Should I force DD to be fashionable?

Oh, and it might be relevant that they have very kind family who make clothes for them - black velvet dress was made by MIL, cardigan was knitted by my Nana...

I let mine choose if we have time, otherwise I lay the clothes out for them. I do supply them with clothes of my choice - eg fairly practical and often vintagey - but they do choose the odd thing, mostly moshi monsters/thomas stuff tbh.

6yo DD1 had a non uniform day recently. She wore black shoes, grey and black woolly tights, black velvet dress with grey long sleeved top underneath and a denim waistcoat. She looked ace :-D

3yo DD2 mostly chooses "boy" clothes, and they suit her too. A usual outfit would be red combat trousers, thomas trainers, thomas t shirt, yellow hand knitted cardigan and a ladybird hat

I agree with MrsDV

I love dressing my DDs up in 'nicely' matching outfits but I am Northern working class and we just don't do shabby chic. I make sure tights match, hair clips match, everything is pressed. I let the odd tiara slip through from time to time :)

But I couldn't give a toss what others do. I secretly admire those kids who turn up for play dates in orange crocs, pink fairy dress, electric blue fleece and multi colored striped tights.

Oh FFS! 5!

How utterly ridiculous.

I hate how girls are supposed to conform to fashion. My dd is 13, she mostly dresses in baggy trousers and tops. I have had people tell me she should wear more girly things. TBH, as long as she is wearing clothes that are weather appropriate I let her wear whatever.

I have been found on more than one occasion ranting in clothes departments about the lack of suitable clothing and footwear for girls who want to climb trees.

Freya we fit that stereotype well in our house. Dd2 chose her own clothes today and mil nearly had a fit when she saw her. Everything was spotty!! So she had purple with yellow spots on a long sleeved tshirt, then on top of that she had a white sundress with tiny multi-coloured spots, her knickers and socks were both white with spots. The only problem with her 'spotty' look was the trousers because she doesn't have any spotty trousers so she chose stripey leggings because "stripes are nearly spots". Top it off with a ladybird dressing up waistcoat, a monkey head hat, and a bright red coat, and she looked a complete state. BUT she had chosen it herself and had got herself dressed without any help, which is a big deal when you're 3 and she was so proud of herself. It would have been cruel to tell her it didn't look great.

How rude of her to comment!

I remember one of ds2's friends aged 3 coming to a party in a pink top, orange trousers and wellies! The Dad was at pains to explain that it was her own choice of clothing, not his, but to be fair, I was more worried about where all the friends were at any given time, rather than what they were wearing. Mind you, she was easy to find!

I agree with the poster who mentioned 'artfully clashing' as being a fashion. It is a sterotypical look for a middle class child from a certain sort of family - lots of bright colours, wellies, skirts over trousers, long tops under dresses and tshirts, boys with long hair, knitted striped jumpers etc.

If I go to my local park, half the kids in the playground are dressed like this.

Oh I am the complete opposite of all of you on this thread. I always have my dc looking nice, it might be head to toe primarni (well actually no I hate primark but they have had the odd thing) but they always match and look nice. EG I wouldn't let dd wear her pink trainers with red trousers, why because it looks awful.

No. Fashion is a way to make women buy more stuff than they need and feel insecure. Why make them start at 5?

I was told off for letting ds 2 wear pink when he was 3! He had pink wellies, tshirts, hoodies. My reasoning was piccasso had a blue phase.... He's turned out ok. Likes pink, won't wear it though! The woman's a loon! Ignore!

NO is the short answer.
Let her wear what she wants and experiment and gain confidence in the way she looks and develop her 'own style'.
My mum and I clashed for years (and years and years and years and years and years) because she tried to get me to conform to a certain way of dressing that just wasn't me. We get along a lot better now I'm in my 30s and she leaves me alone mostly.

How bloody depressing.

OP take no notice

If you can't wear crazy clashing clothes at 5, when can you wear them?

DD had some co-ordinating outfits and a lot of thrown-together ones at that age, and she did go through a phase of liking to wear layers - skirt or dress over trousers, with a cardi or jumper and perhaps a scarf. She wasn't the only one. Lots of the little girls round here wore/wear colourful wellies as their main footwear.

Stargirl Dressing fashionably at six months?! "Outfits" for babies would have no place in my life. Who can be bothered with the faff?

will out myself here.. basically I dress dd myself, we live in area with extreme weather and a 2 year old doesn't get the option of deciding her clothes for that reason. However she "accessorises" herself on her own. She has a collection of probably hundred Mardi grass type beads dozens of hats and sunglasses and shoes to choose from. I live near a couple pretty amazing charity shops and occasionally go overboard... inevitably she wears her dragon wellies or red sparkly shoes firefighters helmet or Easter bonnet type thingAnd a couple of suprisingly well color coordinated beads. She then tops off her look with putting her sunglasses on sticking both thumbs up and saying aaaay like the Fonz. I find it hilarious I realize it's totally unacceptable or so I have read time to time on mumsnet... but I love it. Ds is still little but been practicing putting in hats.

Ridiculous. And actually quite sad...

My dd has been picking her own outfits and dressing herself since she was 2. She's been designing and making her own outfits since she was 7. I used to get comments from other parents periodically about her clothes not matching. Well, now she is 10 and the other girls and adults all look to her for fashion advice and strangers stop her in the street to compliment her outfits. I can guarantee you that not one of her outfits ever "matched" in a conventional way.

There was the one day in 3rd grade where she had convinced her entire year that wearing deflated red bouncy balls at a rakish angle on your head was the latest style in hats....And the day that a mum texted me to say how hip my dd looked and where did i get her clothes from...I didn't have the heart to tell her that they were hand-me-downs from her dd, just worn in a slightly more unique combination.

Oh god, is there such thing as fashion for kids? Is Peppa Pig so last season? Is my DS in dinosaurs when he should be in diggers? The shame!

that woman is not only rude but quite crazy....actually very crazy

Who makes that kind of comment about a five year old?

At 5 a spiderman costume worn with glittery wellies and a blue tutu is a good look.

She's 5! Get a grip on this! Tell her that what you achieve (good at reading)is more important than how you look.

you are joking aren't you? like you said, she is 5! who cares as long as she can move and likes it herself. if she's anything like my daughter she will have her own ideas about what she wants to wear - she needn't wear what some old silly woman thinks is right.