Two years ago, I enrolled my daughter in our public school system, which requires Standard School Attire.

This bane of my existence means that all students must wear khaki, navy or black bottoms and solid, collared tops in five pre-chosen colors. Ew. Especially when you have an adorable grade schooler who DESERVES to be dressed in adorable flowered dresses each day.
EW.

However, I had no choice but to accept the dress code, and since that time I’m pretty sure I’ve bought clothes from every place that sells standard school attire, from Target to Old Navy to Walmart to TJ Maxx to French Toast to Lands End.

Here’s the lowdown. And feel free to add your two cents in the comments.

Most of the moms I know rely on Old Navy for all of their standard school attire needs. However, I’ve been really disappointed in the clothing I’ve bought from there. It just doesn’t hold up well, and with SSA clothing, you tend to buy as little as possible, which means lots and lots of washings for what you’ve purchased. Old Navy’s SSA jumpers, khakis and tops really start looking worn after a few months. By the end of the year, you can’t stand the sight of them. On the upside, though, they do carry ‘slim’ sizing, which has come in handy since Punky is on the small side.

Walmart’s ‘George’ line is actually a small step up from Old Navy, and it’s cheaper, too. We have a few Walmart collared shirts, and they lasted a few months longer than Punky’s Old Navy tops before I started hating them. Heh.

However, I tend to buy most of the basics from Target — basics being khaki shorts and pants. Target’s khaki tends to be slightly heavier than Old Navy’s, which means in our experience that it lasts longer. We bought a few pairs of Circo shorts from Target in the spring which have been awful — They were lightweight and lost their shape almost immediately — but if you choose heavier weight fabrics in Target’s standard school attire line, I think you’ll be pleased with what you get for the price. Two notes — Buy EARLY at Target if you’re shopping for SSA. Since everyone else is shopping there, too, the best stuff tends to have sold out if you wait until a week before school starts. Also, Target clothing runs large, so keep that in mind if you have a child on the small side, like I do.

French Toast has a wide selection of standard school attire and the prices are great. I actually love this line — The clothing I have from French Toast has held up well for the price.

But the gold standard in standard school attire has to be Lands’ End. And that’s where I have begun concentrating my financial resources when it comes to back-to-school clothing.

This year, I’ve picked up a few of these adorable Lands’ End shirtdresses …

…as well as these cute ruffled collar shirts (worn with the aforementioned Target Circo shorts)…

…and Lands’ End sent me this knit jumper and oxford shirt from its line this year. I actually chose it because we had the same outfit last year and loved it so much.

Lands’ End SSA clothing is more costly, true. But the collared shirts and shirtdresses hold up well enough that if I buy them a size up, Punky can wear them not one year, but TWO, even after repeated washings. And they’re actually CUTE. I can enjoy dressing up my daughter, even in boring SSA.

The oxford shirts are made with a heavy cloth that’s comfortable and requires NO IRONING. This, as any mom knows, is HUGE.

And the knit jumpers and skorts fulfill the khaki/navy requirement, but they’re KNIT. They’re so much more comfortable for Punky than stiff khaki fabric, and again! No ironing!

I realized that I’m actually saving money by buying Lands’ End schoolwear, since it can generally last me two years where the other brands definitely can’t. And once I began subscribing to Lands’ End’s e-mails, I began keeping up with the sales, which have been fabulous. Over the summer, for example, I picked up a Lands’ End bathing suit for myself during a big sale (another post entirely, but Lands’ End bathing suits are TO DIE FOR), and noticed that the SSA clothing was on sale, too. I picked up a few shirts and then found that through another Lands’ End promotion, I could get an extra $50 worth of clothing FREE and free shipping if I spent $100. So basically, I spent $40 and got $90 worth of SSA clothing for my daughter.

SCORE.

My other high-end SSA favorite is Ralph Lauren, which is ridiculously high. I find things from time to time (like the to-die-for Polo dresses) at TJ Maxx, but only off-season. My advice is to quickly check the TJ Maxx racks each time you’re there for future SSA needs. Sometimes, I’ve found some GREAT pieces when I least expected to!

So there you have it. An SSA primer. It’s probably boring to a lot of you, but man I wish someone had been around two years ago to explain it all to me…

Disclosure: Lands’ End sent me a knit jumper and blouse to review for this blog. Obviously, my opinions are 100% my own– and we’ve bought most of our Lands’ End schoolwear ourselves.

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