, he wore a Cornell sweatshirt and a Harvard shirt together. We aren’t fancy and the kids in our public school don’t think any university is “cool” unless it’s a big football school, so most of his peers have no idea where those “prestigious” schools are. All of that to say, people should wear whatever they like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d have more of a problem with a kid wearing a Dior shirt that says the brand name or has a noticeable symbol/pattern. But wearing a Skadden sweatshirt when your mom works there is totally fine.

Please. Who needs a shirt that says "My mom works in BigLaw"?

Unless you are painting the set for the school play, that sounds really show-offy.

To whom? I have no idea who or what Skadden is. I'm an exec at a large defense company and DH is one at a FAANG. I'm pretty sure people know both of them, but maybe not. I'm also pretty sure nobody would think it's showy if we (or the kids) were wearing polos or whatever from our companies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the parents belong to a country club, dress in Hermes and vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, you want them to drive to the mall and buy kids clothes at Old Navy, rather than just buying them stuff at the club/stores where they hang out all the time? The kids are reflecting their parents’ realities.

Those kids are wearing a uniform to school. This is not a problem.

Nope. The HADES schools have a dress code but not a uniform.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Personal opinion: I find it weird when middle and high schoolers wear Ivy shirts. Not pretentious. Just, like, nobody used to do that, you know? But I don't think most people blink.

And I'm not wealthy enough myself to know about less-obvious wealthy vacation destinations, so that would sail right over my head.

I’m not a sports person but people have been wearing shirts, sweatshirts, hats from professional and college since I was a teen in the nineties and I’m sure before then. My kids have been wearing Red Sox and patriots gear since they were born. Many first baby gifts were of Boston sports. I remember the teenage boys representing various college sports teams when I was in high school. Maybe if it is Georgia tech or Boston college it isn’t pretentious but if you are wearing Yale it is??

I did specifically mention older kids, and it's because...they're close to going to college themselves. At some point, they're going to want to identify with their own school.

It's perhaps different if it's "KU Basketball" on a kid whose just a fan, you know? Because it's not abnormal to be a fan of the big state school in your state and go somewhere else. But, like, other than crew is Harvard really known for any sports?

[Anonymous]

Wearing college gear is normal and you don't need to have attended the college. We have all kinds of sweatshirts and t-shirts from schools we have visited, a relative worked at, etc.

It's a t-shirt, not a resume.

[Anonymous]

I’m laughing at the idea of my kids wearing a shirt with my employer’s logo on it and people thinking it’s status.

It’s trash. And it was probably free.

[Anonymous]

I have no problem with kids wearing university sweatshirts. Especially because of college sports. I mean, why would you be okay with a kid wearing a local community college sweatshirt but not a ucla one? Also don’t have an issue with gear from their parents firms, which are usually corporate handouts. I probably wouldn’t buy my kid a tee shirt that says “four seasons Maui” on it but would happily buy them a Hawaii tee shirt if they wanted one…

I think kids wearing shirts that say “Hermes” or other designer logos is tacky.