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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

John Lewis removing gendered sections in kids clothing

572 replies

moutonfou · 02/09/2017 12:46

John Lewis has announced they are no longer having 'boys' and 'girls' clothing sections. Just kids clothing. Which to me sounds fair enough. I had to buy several football shirts from the boys section as a kid and always felt like they weren't 'for me' and that someone was going to notice and call me out on it.

On some of the news outlets' Facebook posts about this, there are the most OTT comments from people who seem to have interpreted this as an attempt to make all kids be 100% gender fluid, stop calling them boys and girls at all, make all boys wear dresses, etc etc.

AIBU to be frustrated that people can't see the value of just letting kids like what they like, and that it's not all some sinister agenda??

OP posts:

Thread gallery

orlantina · 03/09/2017 20:08

my ds would never wear anything intended for a girl

How does he know something is 'intended for a girl"?

Lifechallenges · 03/09/2017 20:11

Its important as making young DC think they should conform to stereotypes and what shops tell them they should like and not decide for themselves is wrong. DC read the messages and want to conform if even if they don't want to at the same time.

Lifechallenges · 03/09/2017 20:13

He knows its for girls as he's been told that pink, sparkles, princesses, cats, bows, hearts, purple, etc are not for him since the day he was born

KentMum2008 · 03/09/2017 20:21

Well I'm all for gender neutral clothing. DD is 10 and detests anything girly, pink, glittery or unicorn related. Why should she have to look in the boys section for decent clothing which she likes and is suitable for the kind of activities she does?(climbing trees, playing football, generally larking about outside in all weathers)
I'll be shopping in JL much more now, hope other follow suit.

Paperclipmover · 03/09/2017 20:37

Good news. Like Polarn then, where you shop by age and style of item.

I did wonder if this was their plan when they labeled their kids range " boys and girls", or something similar- it seemed to be what they were getting at although a label "kids" or similar would maybe have been better.

John Lewis, as you're reading this, do you think you could sort your sizing out please? The ages on your clothes don't match the size charts. To be fair this doesn't matter so much once you know this but it's annoying anyway. What is a problem is that the clothes go up to a size 12, so very soon my 7 year old won't be able to wear your clothes as she's in an 11 or 12 already. She's not a giant, although tall BUT according to your sizing charts she should fit her age range. I think your pattern cutters need to add a bit more ease into the garments.

And I know your planning to make kids clothes up to age 14, but will they be a suitable style for a much younger child?

Oh, and JL cut out the polyester nighties. You can get past the flammability laws with cotton these days, ask Boden.
Cheers , and thank you for the cheese scones :)

Wants · 03/09/2017 20:43

My Ds has always had to go the 'girls' section for his leggings. It's great if he can just go to the trouser section. I can see it will be easier to shop especially if you have more than one child.

demirose87 · 03/09/2017 21:21

orlantina, no not labelled sections, just rails of blue, green, typical boys style clothes, with trains, dinosaurs all together, then pink frilly type in a separate section. It seemed the only thing different was the label on the actual items.

conserveisposhforjam · 03/09/2017 21:31

I an hoping this is movement towards.

Hopefully once the new idea is established they might start to look beyond princesses and dinosaurs and trucks and find a nice little space between where space rockets and puppies can flourish and then it'll all start to get a bit more blended year on year until in five years time ds will be able to wear sparkly unicorn leggings without fucking grown men feeling the need to pass comment...

He may be less keen on them by then, but I can hope...

Scholes34 · 03/09/2017 21:31

From a purely practical point of view more gender-neutral clothes are to be welcomed. DD wore denim dungarees and plain t-shirts that were passed down to DS1 and DS2 - good quality ones that lasted through all three children. Cheap clothes are wasteful. It was much easier 20 years ago to find clothes suitable for both sexes.

As for a dress being the defining clothes for a women, I can't remember the last time I wore a dress - they get caught in your back wheel when you're cycling to work.

Scholes34 · 03/09/2017 21:32

And dresses are totally, totally impractical for babies who are learning to crawl!

Lifechallenges · 03/09/2017 22:04

..it's like the school uniform police that tell girls that they can only wear skirts / kilts / pinafores and dresses in certain schools... and some of the awful versions of that, that the most exclusive schools seem to enjoy most hahaha

Whitecurrants · 03/09/2017 22:09

Well done JL - this is a great idea

cueless · 03/09/2017 22:14

I get so fed up with pink/purple and blue/green. Let's introduce colours that don't put kids in boxes that appeal to all.
My brothers wore most of my clothes, but I can't do this with my children as it is far too sexualised.

bitemytoenails · 03/09/2017 22:16

american apparel had unisex clothing for years nothing new.

SomewhatIdiosyncratic · 03/09/2017 22:20

I'm currently lounging around in a "unisex" race t-shirt (aka male default square cut) and "boys" grey jogging bottoms from a supermarket. I fancied a loose cut of clothes this evening and these two items were clean in the drawers and fitted the bill. It doesn't make me any less female or adult to when I wear a dress from a womenswear section.

I like colours, lots of different colours so when the DCs were little, I bought different colours of clothes I liked that fitted the DCs. It so happened that H&M had some purple (aubergine) trousers that had a nice slim fit. I didn't realise until after that they were "girls" trousers. They fitted DS well and were a lovely colour that went with a lot of outfits. On another occasion I was looking for age 2-3 sleepsuits online and found the stock restricted. DS ended up with a lovely set with a white background and neon pink stars.

In children where body shape makes little difference labelling "boys" and "girls" reduces the accessibility and openness of choice. Hopefully just having a "t-shirt" section will create a more varied choice and move away from more cliched styling and colour.

Having two DCs of the, same sex, it can get frustrating trying to vary colour choices. DS2 currently has a pink jacket with blue trims because the only other choice was the bush green that DS1 already had. I felt on this occasion that the particular shade of pink wasn't too "girly" along with the simple styling and the blue trims and was a much easier colour to spot than DS1's. The jacket was good value and I wanted them to have a garment of equal quality.

Sadly children do care about gender stereotypes. DS1 was upset when he was called a girl for wearing random brightly coloured nail varnish when he was 5 and has never worn it since. Breaking down those stereotypes to open up choice is a good thing for any child.

SomewhatIdiosyncratic · 03/09/2017 22:24

Our school uniform is one list for all children. DS wears cardigans because the neckholes on sweatshirts is too snug for his head. They're sweatshirt material with the school logo and look great with the school shoes and shorts and no more feminine than my granddad did in his cardigans (now there was a man who got banned from the local in his 80s )

bitemytoenails · 03/09/2017 22:29

i also used to wear alot of unisex sweatshirts from a jeans shop 'cotton' somthing

JuicyCake · 03/09/2017 22:32

I think it's great. As kids, we wore mostly brown, yellow, patterns. Pink & blue / girl or boy weren't a thing. Our teddies were brown too!

TheAntiBoop · 03/09/2017 22:36

Unfortunately American apparel undid any goodwill from that gesture with their advertising strategy...

ArcheryAnnie · 03/09/2017 22:40

I don't get this. Girls have always been able to wear boys clothes. They might get called a "tomboy" (which is normally seen as a compliment) but nobody would really care.

killjoy50 sadly, people do care, a lot. I have personally seen parents refuse to buy stuff because it's the "wrong" colour, even when the kid really, really wants it. I have also seen small kids abandon their favourite things once they start nursery and are subject to peer pressure.

MrsHathaway · 03/09/2017 22:48

It would be really lovely if this move meant JL's buyers and suppliers had the confidence to offer more gender neutral options - a yellow polo shirt with a tiger applique on it, say.

I got my younger DCs' Christmas jumpers today (long story) and they're unobjectionably unisex - plain red jumper shape with Father Christmas on the front. But I know, I just know, that there's some pointless and twatty pinkified version with sequins or hearts on it so that socially it becomes a "boys" jumper.

I put DC3 in a reindeer babygro when he was a few weeks old. Bright red, snowflakes on it, reindeer. Took me ages to work out why people said it was a bit girly for him ... very slight ruching on the piping along the poppers. FML.

MandalaYogaTapestry · 03/09/2017 22:54

It puzzles me why some try do not seem to understand why clothing for children should be gendered.

For adults, there are women's and men's sections of clothing. They are very distinctly different in colours, shapes, textures, cuts, variety, etc. No-one is surprises by this.

Why shouldn't girls wear clothes designed for girls and boys - for boys? Why such a desperate need to make the clothes neutral for children when they are clearly gendered for adults?

MandalaYogaTapestry · 03/09/2017 22:54

It puzzles me why some try do not seem to understand why clothing for children should be gendered.

For adults, there are women's and men's sections of clothing. They are very distinctly different in colours, shapes, textures, cuts, variety, etc. No-one is surprises by this.

Why shouldn't girls wear clothes designed for girls and boys - for boys? Why such a desperate need to make the clothes neutral for children when they are clearly gendered for adults?

Kpo58 · 03/09/2017 22:57

It would be really lovely if this move meant JL's buyers and suppliers had the confidence to offer more gender neutral options

I hold out little hope for this. It will probably just the same old stereotypical stuff, but they are being "radical" by omitting the normal labels.

ArcheryAnnie · 03/09/2017 22:59

Why shouldn't girls wear clothes designed for girls and boys - for boys? Why such a desperate need to make the clothes neutral for children when they are clearly gendered for adults?

What makes a "boys" t-shirt specifically for boys, Mandala? The fabric, the colour, what?

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