To be starting to think that girls clothes are shit?

[Sockstealer]

Basically I've been looking at clothes for my nieces, I'm also pregnant so I've been thinking I could be having a daughter this time.

I buy most of my ds' stuff from Next or H&M, there's loads of cool, trendy and practical stuff. Functional coats and shoes, tshirts with Lego, dinosaurs, super heroes and funny pictures or slogans, sensible trousers.

I'm looking at the 'girls' sections and most of what I can find is what looks like somebody has vomited a load of pink, glitter and sequins, pictures of birds and cats, daft slogans like 'think pink'. Leggings and more leggings (I mean they're not going to keep your legs warm), shiny fluffy coats with leopard print or sickly pink that's going to show up every mark. And what characters are there, frozen or hello kitty?

Is there a shop that I don't know about that sells better stuff?

I had to give up looking because all the pink was hurting my eyes, and even the stuff that isn't pink is smothered in hearts or fairies.

Next is very pink but plenty blue, red and green as well. Girls are fine on leggings and my dd finds them more comfy than jeans or trousers. You need to look round and beyond the pink there is other clothes. But if you have a baby girl you will get given a lot of pink unless you specify otherwise!

I favour this shop.

And shopping for boys is often just as depressing imo.

OP I guess you could always buy the boys' clothes for your niece instead of the girls' ones? Just buy her the Lego t shirt that's been marketed for boys if she likes Lego.

Unless she likes the fairies and stuff. In which case buy her the fairyish one.

I like the outdoor shops especially the outlet ones and when they've got a sale on. Warm fleeces and combat trousers and got a lovely waterproof 3 in 1 coat from there half price as well. I'm not a person, and there is lots out there in non-pink. You just have to search for it, as the pink/logoed stuff tends to be at the front or by the door.

Also check out juicytots.co.uk lots of scandic brands that are very bright and unisex and I love kitschycoo for original skater dress's and if she hasn't got it she will make it!

Found this website recently which sells really cute unisex clothes for children nelaned.com

Sorry, forgotten how to make it a link

My dd's winter wardrobe is basically all jojo maman bebe's. I'm struggling to get her a nice dress for her Xmas parties- anyone seen amy nice ones aged 2-3?

DD sometimes wears boy clothes, and I just put a cute bow on her head so she still looks like a girl.

It actually gets easier as they get older. I had a hard time with anything not pink in new born sizes. But in 12m and up they have a whole rainbow of colors for little girls. At least online.

Have you tried GAP OP? They always have lots of good promotional offers going on and also I find the quality of their clothes to be better than H&M or Next.

I have a DS who is 6 months and I find it incredibly hard choosing clothes for him. Everywhere I go, there seems to be about 3 aisles of girls clothes and either one aisle or a side section for boys. I'd say the only exception is Next. Most other places seem to favour girls clothes.

It's a supply and demand issue surely. The vast majority of people aren't worried about frills or cats or glitter. Boys my little pony socks wouldn't be a big seller so they aren't widely manufactured as it's not a good business decision. My dd is 8 I've never had a problem dressing her and she has gone from pink to blue to purple being her favourite colours to wear currently it's yellow and navy. There is a huge selection out there

Most children's clothes available now jump headfirst into some fairly crude gender stereotypes and nestle there. For both boys and girls, you really have to pick and choose carefully wherever you shop, especially if you don't want everything your children wear to have cartoon characters on it.

It is perfectly possible to end up with a boy in happy, colourful clothing that has nothing to do with the Army, or Marvel, or racing cars, or hideous slogans. It is also perfectly possible to end up with a girl in colours other than pink and clothes that are not so twee they make a 'Love Is...' cartoon look like The Book of Job.

However, doing either is a lot harder than it ought to be.

M&S have beautiful girls clothes. Feminine and nice cuts of dresses etc but in far more interesting and colourful patterns and designs than all the skanky plastic looking pink crap in next etc.

Peacocks have some great girls stuff. Dd has some red tartan leggings which she wears with a white jumper and black boots. She got a red turtle neck from Next and wears with skinny jeans. She has some lovely things from BHS too, not a single pink item.

I used La Redoute for a while for non-dirge colours for boys and non-uselesscan'tgetdirty colours for girls. Was a while back so no doubt they've caught the binary disease too. There's a 50% off code I saw on MSN yesterday.

What's going on with the war on girls clothes, on mn today.

Op I shop all over the high street and have never had an issue dressing dd or ds. Both pick clothes they lik (aged 4&11) neither even think to look if it's in the 'girls section'.

I don't find girls clothes to short, impractical etc. I shop for what I need.

Leggings are awesome. Comfortable and you can always put tights on underneath.

Honestly OP, not sure what has pissed on your chips today but I agree with any of your points.

Personally I often find that the "boys" and "girls" sections are equally dire, and there is nothing I want to buy.
But the girls' section is generally quite a bit more extensive.

I think that if you are just browsing speculatively, you will almost always find something to your taste in the girls' section, just because there is usually so much stuff there.

But I often struggle if I am looking for something very specific.

The other day, we were looking for a warm sweatshirt/jumper for DD. Not a hoodie, because she doesn't like the hood getting bunched up under her coat. I don't like characters or stupid slogans, and wanted it to be warm enough for the winter, and not cost a fortune.

We spent absolutely ages wading through a sea of flimsy thin jumpers with stupid cutesy slogans - I live in a non-English speaking country, but most of the slogans are still written in English, and are often laughably ridiculous. Even DD was laughing a them.

We did find something eventually, but it was more than I wanted to pay. Still since we had spent well over an hour trudging round the shops, I just wanted to grab something and get out.

I find the opposite. I find it easy to find clothes I live for DD - I'm not into pink but I like clothes with prints from nature - animals, insects, plants, fruit etc - and there are loads for girls in various colours.

I struggle far more finding clothes for DS. I don't like superheroes, cartoon characters, transport and I hate slogan T-shirts. I'd like to buy DS clothes with pictures from nature too but aside from a few jungle animal clothes (and even these often seem to have slogans like 'cheeky monkey' or 'small boy big roar' etc) it all seems to be cars/ monsters - hardly anything with insects or plants for example.

So I guess it depends what you're into. If you're into Lego, superheroes and monsters good luck finding anything for girls but on the other hand if you like bumblebees, strawberries and rabbits good luck finding anything for boys.

I also find it much easier to find clothes I like for dd to wear than Ds.

M&S is really variable depending on the store. The one in our town centre has a tiny selection and is 90% cheap looking character stuff despite otherwise being a flagship type store.
The out-of-town one here has loads of great stuff.

Saying that I know I can buy clothes for DS from the 'girl's' section and I often do. He is in a lot of DD's hand-me-down anyway. I also find there is so much more choice online - I buy lots of cheap clothes shipped from China on eBay which come in loads of unisex colours/ designs and I look out for Scandinavian style children's clothes from brands like Smafolk, Duns and Snoozy on sale too.

But I would prefer to see a better range of unisex style baby and children's clothes in stores generally. And to be honest for adults - I have really struggled this year looking for a thick, warm affordable jumper for myself. They all seem to have cutesy pictures on the front, unnecessary zips/ buttons etc or to be really thin. Of course there were loads in the men's sections which is where I ended up buying from but why none for women? I think women's fashion is still style over substance a lot of the time so unsurprising it's the same with children's clothing.

I love the 'little bird' range from Jools Oliver at mothercare as it's pretty unisex and full of primary colours - also Zara has some amazing neutrals in their basic range which look lovely on girls! I think they have pony print leggings (but unisex) but none of that bright pink/glitter stuff.

I prefer more neutral colours - primary colours or beiges/greys

I have found that the clothes in girls' and boys' section are different shapes.

Sometimes the clothes in the girls' section wouldn't fit many living children I have seen.

But they certainly wouldn't fit DS' shape, as he is very broad in the chest and has short legs.

I don't know if I'm having a boy or a girl yet but I'm just going to buy things I like regardless of whether they are from the boys' or girls' ranges of the shop.

I'd personally like it if all the unisex clothes weren't so bright and multicoloured though...that's just personal preference though...I like neutrals/pastels etc.

I think I'm going to try embroidering/appliqueing a few bits of clothing too just for fun....I'm thinking pink trains or dinosaur dresses etc.