Style In It's Purest Form

"Do not let others look down on you because you are young, but set forth an example..."

1 Timothy, 4:12

Okay... I know, I'm reaching, here. Forsaking context when quoting scripture. But this Biblical reference popped into my head tonight when my three-and-a-half year-old son approached me tonight with explicit instructions on how I needed to help him get dressed.

It has been snowing today, you see, and my wife asked my son if he'd let her take him walking in the snow. My boy, Benjamin, required very little consideration prior to issuing his reply. "Yes," Ben said. "I'll go get dressed." Benjamin ran upstairs to his room and began preparing himself to brave the cold as my wife did the same in our bedroom. A few moments later Benjamin ran back into our kitchen where I stood cooking, and said "Dad! I need your help!" I turned and looked down to see a very well put-together young man.

I asked him, "Did you pick out your clothes, Benjamin?" "Uhh... yeah," he replied. He may as well have said "duh," but his tone of voice said it loud and clear, so he stuck with the polite response. I asked what I could help him with and Ben explained that he wanted his scarf tied by folding it in half and pulling the two ends through the loop around his neck, so that the scarf's fire truck insignia could be displayed in the empty triangle where his denim shirt was unbuttoned, and since he was already wearing mittens, he needed me to zip up his outer jacket.

I did what he asked, and then looked him over. I realized that I had to take pictures to preserve the first moment where I had been schooled by my kid. My son knew exactly how he wanted his clothes to appear on him. He had his rubber Wellies (with frog faces on them) peeking out from the bottom of his corduroy cargo pants, his denim shirt peeking out from beneath his Lightning McQueen "letter jacket" hoodie, embroidered fire truck on his scarf sitting adjacent to the embroidered car on his jacket... I was impressed.

And then I realized that this kid has grown up watching me get dressed in the morning. He's shopped with me. He's paid attention to the way I've played around with color, and with layering, and with quirkiness. And then it hit me. Damn. This kid's got style. In fact, this is what style is all about. It's not that the outfit in itself is spectacular, but he's three, and here he has assembled an outfit of various articles of clothing all purchased at different times by different people. He put them together in a way that expressed his personality and he knew in his mind's eye precisely what function every component was to serve. He even told me how to tie his scarf. And this is a kid who has no concept of labels and designer branding... just a kid who understands the essence of what works and what doesn't.

We should all be so lucky.

Cheers!

-Paul