When he was born the government gave us a box of clothes, and accessories, and later neighbours gave us their children's old clothes too.
But I find it fascinating that you talk about teaching children about style. Our child, like almost all the others I've seen, would just wear what they were given. When they reach three/four years old suddenly they have preferences, and I'd love to know where they came from.
Our childs preferences aren't so fixed, a favorite t-shirt today might become ignored next week, but there are some consistent comments and behaviours. He told us a few months ago "I don't want to wear that jacket, it is yellow".
Peer pressure, and conformity, probably play a part to some extent. But the rest? Where does that come from, and does it alway start that early?
(e.g. He wanted to wear nail varnish from ~3 years old. And was sad "The children at daycare said boys can't wear nail-varnish" so I told him we both could, and we painted each others nails for a few weeks until he lost interest.)