Passing the Fashion Torch

As some of you may know, I have an 8 year old daughter, a daughter who is opionated and style conscious, and as much as she tries to ignore it, totally like her mother. To get a better idea about my daughter, consider this discussion we had this morning as I was driving her to school:

Gabby: I don't have to wear a uniform tomorrow because we are going to the SF symphony. You don't have to wake me up--I'll pick out my clothes and get myself ready by myself.

Me: I'll do it anyway.

Gabby: No, you won't. I already know what I'm going to wear. I have to wear layers because it's windy over there (just a side note here: we live right across the bay from SF, but to hear my children and husband talk about it, it's about 5 light years away).

Me: So what is this grand outfit that you're planning?

Gabby: Jeans, a short sleeve t-shirt, a long-sleeve t-shirt, my Rubber Duckies sweatshirt, and a jacket.

Me: Jesus Christ, child! For one, you're poor body won't hold the weight of all that stuff. You're going to look like a Lucky magazine feature gone wrong! And Gabby, seriously, you're going to the symphony--don't you think you should dress it up a bit? (It should be noted here that by all accounts, I have raised my child right, yet she loves jeans and Red Lobster. Sometimes I feel like a failure as a parent.)

Gabby: My teacher says we don't need to dress up....

Me: Gabby, is your teacher married?

Gabby: No. Why does it matter?

Me: Do we really want to be getting our fashion tips from her?

And so it goes. I imagine a real scene in the morning, which I will probably lose, ending up coming to work all sulky and mad and full of fashion venom. Gabby fights much dirtier than me, but then again, I fought much dirtier than my mother. It's circle, I guess.

But were my daughter old enough to understand the beauty of both boys and internet shopping, I feel fairly certain that she would wear this:

I have this dress (in black, of course), and it is perfect. It is fabulously comfortable, yet it looks nice enough to wear to the symphony if one needed to. Plus, it is so damn versatile--I wear it on the weekends on lazy Sundays to cook and lay around outside, I've worn it to work with a camisole underneath and a cardigan, I even wore it out to dinner with the family with no camisole, a small cardigan, and glittery shoes. Gabby's teacher would be happy to know that you can layer several things with it--footless tights and a cardigan for those especially blustery SF days, perhaps even a pair of knee high riding boots. And then if you wanted to hit the beach afterwards, you can put your bathing suit underneath it as well. Perfection.

By the way, it's $88, and you can find it at jcrew.com. Just imagining how many outfits you can get out of this thing makes it worth $88, and seriously, how much would you spend on Gabby's outfit, with the jeans and the 18 t-shirts, and the vests and whatever? I clothe Gabby, so I'll tell you this: it's a hell of a lot more.