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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Dear manufacturers of clothing for small boys

177 replies

monkeymamma · 07/06/2014 14:57

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

OP posts:
PrincessBabyCat · 08/06/2014 05:03

Yeah, this is why I'm glad I have a girl. Boy clothes are kind of boring and don't really give you many options.

Ardiente · 08/06/2014 05:32

Zara/Gap/Pumpkin Patch. Job done.

CharlesRyder · 08/06/2014 06:17

I could dress my DS entirely from that website linesandlines. Lovely stuff.

GermyElephant · 08/06/2014 06:30

DS looks wonderful in khaki, brown and burnt orange. They really suit his colouring.

Mainly he wears bright colours though. And no cartoon characters or writing on his clothes. H&M annoys me with the amount of cartoon characters. Do 1.5 year olds really watch Snoopy, the Muppets, Minnie Mouse etc?

JennyCalendar · 08/06/2014 06:31

On the shoe issue, we've just had the usual choice of quite boring Clarks shoe BUT there was one pair of bright green shoes amongst them, which we went for. It seems as if half the boys in our area have too. Hopefully the purchasers at Clarks take note so we have more colours appear.

CharlesRyder · 08/06/2014 06:34

I get Hummel shoes for DS- loads of cool colours. I used to only buy Clarks when I was still being PFB about his feet but I got fed up with having the same choice over and over... stomposaurus or stomposaurus.

mimishimmi · 08/06/2014 06:42

I saw a t-shirt in K-Mart yesterday with had SUPREMACY in large white Germanic style letters. Then Born to Rule underneath. A picture of a crown on top of a shield with a cross in the middle and a lion on one side and St George's Dragon on the other. And the number 1970 in Roman numerals. Not sure where that fits in. Just so offensive on so many levels.

bleedingheart · 08/06/2014 06:58

I don't like cheeky monkey/liked daddy/little monster tops but I don't think it's that hard to find alternatives.
Matalan, Next, Tesco, Sainsburys and Primark all do plain tees. H&M Joggers, cotton tops and hoodies are great.

I let my children choose their clothes (within reason!) from when they were verbal so they have a lot of Marvel and Lego clothing.
DS2 wears autumnal colours/sludgy tones as they suit him.
It was good to get an insight into the design process and confirm the consumer is held in contempt, as I thought.

bleedingheart · 08/06/2014 07:01

mimishimmi -my mind is boggling at that k-Mart top!
Mozz your DS is beautiful!

ThisFenceIsComfy · 08/06/2014 07:10

Monsoon does great clothes for little boys. I buy off ebay though. H&M is also great

mimishimmi · 08/06/2014 07:11

I took a photo of it with my phone.

mimishimmi · 08/06/2014 07:24

Boys t-shirt at Kmart

Dear manufacturers of clothing for small boys
stressedtransition · 08/06/2014 07:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TroyMcClure · 08/06/2014 07:52

Lol at the second post on this threD

Dornishwine · 08/06/2014 08:22

Hmmm....you see both my kids love pirates /pirates of the Caribbean etc so like skulls. I don't personally. Dc have Beatles t shirts and guns and roses t shirts because they like them too :)
Trousers can be an issue.
I have a very solid 11 year old and a slim 5 year old...next are the only jeans and school trousers that seem to fit them properly!

ViviPru · 08/06/2014 08:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ViviPru · 08/06/2014 08:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Chipandspuds · 08/06/2014 08:58

I enjoy clothes shopping for DS, I usually buy his clothes from Primark, M&S, H&M and if it's a special occasion Next. We do live near a large shopping centre so there seems to be lots of choice within these shops, whereas I guess in a smaller town there would be less choice/smaller ranges. I have noticed that most shops including Tesco have more space allocated for girls clothes than boys clothes.

Orangeanddemons · 08/06/2014 09:58

Well it definitely want untrue when I was doing it. Furthermore, I was a menswear designer too, and it is a totally different ball game.

My experience as a childrenswear designer, when I worked with all the high street buyers was that none of them had children, and nor did the designers. When I became a parent I realised how little these people knew. Yes, there were Senior buyers who oversaw everything, but I do not remember any of them having children.

Whilst you may not agree with me, this was my experience, and I spent 10 years supplying all the big high street names. I am not being ageist in the least I am simply commenting on what was happening.

FloozeyLoozey · 08/06/2014 11:44

I've stopped agonising over what DS wears. He rips his trousers, gets holes in them, gets them dirty... I just stick him in whatever now. He loves to play football, so lives most of his life in tracksuit bottoms (which I used to hate/denounce as "chavvy") or football kit.

CaptainSinker · 08/06/2014 12:44

Thanks for the pumpkin patch recommendation. Just went on and ordered some nice non princessy stuff for dd. Found a code online for 50 per cent off full price plus free delivery that expires today. The code was ukfly4 and it worked for me.

Strokethefurrywall · 08/06/2014 14:49

Ha, as I read this thread, DS1 (2.6) is wearing his Guns and Roses T-Shirt and 11 week old DS2 is wearing a gorgeous little pirate romper.

In my justified defense, I live overseas (Caribbean, pirates are de rigeur here!) and all the kids clothes come from Next because family bring stuff over, or the Carter's line in the US.

DS1 has most of the band t-shirts, he likes them and my sister sent over a GnR t-shirt for DS2 - I like the band t-shirts on them far more than ridiculously over bright shorts and t-shirt sets. It's too hot here to put them in anything other else though so I get very Envy when I look at all the gorgeous autumn/winter stuff.

The one thing I will be ordering from Next are the character swimsuits which are brilliant - we're in the pool/sea all the time here and DS loves the superman swimsuit that was sent over - have already added all the others to my online basket!

I guess because we don't have a lot of people wearing the same thing here that I get a lot of positive comments on their clothing.

vitaminz · 08/06/2014 15:07

Primark ftw! I've just bought loads of really fun, colourful, cool, non-slogan boys clothes and very reasonable (eg. £2 for yellow vest with black palm tree pattern on it).

LittleprincessinGOLDrocks · 08/06/2014 22:13

I just got a few t-shirts for the DC at Mountain Warehouse which you may find more appropriate. Lots of bright colours and different pictures, I opted for one of the sheep ones and a camper van one for DS.

DenzelWashington · 08/06/2014 22:38

Well, I've just bought DS Polo by Ralph Lauren T-shirts in TK Maxx. That place is always worth a rootle.

No one has mentioned Gap. Their stuff is variable, but there is usually something decent, though I was once horrified to find a babygro in there that said "Lock up your daughters". Ugh. They are good for girls' clothes in something other than pink.

Boots is the best for slogan-avoiding, but only goes up to age 6-7.

I find I have to search harder to get my taste in clothes for DS than I do for DD, but it is doable.