Most daycares send a version of the same email in the last week of August. A full change of clothes in a labeled bag, weather appropriate layers, shoes the child can manage. The email doesn't say how many, which size, or what a two year old needs that a six year old doesn't. This is that list, by size, with the number on a European tag next to each age so you can read our shelves.
The two rules that don't change with age
Count by your washing machine. There's no correct number of tees. There's the interval you'll keep between loads, two days or four, and the pieces to cover it plus one spare day. A parent who washes every second night needs a fraction of what a Sunday washer needs, and no list knows which one you are. The spare day is the part people cut. Keep it, because the day you run out is the day the cubby bag comes home wet.
Everything goes on and off alone. Teachers have a room full of children and two hands. A piece a child can't get into or out of by themselves is a piece that stays on the hook. Elastic waists, front openings, hook and loop shoes, necklines that don't need help.
2Y and 3Y: daycare and toilet learning
Two years on a European tag is 86 to 92 centimeters, three years is 92 to 98. Our size guide has the chest and waist next to those.
The cubby. Two full changes, not one, for a child in toilet learning. Each change is a top, a bottom, underwear and socks in a bag with the name on it. Count those two changes on top of the home count, because they live at daycare and don't come home until they're used.
Bottoms. Elastic waist only. No buttons, no zipper, no belt, no overall straps. A child who can pull the pants down alone gets to the potty in time and a child who can't doesn't, and that's the whole difference between a good week and a bad one. Joggers, leggings, soft corduroy on the pants and leggings shelf.
Tops. Long sleeve tees under everything from October. A print sweatshirt over it for the room, off for the run. Plain tees on the tee shelf, sweatshirts on long sleeves and sweatshirts.
The hook. One cardigan that stays at daycare all week for the overheated room that turns cold at nap, and a jacket that goes home. The jacket is the piece to size with care, and that's on should you size up a kids coat for autumn.
Socks. Twice as many as you think. They vanish at daycare at a rate nobody can explain. Plain, so a lost one has a partner. The socks and tights shelf.
4Y and 5Y: pre-K and the first year of school
Four years is 98 to 104 centimeters, five is 104 to 110.
This is the age where the child dresses themselves and the clothes have to allow it. The cubby drops to one full change. The list changes shape.
A cardigan or a zip sweatshirt instead of a pullover. A child of four can usually manage a front opening, or a zip someone started for them, better than a tight neck over the head. The front opening is also what comes off alone in a classroom that's warm by ten in the morning. The cardigan shelf.
Pants with a real waistband and still elastic. Corduroy and twill with elastic at the back look like school clothes and behave like joggers. A fly that's sewn shut is fine. A fly that opens is a problem at four.
Shoes with hook and loop, not laces. The child takes them off for rest time and puts them on alone. When they stop putting them on, the size is probably done: when to move your kid to the next shoe size.
A hat with no strings and mittens on a clip. Everything a four year old wears outside comes off in the yard and has to find its way back. The hats, scarves and gloves shelf.
One picture day outfit. A shirt with a collar or a dress, one, bought once. It gets worn twice and that's fine.
6Y and 7Y: school
Six years is 110 to 116 centimeters. Seven and eight share one row on a European chart, 116 to 128.
At most schools the cubby shrinks to a hook, and the backpack does the cubby's job: one spare pair of socks and the layer that came off. The list is shorter and the pieces last longer, because a six year old grows more slowly than a two year old and the clothes are less likely to come home in a bag.
Layers for a building with its own weather. Tee, sweatshirt, jacket. The sweatshirt is the school day, the jacket is the walk, and the tee is what's left at two in the afternoon in a room where the radiator runs from October on.
Pants that survive a floor. Knees go first at this age. Corduroy and heavier cotton take a floor better than thin jersey. Buy by your laundry interval, two or three, not five. If the child is near the top of a size in September, buy the pants one size up and turn the cuff, because a pant that's short in February is finished and a pant that's a little long in September isn't.
A coat with a fixed hood. US safety rules ban hood and neck drawstrings on children's outerwear in sizes 2T through 12, so most kids coats sold here have a fixed or snap on hood. Ours are on the coats and jackets shelf. Size it for a sweatshirt underneath, no more.
What isn't on the list
Anything white that isn't a tee. Anything that needs hand washing. Anything with tiny buttons, at any age. A second coat. Boots before there's snow. Special occasion pieces beyond the one for picture day. All of these are things that get bought in August and worn in the photo of the first day and then never again, and the money is better spent on the third pair of soft pants.
Where these pieces sit on our shelves
The back to school shelf is the short list: coats, shirts, socks and tights, pants and jeans, a cardigan, a dress and a hat and scarf set, from baby sizes to eight years. Most of what we carry is European and cut slim. The tags print an age, and the height behind each age is on the size guide, so a child between two sizes takes the larger one. Every listing shows the size exactly as printed on the tag, and most pieces are here in one or two sizes, rarely restocked. If you're building the whole autumn wardrobe for a two to four year old at once, the toddler autumn capsule is six pieces that go together, and for the size below all of this, what newborn clothes to buy uses the same laundry rule from the other end.
Shipping inside the United States is free, USPS Ground Advantage, and orders placed before 2 pm Eastern on a business day are packed the same day in Brooklyn. Returns within 30 days, unworn and with tags, at your own shipping cost, so send us a height before you order and we'll measure the garment.