Mumsnet Talk

It's not just clothes it's shoes too. I have searched high and low for a pair of traditional sandals for my son finally getting a pair at Russell and Bromley in Richmond that were left unsold from last year. Why is it so difficult to find a pair of proper sandals for boys. Schools rightly do not accept pupils in open toe sandals for health and safety reasons and I think that the old fashioned shoe is considerably better for the developing foot. Start rite still produce a proper closed in sandal for girls so why can they not produce a unisex model? John Lewis the bed rock of all traditional children's wear do not stock anything either. I have written to Start rite and am awaiting their response. Am I being unreasonable or simply just an old stick in the mud. All my other boys wore traditional sandals and have lovely feet and they all had traditional overcoats and never had a day off school sick.

Have a look at www.divasanddudes.org.uk if u are looking for nice boys clothing great prices and fabulous colours from birth right up to age 10. They also have free postage.

I completely support this too! We need more and better variety of clothes for boys, more colours, less sludge, and less of the skulls, camouflage etc.

It would be good to see shops revisit sizing as well. My DS is a little big for his age but not massively so. He is seven, but wears age 10 clothes. His shoe size is 3, and it is VERY difficult to get age appropriate shoes - Clarks deem this size to be for teenagers! The options seem to be school shoes and trainers and not much in between.

It would be great to have some kind of website with links to alternative places to shop for boys - it would make it all easier for us to vote with our feet.

I don't mind spending a bit more on quality things to pass on as have two boys . What disappoints me is that even the middle England brands like Boden , Joules and White Company have very limited boys lines and recently have resorted to dinosaur, skateboarders and shite on shirts . I do find things in Zara , H& M and gap but my best buys are French or USA stuff from car boots or eBay .

I have read everyones comments and I too have had such a hard time finding clothing for my lil DS so much so that I have decided to take matters into my own hands and design my own clothes!! I am happy to help other mums too, so contact me if you do. Its time to make a change! And if the stores will not do anything about it, I'm gonna make the change myself! Who is with me?

You have my support!! Whole hearted support!!! I weep at the openness of the gender divide in this country. Girls to look pretty and have a thousand types of shoes and accessories which boys can only have two. I shall not even venture into the whole pink /floral /princess vs Thomas/bob: monster stereotypes.
It is unfair on boys. It's unhealthy in the long run I am sure. And I hate to 'have to' subscribe to this. It's mean and backward in its approach and this should be picked up by MN. If nothing else we should start our own brand of clothing for boys. What say?

Totally agree. I struggle to find non-slogan, attractive clothes for my son (19mo) on the high street. I usually go to H&M, Polarn o Pyret and occasionally Next. I buy Snafolk stuff online, as it does quite imaginative stuff for boys.

But generally I find it all very disappointing and annoying to have one rail of limited outfits for boys beside rails of pink for girls.

I said exactly the same as the OP about asda last week, they may aswell not bother selling boys clothes anymore.

All I want is nice trousers that aren't jeans but apparently that is a lot to ask.

I meant Smafolk online. Quite agree with all the previous comments moaning about Next's obsession with skulls too!

I used to be able to get loads in primark & new look had some nice stuff but it's like boys don't exist anymore. I find it very hard getting affordable clothes for mg boys

I don't have too much of a problem with it but maybe it's different in America? DS looks lovely in orange and has a lot of it. Do you have a Gymboree in the UK?

I agree too I went to asda the other day (a big one) and there were about 5 aisles for girls and 2 mini ones for boys. I've found the shop with better choice to be h&m.

It gets a bit better when they are older. Still a wider choice for girls, but H and M and Zara have some fantastic boys stuff.

I'm in too. Its depressing how drab boys clothes are.

Zara are one of the few reasonably priced shops that do make an effort.

We buy in the more expensive shops online but only in sales. Here there seems to be a slightly broader range of colurs but really all retailers need to make more effort.