By Michele Chan Santos

Spring is dress-up season for children, the time of year when there are lots of reasons for little ones to don new formal outfits. Whether it’s an Easter service, a relative’s wedding, big brother’s or sister’s graduation or their own preschool graduation, such events call for something more stylish than the standard uniform of T-shirt, jeans and leggings.

Online stores have a rainbow of offerings in their spring collections. Trends in 2008 include a generous use of madras and other plaids, plenty of bright – often very bright – colors, and lightweight materials such as seersucker, poplin or plain cotton. Floral prints are popping up all over girls’ clothing, and many shades of blue adorn boys’ outfits – of course. Most all of these spring items are machine-washable (thank goodness).

Janie and Jack’s new spring line includes this quintessential Easter dress, a bewitching floral design made of 100 percent silk, ruffled with a sash. It comes in infant sizes through child size 8, for $78.

You could also order the matching hat for the dress, a tulip floral sateen hat, for $18. Janie and Jack’s formal items for boys include a light-blue argyle sweater vest, $34, with matching socks, $7. This vest would look best over a dress shirt, but if your toddler boy argues about that, a white turtleneck shirt under it would work too.

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