could you please help my son to dress well?

[areyoureadytobestrong]

My lovely 16 year old has the curse of being the boy that all the girls' mothers want to be their daughter's boyfriend. He is the nice boy!

I know he wants to try to get a girlfriend.

My husband and I both dress badly. So my son does too. This is the first time he has become interested in clothes.

He is skinny, about 5 ft 8/9, with long legs and slim shoulders. He has had poor posture but is working to correct it. Everyone likes him.

He said he'd like some help with his wardrobe for 6th form ("smart-casual")

I wondered where well-dressed 16 year old boys shop? It doesn't need to be designer or anything. And if anyone has tips on how he can keep his clothes looking good and suiting him (are there good sites for teenage males trying to learn this stuff?).

Thank you oh well dressed ones! or mothers of well dressed ones!

They wear suits! No where!🙈

"Dad type clothes/shops"

I had better lock up his father....

Long sleeved T shirts under short sleeved T shirts
Couple of good quality printed T shirts from Urban Outfitters
Jeans or Black jeans not too tight
Beanie hat (if he's going for the skater boy vibe)
Dickies trousers are great if he's an outdoor boy and they have a following amongst art students (or other non label people )
Zip up hoodies from north face or similar, small discreet logo.
Eastpak rucksack or similar

Do you think MNHQ would have a sense of humour if I asked them to edit the OP to take out the bit about girlfriends?

otherwise I could show him the whole thread as it is so useful :)

My 17 year old has a uniform of skinny jeans, hollister or Superdry T-shirt’s & hoodies, Adidas trainers and lots of hollister body spray! He does get a good haircut every 6weeks. Still happy to buy his jeans from next and will now & again wear a pair of cargo shorts.

thank you!

we have agreed we'll do a Marie Kondo on his wardrobe when we get back from our hols.
I know that for me, the most effective thing I did to dress better was to Kondo my stuff and discard the ill-fitting, holey and stained stuff even if I thought (wrongly!) that I had nothing to replace it with.

What does he currently wear? Maybe less sportswear, more smart casual - slim jeans/chinos, polo shirts or plainish branded t shirts like h and m, topman, superdry or hollister, smart dark coloured trainers , vans or converse (try sales, outlet stores or tk maxx for brands). Above all everything needs to be clean and smell fresh.

"What does he currently wear?"

stuff his grandma brings when she visits from the States.
We have just persuaded her to stop.... it was an emotional connection thing.

Let's just say it's not working and certainly isn't going to impress the girls.....

Few pairs of chinos, tan, navy, cream. I get these for DH in primark for about £9 and he raves about them.

Shirts with a cool print on, ASOS have a lot of these

Plain t shirts

The check shirt / shirt over t-shirt combo seems to work well. It's been my brother's uniform for decades and is still popular.

As someone who buys most my clothes when I do the supermarket shop I feel your pain op. I've even resorted to googling 18 yr old boys to see what's what 😂😂😂 (( D's has SN so most the buying is down to.clueless me ))

chinos and checked shirts are what my husband wears... not good ...aha... I see you are a fellow non-clothes person Rubbing! no doubt we have other skills...:)

On the posture thing I’m sure you are doing this already but building muscle is an essential part of this. If you get a couple of sessions with a PT (posture is a surprisingly huge part of PT training) they can show him specific exercises he can do in the gym or at home.

Dd aged 16 and her friends love the “roadman” look on boys. Think rap video type gangsters ...! This coming from middle class posh ish girls living in a small village in South Norfolk. Fair enough I guess...

streetwearjobs.com/what-is-a-roadman/

It baffles me but there you go. Most of the boys round here dress that way - they’re not doing drugs / smoking or whatever though. Just the clothes.

Email the thread to yourself then you can edit it

Personally I think a suit with an extra pair of trousers would be smartest. A washable one (Next or M&S) navy suit, brown shoes. Classic. No tie, open pink shirt looks good too

My son is 17, he likes topman for jeans, or the various concessions in Debenhams (Levi’s, jack & jones etc); T-shirts or hoodies from hollister / superdry / topman or geeky film references from places like HMV. White converse are always cool, and pretty timeless. Or any of the sports brands for trainers. Timberland boots in the winter (expensive but indestructible!) I iron all his stuff, it does make a difference, if I don’t have time or he wants something straight from the wash he does know how as well.
If he’s needing smart topman do a suit for £100 in a variety of fits. Ds always gets a bunch of compliments when he wears his! A choice of shirts / ties means you can get away with one jacket and trousers. (Although not every day! Ds is at college where there isn’t a dress code, so he’s not suited and booted all that often..)

Ooh, cunning....

“Email the thread to yourself then you can edit it”

To me, if he wants to look good then almost less important than the actual clothes is WHETHER THEY FIT HIM WELL. All other PP's ideas are good, but go to somewhere like M&S for some basics where they have jeans, chinos etc in a range of both waist sizes and leg lengths. Polo shirts and t shirts over a well fitting pair of clean, unripped jeans always look good.

And understated is always 10 times better than something with huge logos or slogans across the front.

@Fairylea are you kidding me? THAT'S what teenage girls like now?

OP, ignore everything I wrote before. Teenage girls are baffling.

Oh how we laugh and laugh at Roadmen wear.

I was looking out for hi vis jackets when I first heard the term Roadmen.

🤣🤣🤣

“WHETHER THEY FIT HIM WELL”

Lol that will be a change....

Have a look in Zara and Massimo Dutto

Really, Fairylea? None of the "posh" or "mc" girls I know would go for that look. Many of the (just finished) year 13s at ds's school are coupled up and the boys (men I guess?!) all wear stuff like tweed jackets and chinos for school, smart suits and shoes (no socks) for going out and jeans, tees and hoodie for proper casual.

All the boys I taught at secondary/sixth form swore by ASOS (as does my OH, who is always quite snappily-but-casually dressed). Just to throw a couple of others into the mix: Uniqlo for timeless basics and coats, Weekday if he’s got a bit of extra cash to spend on a few items that’ll last the course.