To not really get Frugi clothes

[BibbityBobbityBoob]

Don't get me wrong they have some lovely clothes and nice prints, but they're just so expensive for what they are. I mean £21 for a single babygrow? Loads of my mum friends absolutely rave about them and fork out to dress their children exclusively in Frugi everything. Am I missing something?

Not a cat in hells chance I would pay that amount of money for something my child is going to grow out of in a matter of weeks and puke, piss or crap on in the meantime. I wouldn’t even pay those prices for me!!

I love this brand. Colourful but not as neon as frugi

www.polarnopyret.co.uk/

RingFence, yes. Having a girl after two boys (big gap so the number of hand-me-downs from her brothers is a bit limited), a whole new and not entirely happy dimension of children's clothing is being opened up to me. The difficulty of getting toddler dd some vests (underwear not bodysuit type) or thermal underwear tops without bloody bows on them. They look to be what I want - plain, comfortable and warm - and then there's a little frill round the neck and a bloody bow. She ends up with quite a lot from the boys' section, and whatever I do have left over from the boys, she wears.

I love Frugi but wow it comes up HUGE. My son could easily fit in a Frugi 3-6 months top at 12 months + and he hadn’t been in 3-6 months clothes for well over 6 months.

What’s quite interesting, from a marketing point of view is by this thread at least, it seems like frugis target market is parents who can’t afford frugi

@MiriAmmerman how much for a pair 2nd hand, damaged dungarees?! Who are these people mad enough to pay that?

Same as anyone who collects anything tbh, there are people who will buy all sorts of things. If they are older, rarer etc.

Bibbity I know - I had to check I'd read it right! I suppose they must be some sort of a collector's item, but I hadn't realised people collected baby clothes. Needless to say, I'm not bidding on them myself

Following a pp's question about gendered clothing, my feeling is not that it's wrong for my DS to look like a boy or wear blue, but that most clothes seem to want to force children into a very narrow idea of what girls and boys like and do. So a very large number of "boys'" outfits are covered in cars and dinosaurs. But, what if my DS turns out not to like cars or dinosaurs? How will he feel? He won't be any less of a boy if he wants to wear bright yellow trousers or a sweatshirt with a pony on it. However, lots of children's clothing manufacturers (looking at you, George at Asda) seem to think boys can only wear blue and girls can only wear pink. I find it boring, and I think it's limiting for children and inflicts societal expectations of sex and gender on them at an alarmingly young age.

I'm another one who is worried that the little man/little princess narrative is causing children who don't fit into these tiny boxes to think that they must be the wrong gender

Just realised I've cross-posted a bit with RingFence and Dowager.

Those Maxomorra pig dungarees are collectors items. Same with the submarine print, a onesie on eBay last week had a £100 reserve on it! There were a lot of bids so presumably the buyer can resell for a good price. It does seem mad, as the pig dungarees were only about £20 new when they came out. They must be limited edition or shipped from abroad or something. Maxomorra is a big craze now, more distinctive than Frugi and less gendered.

I’m finding it much harder to find gender neutral clothing now my dc are out of toddler stage (8 & 4)

So my ds8 wears a lot of green and red. Plains and stripes with the occasional star wars tee. But luckily he’s not too keen on graphics on tees. Although mil keeps buying him dinosaur tees!

Dd4 is harder as she’s refusing to wear anything but dresses atm, which is fine but I make sure she wears decent thick leggings/tights and boots with them and a tee underneath so she can actually play in the dress.
But again mil pop up with a lot of pink unicorns for her!

You can't get more girly than pink unicorns, but dinosaur tees are completely gender neutral, aren't they? Unless they are glittery pink I suppose.

Most of the "boys" clothes are gender neutral anyway, it's girls who have more choice.

I’m finding it much harder to find gender neutral clothing now my dc are out of toddler stage (8 & 4)

Dd4 is harder as she’s refusing to wear anything but dresses atm

Why would you want your dc dressed in gender neutral clothing especially when your dd has shown a preference for dresses?

My friends child adores pink and unicorns. I adore pastel pink and lilac at my age.
What is the benefit to gender neutral dressing and what harm does it do to put the child in clothing they like and have shown a preference to wear despite the parents efforts to keep them neutral.

Why would you want your dc dressed in gender neutral clothing especially when your dd has shown a preference for dresses?

Exactly. As I mentioned in my previous post, I don't get the big deal with gender neutral clothing, especially if I'm going to have to pay extra for it! If my DD wants to wear a dress, even a frilly unicorn dress, with glitter how does that in any way oppress her? It's attitudes and behaviours that matter. Yes, flimsy shoes may have an effect on whether a little girl can run about and enjoy boisterous play...so don't buy flimsy shoes for any child. But pink wellies (if she wants pink wellies) will let her splash in puddles exactly the same as blue, green or rainbow ones.

I have no problem with dd wearing what she wants new I just find that some dresses, particularly the pink unicorns ones are not very practical or warm.
I prefer her to wear dresses from places with gender neutral colours such as
Polarn as they generally have a better understanding that girls, even though they like wearing dresses, also like mucking about.

I fucking hate Clark’s shoes for this too!.... My dd wants a pair of pink shoes but their girls shoes are shit and they don’t do boys pink shoes

ooh it was more to do with the colour than the actual dress. As in my above post.

The brands which tend to be more gender neutral also tend to have better designed clothing. Such as longer shorts for girls, long sleeved dresses (regardless of colour), and more variety of colours for both boys and girls

Also, what about all the girls out there that don’t like dresses and pink?!.... That was me from a very young age, and still is. However now I’m an adult it’s acceptable for me not to want to wear dresses. When i was younger Inwas nicknamed a Tomboy.... a phrase I fucking hate!

I fucking hate Clark’s shoes for this too!.... My dd wants a pair of pink shoes but their girls shoes are shit and they don’t do boys pink shoes

Yeah and dont get me started on the shoes with toys inside the heel. They fall to bits.

Any frugi fans should look at a company called tiny vikings she is based in Glasgow and makes unique baby clothes in really fun prints. They are a lovely soft jersey material. I have a few funky hats and rompers all totally adorable.

The brands which tend to be more gender neutral also tend to have better designed clothing. Such as longer shorts for girls, long sleeved dresses (regardless of colour), and more variety of colours for both boys and girls

That's subjective. It just amazes me that parents choose their children's clothes to reflect their own social status, attitudes and values, be it dressing them gender neutral or identifying as a crunchy guardian-reading liberal in organic cotton. As a kid, I just pulled on my clothes in the morning and ran out to play.

the prints and colours look very cheap to me.

I started buying Frugi for my daughter we used cloth nappies and Frugi is designed to fit over these (I was having to buy 1 or 2 sizes bigger from the high street brands). I have found that Frugi washes and lasts really well - and also can be sold on easily. I tend to buy most Frugi stuff in the sales, and get stuff for nursery etc second hand. I like it that they use organic cotton and have a good company ethos. My daughter loves the bright colours, and I love it that I can buy girly stuff that isn't pink, frilly and sparkly.

I prefer the scandi stuff myself, especially Maxomorra, and would dress my boys in it constantly if I could... but I have to buy it secondhand or in the sale, but at least with these brands you can usually get at least 75% of what you paid back selling it on, they’re not much more expensive than outfits from Mothercare and Next and you can’t bloody give those away.

As for ‘they’ll grown out of it too quickly’ my toddler is still in frugi stuff we bought a year ago (and maxomorra) because you can fold down waist bands and cuffs so they grow with the child. Now that’s clever.