Sunday, May 06, 2007

Fedora Adorer

I usually avoid posting pictures of my son out of fear he may someday find them and post embarrassing pictures of me to his Xanga or Facebook or DeviantArt page or whatever social network he is using nowadays. One of the last pictures I posted of him was of him getting his face painted while wearing a jester hat.

For the longest time he has been wanting to get dark blue highlights in his hair. His mother has been steadfast in disallowing this. Lately, he started lobbying for a fedora. We have no idea where this fascination started, but he went so far as to find out where to buy one. It seems a shop at HarbourPlace, Baltimore’s touristy destination at the Inner Harbor, sells all sorts of hats including fedoras, berets, top hats, and those ballcaps with straws that hold two beers. A hat is a far more reversible fashion statement than colored hair.

About a week ago the weather was gorgeous and I decided we hadn’t been tourists in our own town in ages. We went down to the Inner Harbor and paid too much for parking, ate faux Irish food, watched a bad juggler, and wandered around through the crowds.

My son got his fedora and he has been wearing it wherever he can ever since. I do have to admit he makes it work. He actually stood still long enough for me to take this picture with the USS Constellation and the Hard Rock Cafe guitar in the background. Maybe the next picture will be if and when he finally gets those highlights in his hair.

BlatantCommentWhoring™: Where do you draw the line with your kid’s fashion statements.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where do I draw the line?

My daughters are not allowed to leave the house in anything except a fully locked burka.

bc

Anonymous said...

I'm glad my kid never wanted piercings of any kind, or tatoos. He wore black fingernail polish and dyed his hair darker - but he was 18 then and under the influence of a girlfriend. He's into hats too - racing caps and ball caps, no fedoras that I know of. Your kid looks pretty cool!

mostlylurking

yellojkt said...

A wise and sensible policy, bc. It's a shame it draws such attention when non-Muslims practice it. We have a lot to learn from the Middle East.

Anonymous said...

I don't see my daughter nearly often enough, so my basic rule when she visits is that I'd like her to look reasonably presentable. There are many times when I take her to work with me, etc. So I tell her that she can't pack anything that I can read unless it's on her pajamas. No logo shirts, no clever quips, no jeans with writing all over them done by her friends (yeah, they still do that, and think they invented it).

Your youngster kind of looks like Jake Blues in that photo. Give him shades and a black suit. (-:

Jeff and Charli Lee said...

I HATE that look of the baggy jeans hanging down off your butt so it looks like you didn't finish pulling up your pants far enough after you've been on the toilet. For some reason my middle kid has been slowly letting his pants slide down so more and more boxers are starting to show.

I can't even believe I have to keep yelling at him to pull up his pants. It's just something I never thought I'd ever have to hear myself say to a 14 year old kid.

HRH Courtney, Queen of Everything said...

I don't have kids, but I remember my mother held the hair dye line hard as well. I could have any crazy haircut I wanted, and wear stupid fishnets and berets to class, but she drew the line at with my hair. Now, that I'm somewhat older, I appreciate that stance, as I still have really nice hair, and many of my fellow punk rockers are losing/have lost theirs already.

Elizabeth said...

My mom was a stylist back in the day when they were called "beauty operators" anyway, not only did I start dyeing my hair in 8th grade, she helped me!! However she drew the line at the really short mini skirts that were popular in the mid 80's.
I love your son's hat!I agree with Claude, very Blues Brothers!
:o)

yellojkt said...

My wife's line is "You have such beautiful hair. Why would you want to damage it?"

I'll start calling him Jake every time he wears the hat.

Mooselet said...

I draw the line at piercings other than one in each earlobe (or just the one on my son). I cannot STAND eyebrow, nose, navel or any other place you can think of (and perhaps cannot mention on a family friendly blog). Miss Thing, age 15, wanted her navel pierced and I flat out refused. Dye your hair - sure. Wear muffin top pants - you look like an idiot but fine. Blow your money on hair extensions - you're and idiot but okay. Belly ring? Hell to the no.

Oh, and your son looks very cool in that hat.

Mooselet said...

Must really learn how to type one handed if I'm going to continue blogging with baby in my lap... you know that should read "you're an idiot", right?

Bonvallet said...

Your boy looks pretty cool in that hat.
This is the fashion part of the "NO" list.

No tattoos
No piercings
No baggy pants
No dyeing of hair

Anonymous said...

I like the way your son dressed up his hat seems to be bold and beautiful. Perhaps, he must like to play guitar and singing too, rite!

Your Mother said...

Lucky for me, the dramas are still young enough that it hasn't been an issue. However, I guess it all depends on what they want and how old they are. Right now, at 10 and 7, the only thing we've encountered is 10 wanting her ears pierced for a second time and I said she was too young. Crossmyfingers...

Anonymous said...

Look out, yello. The fedora's a gateway garment. Next he'll be trying on a charcoal pinstripe and learning the half-windsor.

The Pup said...

If he's old enough to go to college, he's old enough to start hitting the ol' hydrogen peroxide and experience the joys of being a freak.

Hair grows back. Earrings can be removed from ears.

However, a broken tooth from a tongue piercing or a candid shot of him with serious pants slippage is forever.

If he can't be stupid when he's young, he'll just be stupid at age 40. It's his body, time he started making decisions about it. Your job is just to stop him from making stupid, irreversible decisions, like becoming a male prostitute, etc.

bc, good as long as you allow multicolored burqas...