To think boys clothing in high street shops sucks?

[Squareroot]

Two boys, 10 & 7. Am a firm believer in using our high street shops - use it or lose it and all that. But on a trip to Exeter this week (John Lewis, H&M, Next, Debenhams) I couldn't find anything COLOURFUL for my boys. Everything is drab - black, grey, brown, grey... there is NO colour. Contrast that with the girls sections and it just seems wrong. Girls get pink, red, yellow, blue, green, multi colours! I want to support our high street retailers but really struggled to find anything fun and just ended up coming home & going online. A friend recommended Five Boys & St Berts. Anyone got any other suggestions - apart from Boden, which I love but can't justify...

I think this is all very age related. All comments re choice and colours valid for 6 and under where we chose their clothes and attempt not to stereotype but older than that they can chose themselves - and I can tell you if I bought my 7 year old bright Boden stuff (which I did last year) it will sit in the cupboard whilst he wears his black nike shiny tracksuit every day.

To those saying Boden is too expensive, definitely sign up to their mailing list, they are always sending through discounts and random £10vouchers. You can usually go through Quidco for cashback and combine these - I don't think I've ever bought from them at full price!

Not sure how to do links, but recently bought my DS one of the shaggy lined hoodies (in red with a rocket on the back!) - should have been £40, but I used a 25% off code, combined with a £10 off voucher they sent me, so only paid £20. I'll get cashback too from Quidco.

I did similar for his one last year (which cost even less as it was in the lower price bracket as a smaller size). He wore it most days through winter, isn't very careful with clothes (very rough and tumble 5yo!), and it was still in good enough condition for me to sell it for £12 on eBay in sept!

Boys clothing is pretty miserable to shop for. I can’t stand that pretty much every tshirt has to have something written on it or have a huge picture on it, usually a dinosaur or some animal when they are younger and then printed surf/cityscape scenes when they get older. We don’t want monkeys looking cool in oversized glasses. We just want plain or block colour or stripes. I looked at St berts and could handle their jumpers (though too pricey for me and unfortunately we never have a day on the slopes so we are probably not their target shopper to be fair). It just seems to get harder once they hit 12 and onwards.

John Lewis has 20% off lots of Mini Boden atm. I bought DS2 a bright coat.

That said I don't mind dressing him in black and grey so I'm sorted

A lot of the girls stuff is garish and horrid too. I don’t like pink or things embellished with glitter and sequins. H&M has always been a favourite of mine but even that has gone that way in recent years .

@nornironrock well I can't speak for anyone else's ds' but my ds' favourite colours are red and green - they love clothes in those colours but finding them as large pre teens is very difficult. Ds1 loves character stuff, HP, marvel, Pokemon etc but they all seem to stop at age 8-10 and he is 12 going on 14 size wise. Asda have some but again not much in bigger sizes and as he is tall but slim the small adult stuff is enormous on him still.

Sainsbury's and Morrison's are both good. Morrison's particularly; I think they're often scandi influenced

I find it curious that retailers seem to assume that parents (in my case mothers) of boys are likely to spend less on boys clothes than parents of girls.

DH and I are complete clothes horses and have loved getting DS lovely stuff since he was a teeny.

I am with all of you that cannot bear the Sludge Palette that boys designers seem to think will push buttons. Honestly I’d rather DS wore yellow or pink to roll in mud rather than pay money for sludge.

To the OP; Gap, M&S, Uniqlo, Ted Baker and John Lewis are my go tos.

In the past we've found great, colourful clothes in Uniqlo. Also DS used to buy girl's skinny jeans from H&M as they had a better range of colours and at that age, the cut is no different. Primark has quite good colours. And for bright, plain tee-shirts, just look at Fruit of the Loom on Amazon.

Tk Maxx and Sainsbury’s! I hate that we don’t have a Sainsbury’s near because their boys clothes (all of their stuff actually) are usually lovely!

There are definately some people advertising on this thread now! I just looked at a site someone upthread suggested and nearly fell over at the prices. The op said Boden was unaffordable so hardly think she will want to spend £60 on a t-shirt!
It is a shame if a lot of the big British retailers aren’t realising what people want. They are losing their business to the Scandi brands etc. Although I have notice a lot of Scandinavia esque prints filtering down to the high street so maybe they are. Perhaps that’s only in the younger clothes.
Maybe it’s wishful thinking on our part and they do it because no 10 year old would be seen dead in Scandi chic gender neutral!

YABU

WANT sludge and camo

I am quite sure this has something to do what's out there. My son LOVED bright and sparkles until he was told those are for girls, and his idol, big boy 2 years older, only wore sluge and camo. If there was something else available, maybe the boys would also see this as 'allowed'? See how reversible sequins have taken off - you would not see any on any boy clothes a few years ago, and now they're everywhere. Not as sparkly and in 'boy' designs, but at least something.

Yup. DS1 loves sludge, camo, skulls, sports brands. Dull dull dull. Luckily I have a 2mo I can dress up in ridiculous things like orange llama prints and moustaches :o

I have a DS (10) and a dd (7). DS is much easier to dress! We got lots of practical and colourful stuff from Sainsbury’s, Gap and Mountain Warehouse. He’s very tall and in age 13 stuff, so it is getting a bit teenage now though.

As for girls clothes - there may be more about, but if you don’t like leggings, skinny jeans, ruffles, sparkles or pink (that’s DD), then yiu are very limited. She largely wears “boys” clothes, but equally doesn’t really like pseudo sports club/military logos etc. In fact, she just wears a lot of jogging bottoms.

Lands End has lots of boys' clothes in brighter colours, they are good value in the sales or with a discount code. Also Mountain Warehouse, and sometimes Decathlon - I've bought some really nice t-shirts and fleeces from Decathlon. My boys are at the older end of primary school but still like brighter colours. When they were younger I found a lot of nice clothes in TK Maxx, H&M and Sainsbury's but Sainsbury's ranges for the over-6s are very sludgy these days

I know a soon to be mum who has said she wants only grey and yellow clothes. I thought I must be so out of touch thinking that sounds awfully boring but then it's all over social media. I don't understand it.

I agree, looking in Primark for a onsie for my 7yo and all they had was a cammo one or a Spider-Man (could have been superman) one. So boring. In the same age range for girls, they had at least 4 or 5 different types.

Love H&M although it is hit and miss. Gap always has discount codes. Boden is always on eBay new, I love their bright long sleeved tops

It seems they just scale down adult male fashion in most places. Have been quite impressed with Sainsburys and Morrisons, but a bit of a sucker for Next both for my little boy and DP tbh.