Dear manufacturers of clothing for small boys

[monkeymamma]

I am not a dude, or indeed a little man. I may well be cuter than my daddy, or better looking than my daddy, but I do not judge it seemly to declare this publicly. My younger sibling, when he or she arrives, is unlikely to refer to me as his or her "big bro".

My behaviour, within the limits of the capabilities of a two year old, is reasonable if not on occasion exemplary. Therefore I would suggest that slogans which draw attention to it's less pleasing aspects, viz "little but loud", "here comes trouble", "cheeky monkey", "little monster", et cetera, are not appropriate.

I am not in the army, I am not a surfer, a trucker, or a rapper. And I am far too young to have heard of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, or Guns n Roses, whatever they are.

Like most human beings, I don't suit nasty, dreary, washed out colours such as: faded navy, dung brown, sun bleached green or barely-burgundy. Ditto burnt orange and sludgy beige. I know that the idea of using bright, gorgeous colours and attractive, inventive patterns similar to those used by your colleagues in the girlswear department fills you with worry, but I promise that most mums and dads and other purchasers of children's clothes don't share these anxieties.

And that is all.

Yours,
Monkeytoddler

If you don't like it don't buy it. There are plenty other options and I don't struggle and sometimes buy slogans too. tbh this is something I have only ever seen so much fuss about this on mn. I have 2 boys and today one is wearing a washed out pink t-shirt that says chill dude and the other a cheeky monkey one.
Both have plenty of plain colourful tops and even some with weird dogs on the front.
They choose the ones they like unless it is offensive I can't get excited about it. It almost seems like some sort of snobbery the way character clothes and the like are looked down at on here.

I posted this exact thread five years ago - v little improvement since then!

Sainsbury's is OK for nice bright colours, and H&M is either appalling or great and seems to be the latter ATM. Plenty of nice colours and not so much on the horrible slogans.

BTW my friend with only daughters reckons that once you've filtered out the nasty fabric, tarty cuts and horrible spangly pinkness there isn't much more nice choice for girls...

Tootsa stuff is fantastic!

I also hate the fact that boys' clothes have to be covered in cars and trains and planes. Why?

biut you actually can't get normal trousers!

When I had just two boys I thought the girls' range looked so much better than the boys' clothes.

Having since had two girls, I think the choices for girls are equally dire - unless you have a particular fondness for pink and/or sequins.

Boots Mini Club is surprisingly good as is the Little Bird collection in Mothercare. I also like the JoJo Maman Bebe Breton basics (only when on offer though)

YABU. I have 3 ds's and have no problem getting t-shirts. Vertbaudet, M&S and amazon have lots of lovely, brightly coloured t-shirts that are either plain or have pictures that would not cause offense to most people.

Like most human beings, I don't suit nasty, dreary, washed out colours such as: faded navy, dung brown, sun bleached green or barely-burgundy.

Actually, 8yo DS2 looks fab in these colours and did when he was younger, too.

There is nice stuff out there for boys, you just have to pay a fortune for it (Polarn, Smafolk, Katvig etc).

Ive never struggled, or paid a fortune for boys clothes. Mainly primark, matalan and supermarket stuff here.

But then, I don't have a problem with the cheeky monkey, little but loud etc type slogans, and ds1 loved stuff with skulls on as a toddler.

I don't think it's too bad but you do have to filter. There is tat and crap. But equally there are nice things, fairly reasonably priced. Which from what I can tell is the same for girls.

DS1 has many lovely jeans in bright red, green, purple and burgundy which he wears with stripy tops or jumpers. Most of his stuff comes from supermarkets or h and m.

I agree on the jeans front though. I hate skinny or twisted carrot fit jeans on toddlers. There seems to be more of these around atm.

zara always have plain tops also gap, shop around a bit

I'm pretty cheap, so I buy plain Fruit of the Loom tops from Ebay, and corduroy trousers/chinos from the seemingly never-ending Debenhams sale.

I never, ever get why other parents with sons say there is nothing but sludgy crap to get them. Yes, there is a lot of sludgy crap and logo crap out there, but you just have to look a tiny bit harder and there's loads of colourful, fun stuff for boys (and girls) without stereotyped imagery and so on. I've always dressed my DS in colourful, groovy stuff, and it's all from completely normal places, and all from the boys range; Next, M&S, Little Bird at Mothercare, supermarket stuff, and so on. And you can get some great stuff online.

The real thing is that whilst people rightfully moan about stereotyped clothing, deep down, they don't want to be the one who'll break away too much from how everyone else is dressing children of the same gender.

Today my son is wearing coral/orange jeans from Next, bright orange socks, and a blue, white and orange sweatshirt with a picture of a spacehopper on it from M&S.

Stuff is out there, but you do need to look carefully and shop around. You can't go to one shop and get everything, but nearly all shops have some plain, but colourful items for boys and girls. It seems that skulls, slogans, sequins and hello kitty are 'in' at the moment and so that's what is on the majority of stuff.

Zara children's clothes are nice.

Someone upthread mentioned Vertbaudet - agree

I used to like Adams for boys' clothes - sadly closed down

Have you looked at Next's website? They've got a selection of bright coloured plain shorts/t-shirts.

They've got the 'cheeky monkey'/'surf club' too, but just don't buy that.

I love VertBaudet, just brilliant, simple clothes.

Oh god OP YANBU. I'd sack all high street store little boys buyers and try again. It's so annoying. I honestly think some shops would prefer not to stock clothes for little boys. It's such crap.

For the first time in ages I found more clothes I liked for little boys than little girls. I was looking got something for my 1 year old niece and saw nothing I liked for her but I found loads of clothes for my 2 and 3 year old DS's (nothing for my 9 year old son though).
My 3 year old looks great in skinny jeans because he is skinny, other styles give him a builders bottom or drag along the ground and fray. He has turquoise, orange and navy skinny jeans from H&M, Morrisons have some brilliant T-shirts some have slogans but not little dude/monkey/trouble.