to be offended at the lack of floorspace and style for boys clothing

[KissingAFool]

I get upset about this every time I go shopping for my loving boys. Wall to wall girls stuff, you can really pick a style and run with it, the variety is amazing. Across all shops. Across all budgets.

However the boys offerings beyond the toddler stages are so dull, limited, stylish. I love shopping, love clothes and am trying to raise my kids with a healthy interest in their appearance but its so hard when there's nothing I even want to see on my boys and they moan that it's all boring.

Its just feels short sighted and discriminatory to have eg one aisle of stuff for boys vs three if girls which is what I'm faced with.

Are ANY shops geared towards equal floorspace? Because beyond h&m and zara it feels extremely one sided and I actually feel quite hurt!

[SinisterBumFacedCat]

Yep, totally agree, but more irritated than offended. Also I find the Sale rails are significantly smaller for boys. Nutmeg in Morrisons is better though.

[GingerLDN]

I always see lovely boys stuff. I think girls have more space dedicated to them because on top of trousers, shorts, tops and jumpers that boys have girls have dresses, skirts, little cardis to go with the dresses etc. So it's obvious there's going to be more.

[JavaFee]

As OPs said the stuff for girls is usually pink, more pink and lots of pink with some glitter thrown in.

[KissingAFool]

It IS offensive though. My sons are worth the effort! And daft. I mean, woman buy male clothes for a good few years.....and men would Actually buy more if there were more selection. My husband who loves to look good finds it an ever worsening battle. He says you end up disengaging with the whole thing.

I end up in Tkmaxx because at least it has unusual styles rather than bog standard checks.

I want my son dressed like a mini Jarvis cocker. Ideally he'd be rocking a flowery shirt and a few black polos. burgundy flares. Nay chance.

I had to make an emergency coat purchase today. Straight to Sainsbury. ONE style for boys. ONE.

[Ilikedogs]

Its the same with adult clothes. It's purely about sales and profit margins. Women and girls tend to buy more/have more bought for them and also there are more types of products to sell.

It is very annoying though especially because boys have less floor space retailers tend to play it quite safe/boring

[hennaoj]

I only buy my sons clothes online, Scandinavian clothing mostly. Much more interesting and more choice. Given up on UK stores apart from Frugi.

[Anononoo]

Agree. I hate it. Camp gear, boring superhero stuff. So tedious. Other countries actually think boys might wear something other than grey or black....

[Anononoo]

Not camp...I wish! Camo...camouflage

[ruthsmumkath]

I have 2 ds and 2 dd - often H&M in particular has better boys stuff - certainly boys shoes are much better quality than girls shoes.

There is so much choice out there.

How can anyone seriously feel upset about this ???

[Silverthorn]

Yanbu, but girls stuff is limited on having pink and glitter on it.
Someone must buy this stuff for the shops to stock it.

[MadisonAvenue]

This has annoyed me for years!
My boys are in their late teens now but when they were very young I complained, by letter, to Adams (remember them?) as two-thirds of the store was for girls and the choice for boys was terrible. I had a reply saying that they would consider what I'd said blah blah blah. Basically fobbing me off.
A year or two later nothing had changed (I live in a small town with very limited choice in clothes stores - it was Adams, Woolworths or the market at the time) so I wrote again, politely, and asked if they had any plans to extend the boys range. To my surprise I had a letter back containing a £10 gift voucher.
How lovely I thought and a couple of weeks later popped into the store to spend it.
The assistant serving me called for the manager.
She came out and told me that I was banned! She wouldn't actually tell me why though.

[formerbabe]

I have a boy and a girl...I don't recognise what any of you are saying. I think it's easy to go anywhere and find nice kids clothes for both sexes.

[QueenOfHumboldtCounty]

So annoying. And while we're on the subject why does half of the colourful younger boys stuff have to have dinosaurs on it?! DS hates dinosaurs and there's so much in m&s and Sainsbury's. Choice-wise it wasn't as bad when DS was a baby, you could get colourful baby boys clothes but now he's 4 I really struggle. Have resorted to buying over-priced Little Bird stuff on eBay

[Olympiathequeen]

Not to mention the acres of black, blue, green and sludge coloured clothing. It's grim.

[SherlockPotter]

I agree! I was shopping for my best friend's son (who was born yesterday 💙) and literally there was one baby boy/unisex clothing stand, the rest was baby girl's clothing (so much pink, ugh... stop with the pink is for girls, blue is for boys. Colours aren't gendered).

[FourKidsNotCrazyYet]

Yes it's really annoying! I have three boys and one girl. Our local M&S and Monsoon don't even stock boys clothes anymore. Just women's and girls. Really annoying when I want to buy the boys gorgeous things and no where sells boys clothes. Even Tesco's boys is at the end of an aisle, the girls stuff is along two aisles

[Thetruthfairy]

Oh my goodness Madison. I hope you told the where to stick their voucher.

I had my second ds 6 months ago. I am setting myself a challenge to buy him clothes that are:
Not blue
No vehicles
Not baggy/ shapeless

I have spent a little money in mamas and papas, John Lewis, Zara and boden. Not as much as I would have liked though.

I have had a next voucher since his birth that I have been looking to spend. I have found 1 pair of grey leggings and a mustard jumper today. I was relieved.
I could have spent the voucher 10 X over on my dd!

[Dinosaur1991]

I could only get a pink baby sleeping bag with a bear wearing a tutu on it last month in tesco. No boys ones whatsoever. Thankfully my one year old thought it was the best thing he'd ever seen but some choice would have been nice.

[AmeliaJack]

I have a DS and a DD. I actually find shopping for him easier. So much of the girls stuff is covered in sparkly twee slogans that it's automatically discounted.

There may be more girls things but it's not better. I also think (although gave no evidence for this) that girls stuff seems expensive in comparison to boys.

[Mol1628]

I try and buy scandi clothes for my boys now when I can afford it. Much better choice and quality. And there are other colours apart from blues browns and greys.

[PickAChew]

I've always found it frustrating with my two, then ds1 hit teen sizes and I ended up getting everything online because even next don't stock 13-16 I store. It's only getting better now that ds1 is well into man sizes (IE not even the elusive xs) but he'll, it's expensive and I'm dreading when he outgrows the biggest next teen joggers because it's going to cost at least 3x as much for similar quality from the absolutely tiny menswear range (the ones in sports shops are generally horrible. He hates big logos)

[ILikeyourHairyHands]

I always go to independent shops for the DC, not too budget frindly though, also scandi websites, Joules, Boden and John Lewis usually have some pretty good stuff in too.

I just don't buy them tons of stuff, it probably works out about the same cost-wise.

One of each too (and DD won't wear 'girls' clothes).

[Lowdoorinthewal1]

You have to shop online for boys. When DS was little I shopped on barnyard kids, frugi, Polarno and Boden. Now at 6 (but in 9-10 clothes because he is so tall) his stuff comes almost exclusively from Boden. They have the bright colours/ no logos combination that I like, and even the jogging bottoms that he now demands to live in are more fitted so they look smarter.

I don't think he owns anything from an actual shop.

[Roomba]

It's crap, isn't it? And tbh the availability gets even smaller the older they get - there's a fair bit of baby boy/toddler/young boy's clothing (though nowhere near the amount of girls' stuff), but so little stuff for ages 7-13ish.

DS1 is 11 but the height of an average 13/14 year old, and I really struggle to find him anything in a lot of high street shops. A lot of what is available is really inappropriate too, awful slogan t-shirts or really crap quality.

I really noticed the difference when I went shopping for their half sister for Christmas - rows of girls' clothes for every occasion and in every 'style' that's fashionable right now. The boy's aisle (singular) generally had a couple of coats, a few t-shirts with crap slogans, couple of jumpers and jeans, and that was it!

[Lowdoorinthewal1]

I think Monsoon might do they type of stuff you are looking for by the way OP.