St Patrick's Day is mid-March, which in most of the US means a parade in the cold. Matching St Patrick's Day outfits that only work indoors miss the point — these are picked to layer, sized baby through adult.
Green Is the Whole Requirement, and It Is Harder Than It Looks
The one rule of the day is wearing green, which sounds simple until five people own five different greens. Emerald, kelly and forest photograph as three separate colours standing next to each other.
Coordinated sets solve it by using one green across the group. If you are assembling rather than buying a set, anchor on one shade and put the others in cream or denim.
Dressing for a Parade in March
Parades are outdoors, standing still, for two hours, in weather that has not committed to spring. The green piece needs to be visible over a coat, or it will not be seen at all.
- A green top under an open jacket, rather than a dress under a closed coat
- Layers that come off — indoor pub-and-family afternoons run warm
- Something on the head or hands for the youngest, since that is what shows
Shamrock Prints Versus Plain Green
Print pieces are the ones bought for the day and worn once. Plain green in a good shade gets worn through spring, which changes the maths on what to buy for whom.
A workable split: prints on the children, plain green on the adults. It photographs as a themed group and nobody over twelve has to wear a shamrock twice.
Baby's First St Patrick's Day
Bodysuits and rompers in green with snap crotches. At this age the practical note is that March is still cold and a baby in a parade crowd is stationary — the layer over the outfit matters more than the outfit, so buy the green piece one size up to fit over a warmer base.
Sizing a Group Across Baby to Adult
Coordinated runs go baby through adult so a whole family can share one green. The extreme sizes go first here as with any seasonal drop — order two to three weeks before the seventeenth rather than the week of.
What Else the Green Works With
A good plain green carries through spring, which is where the value is. See matching family outfits for year-round coordination, holiday outfits for the rest of the calendar, and matching shirts and tops if only the top half needs to match.
