Will Slater: 'Our youngest is becoming a Dandy'

When I was younger I used to wince when I saw any young boys wearing bow ties and waistcoats at a wedding or family function. I would quietly offer up thanks it wasn't me with an elasticated tie.

Even today it bothers me in a way it shouldn't. Something to do with old-fashioned notions of what is smart colliding with the reality of food-spilling, shoe-scuffing, button-ripping young children.

But I am having to re-evaluate my prejudices because our youngest is becoming something of a dandy. There is nothing he likes better on a Saturday or Sunday morning than to pick one of his school shirts – a proper one mind, not a polo style – from the cupboard and team it with his school trousers.

Then it's time for the bow tie, an elasticated one admittedly, but at five, he's not quite mastered tying his own.

Next it's a pair of sensible black school shoes. If the weather is fine he is ready to step out into the world.

If the elements suggest the wearing of a jacket, then he slips on a pinstripe number.

It isn't a brown tweed jacket with three buttons, single vent and a silk lining, but a charity shop find altered with safety pins that suffices.

So that is how we walk around our neighbourhood. Me in jeans and a T-shirt, he dressed like Robin Day.

In his drawers are piles of unworn jeans, funky combat trousers, gorgeous T-shirts and trainers. Everywhere we go people look and I can see them wondering why he's dressed like this. They look at him and smile indulgently; they look at me and think "nutter".

I used to adopt a shrug and grin policy, a non-verbal way of saying: "Look, how he dresses is nothing to do with me," but it's not worth it. And besides, there's nothing to apologise to anyone for, though I have yet to act on his request that I enquire about the possibility of a school bow tie.

So why, you may ask, the obsession with sartorial elegance? One man must take the credit. Matt Smith. Ever since he strode on set in his natty strides as the new Doctor Who, how he dresses is the only way our fanboy wants to be.

So, Matt, can you do me a favour? If you could wear a pair of jeans occasionally, that would be great. Or a denim jacket, or trainers. Otherwise our next charity shop clearout will be coming round sooner rather than later.

• This article was first published in The Scotland On Sunday, May 30, 2010