Girls' clothes USA

[carrie74]

We're off to the US over Easter, and I'm planning to supplement the kids' summer clothes while we're there (and maybe the odd bit for me ). We go to the US fairly frequently, and in the past have bought from Old Navy and Gap for the children, but previewing online, it's not inspiring me really. Over here I tend to buy from Boden and H&M, and like that most of the time the Boden clothes last for 2 years. I'm really looking for a similar quality level as Boden, I feel the UK is already excellent for cheap High St wear, but I'd like to get something that lasts a little longer in US cotton. Less worried for my son, as there are no end of shorts and Ts in the US, but any recommendations on brands or shops for my daughter (7.5)?

[freerangechickens]

I'm American, so not sure about Boden. My DD is 7.5, but she lives in her brother's old clothes and athletic jerseys. Her friends, however are a different story. Nordstrom's for high-end, Nordstrom's Rack if you're lucky enough to be near one for discounted Nordstrom's clothes. Otherwise the places that are popular are Justice (by far and away #1 in popularity) or The Children's Place or Pumpkin Patch (probably the best quality of these) or Gymboree (although she's getting kind of up there in age for Gymboree). Sears has cheap, icky clothes, but if you are near one that has a Land's End in it, that section is much higher-end and better quality, and I usually see something in there that I think is cute and wish that DD would be inclined to wear.

[carrie74]

Thanks free range, that's a couple of new names to look into . Hoping there will be some excellent Easter sales....How long do online orders typically take to arrive? We're in one location for 9 nights, so that would be the place to use if I do any online shopping, but I don't want to risk missing shipping.

[freerangechickens]

I don't really know how long an average order takes. I live fairly close to a major mall and have all of those stores right by, and I'd rather buy clothes in person than online. Most sites have an option to pay more for faster delivery.

Oh, and if you're looking for an Easter dress, try Macy's. There's usually coupons in the newspaper, and then they have big sales before Easter, and they clearance them out after Easter, and you can snap one up for really cheap. I always spend less than $15 for her Easter and Christmas dresses (this year I got her X-mas dress for $6 with my coupon and sale (before Christmas, even), and it was obviously missing a bow on the waist tie, so I got money off for that, too, and I went to a craft store and bought one for $2, and borrowed my friend's hot glue gun and spent $8 for an almost $90 dollar dress) and you can get really nice dresses for less than the cheap looking ones at Target. If there's any left, you can get winter coats on clearance about this time of year for really cheap, too. But I wouldn't look for regular clothes there, they're expensive and not really that cute.

[daisydoodoo]

I was going to suggest Childrens Place as well. DD has some lovely clothes from there and the offers were better in store in the regular mall than the outlet mall.
Also gymboree as the pp says and old navy and gap often have different lines in store to online.
You could try Abercrombie kids as well, the small sizes should fit and the quality is good. Not everythig is heavily logoed. DD quite likes ps from aeropostale, they have fab offers in store. Oshkosh and Carters have some nice items as well and good uality thick cottons.
I would definatley get to a mall if you can rather than online.

[carrie74]

Thanks Daisy, some more names (and plenty I "know", so that's good). We'll be doing a fair bit of travelling initially, and the area we're staying in longest (and thus most time for shopping) isn't best placed for malls, from what I can tell, There's a mahoosive outlet mall about 45 mins away (and I went there last year and it was truly immense, even by US mall standards), so that might be the only place I can go, but I'm sure there'll be plenty of deals to be had.

[daisydoodoo]

In the outlet malls, i found fab deals on ralph lauren childrens wear. Polo shirts for girls and boys for less than $10, the polo shirt dresses were about $12 as well. Who cares if they are past season, a pink dress is a pink dress.

Also the ugg outlet was good, i paid about $30 for pair of bailey button uggs for dd1, as they were purple and past season. also shoes such as converse, vans, skechers (dd's are in love with thier skechers twinkle toes) also the crew outlet had good offers and one of the huge dept store outlets had some good buys but was bit jumble sale like. Also sportswear, under armour is much heaper there than the UK. Although i didn;t buy for the dd's as they don;t wear sports wear other than for sports. But for the ds, ds1 loved he adidas shop and would have brought a lot more pairs of trainers than the baggabe allowance would have allowed.

[Chopsypie]

How about oshkosh?
I'm not sure what they are like for older girls, but I love their boys clothes.
www.carters.com/oshkosh

[slinkyboo]

Another OshKosh recommendation. We were in Florida last week and I bought MASSES from the OshKosh outlet for DS aged 5 and DD just turned 8.

[carrie74]

Thanks again all, I can't wait to get there now! Have a shopping list as long as my arm (for clothes - that's before I fill a suitcase with M&Ms, shake n bake, cake mixes....).

[mirpuppet]

I was going to say Justice for that age -- or perhaps Limited Too.

[HoldMeCloserTonyDanza]

Just wanted to throw in a mention for J.Crew's Crewcuts. And Janie and Jack for pretty Easter dresses.

:pines for the US:

[mathanxiety]

Hanna Andersson -- limited number of shops but HA clothes are very high quality and disappear from ebay in minutes when resold. Look out for outlets - much cheaper than mall shops. HA is Sweden based.

Pumpkin Patch is nice too.

[Graciescotland]

I'd check out Ralph Lauren too, not a fan of designer clothes for kids but I lucked out with a macy's sale. Really good quality cotton which has washed brilliantly.