Resorting to "Resort Wear"

Somehow the concept of "resort wear" for young children strikes us as being extremely amusing. Maybe it's just us, but the term "resort wear" always makes us think of expensive clothing made for the express purpose of lounging on the beach and looking fabulous. While we want our children to look and feel as pampered as we do, we know it doesn't take much for them. Really, give them a shovel and a pail and they'll be fine, right?

But resort wear for children does exist by that name. You may have thought you could get by with just riffling through the summer catalogues of Land's End or Boden and buying "summer clothes", but we are here to tell you that that just will not do. If your child is going to grow up needing only a minimal amount of therapy, he must be outfitted with his own resort wear. Why should you have all the fun?

In case you weren't aware of this major difference between regular clothes for the beach and resort wear, we can point you to a few places that have collections specifically labeled as "resort wear". Now you can outfit the darlings in appropriately-titled clothing for those trips to - well, to the resort, obviously...

Recurrent Dreams Baby & Children Boutique
Their brick-and-mortar location is in Long Beach, CA, but you can browse their small but precious selection of "cruise and resort wear for baby and child" online.

Boys Surfer Tee Shirt by Tiki Baby Resort Wear, $22.99

Sand Pail Kids
Everything you need for children at a beach, you can find here. Resort wear, beach toys, sunscreen, you name it. But we especially love their sunglasses, which will look surprisingly chic on little faces.

Julbo Noa Sunglasses, $25

Kangaroo Korner
Their slogan is "children's wear with a downunder flair". Although we're not really sure what that is, the clothes here are cute in a rather prim sort of way (which, now that we think of it, is not at all how we think of Australia...) We suggest calling their store in Huntington Village, NY, since the online order form is a tad strange.

Skort set, $42

Mymiraclebaby.com
This is not just resort wear, this is boutique resort wear. And we have to admit, the outfits are precious. The small resort collection is all about little girls, but other parts of the site sport non-resort boys clothing.

Gecko Boutique Capri Set, $39.95

Leaps and Bounds
Even this catalogue has gotten into the act. We don't normally think of them as high fashion but we might have to revisit that, given that they do have a section titled "resort wear." (It's all in the name...) While much of their selection looks less like resort wear and more like NASA-wear, given their admirable concern for sun protection, you'll find some hats that fairly scream "summer resort", and some basic but adorable coverups.

Sun Smarties Reversible Sun Hat, $14.95


Lilly Pulitzer
Of course, for many, this is the ultimate in resort wear. We must admit, we're not huge fans of the Lilly - we think more "uptight socialite" as opposed to "South Beach hipster", no matter how much their catalogue tries to convince us to the contrary. But we're not opposed to a Lilly or two for our little girl - the romper below, from the 2006 resort collection, is far from stuffy.

Cealey Infant Romper, $48