AMANDA BROOKS Lays Out Summer Looks for Style-Savvy Tots

When I go to Europe this week for resort appointments and a few couture shows, my two kids will head to England and the Adirondacks to stay with their grandmothers. My mom and mother-in-law are both much more old-school than I am, so before sending the kids off, I needed to get some last-minute summer staples: new bathing suits, some cute t-shirts, a striped romper. I even found fabulous summer scrapbooks to tuck into their suitcases.

My biggest challenge came when my mom informed me that my son would need a tie for dinner at her club. The idea of a little boy in formal wear seems so “little man” to me, but Barneys provided the perfect (albeit slightly irreverent) solution—a t-shirt with an actual tie sewn onto the front of it. For me, it’s a twenty-first century compromise on the formal boy look. Now I’m just crossing my fingers that he doesn’t get chucked out of the dining room!