To think current children's (especially girls) fashions are horrible.

[balulalow]

I know that children's clothes always mimic adult clothing, but we've literally come a full circle back to the Victorian era in that it is basically an exact replica of adult clothing. It's as if now a girl hits the age of 7 and she moves from babyish clothing to adult.

My 10 year old and her friends often dress 'older' than my 19 year old! I wasn't a fan of the gaudy prints when DD1 was 10, but I'd take it over the current fashion for influencer/instagram clothing any day.

But then, if I had it my way everyone (and I mean everyone) would wear frilly dresses

@ShirleyPhallus

I have a 14 month old girl and the range of clothes are pretty awful. So much “daddy’s little princess” and “I dream of unicorns” stuff, all garish pinks and purples with sparkles and hearts on. Boys clothing is all olive / navy / black with diggers and trains on.

Would be really nice to have a wider variety of nice, bright children’s clothes that don’t look so tacky

And the bloody unicorns on everything aimed at girls. Just why?

ColaOlaLa my daughter is not into princesses and unicorns any more. She has now decided that she likes dinosaurs, tigers, elephants etc. Plenty of choice for example here - but for some reason sold as for boys only: www.dpam.com/garcon/categories/t-shirt
Girls' versions from the same brand have mainly butterflies, flowers and pink flamingoes..

[quote G5000]Or, just for fun, my son needs size 11y in H&M. In that size, your colour options are black, blue, grey. Oh look one beige as well. Where are the colours?
www2.hm.com/en_gb/kids/boys/clothing/trousers-jeans.html?sort=stock&sizes=1734_11y_4_kidswear&image-size=small&image=stillLife&offset=0&page-size=108[/quote]
Trousers and jeans do tend to be dark colours, it's practical, especially for children! DS 15 has lovely coloured tshirts from Hollister, he is in a XS, an XXS would be about an age 12 I think.

I got my 13 year old and 10 year old great shorts from Asda last month. I think there were 3 in a pack - red, navy and grey. They're called runner shorts (have a white stripe along the side). My friend got very similar ones in M&S. I also bought my niece shorts from the boys section of H&M - she likes longer to the knee shorts. She's 11 and I got a selection of bright, white and striped tshirts in M&S for a 12 year old boy as a present (part of a 3 for 2 offer).
I've 3 girls and they live in a mixture of H&M, supermarket, Dunnes, Primark. My older two get the smallest adult sizes in Primark - plain hoodies, jeans, plain tshirts, "converse" shoes.

This is the UK. We barely did fashion and style before 2008, and then it was abandoned totally for almost everyone then. Until Brexit, the easiest way to spot a white person not born and raised in the UK was how they dressed with a clue about what suited them.

OP YANBU but I'm not sure of the solution. Our retailing model does not help one bit.

@G5000

Villervalla is nice - colourful, practical good quality clothes that look like children's clothes. H&M girl shorts are exactly the ones I'm complaining about. I mean compare: Girls: www2.hm.com/en_gb/productpage.0922713003.html Boys: www2.hm.com/en_gb/productpage.0933622005.html

And yes I know that I in principle can buy her from boys' section - but why does a girl need to feel she's not a 'real girl' just because she likes dinosaurs and trousers that are longer than her underwear?

Typical. Longer, comfier boys' shorts, and still cheaper than the girls even though more material is involved. Shit for girls' budgets starts young.

I don’t think this is true at all, there’s plenty of different styles available for all ages.

It really irritates me that boys’ shorts are so much longer than girls’ shorts. I usually buy my just turned 4 year old’s shorts from the boys’ sections. I got her some nice yellow ones with animals on and pale green with sharks on from Tesco recently. If I do see ones I like the style of in the girls’ section they’re either fluorescent (I like colours but not fluorescent) or with weird tassels or Pom poms hanging from the legs.

I also like quite old fashioned dresses for little girls. Matalan has some beautiful smocked dresses these days up to 5-6. But my daughter has already been in 5-6 for a good six months, so although they fit her at just 4 there’s no way that size of dress will when she’s actually 6. I imagine she’ll at least need 7-8 by then, maybe bigger. Girls ranges change so much from the little girls range to older range. I used to find Debenhams fairly good as I think they stocked up to age 12, but actually finding clothes in our local shop for the biggest size when I tried for my niece seemed impossible! And also Debenhams has now gone anyway.

I’ve found DD lovely bits this year but had to get her small women’s T-shirt’s as I couldn’t for the life of me find bog standard plain ones in her size at all and she doesn’t do frills or slogans at all.

What I think has been the biggest thing this year, and it extends to men and women too, is that there doesn’t quite seem to be a full ‘collection’ anywhere, which is understandable. So you might find something lovely but can’t quite find anything it matches with.

I have 8year old dd.
Asthmatic and on steroids, so naturally "chunky".
She is in age 12-13 for most clothes.
She does not like frills. Unicorns. Minnie mouse. Friends. Pink. Cut off anything (hates showing her belly). She is dyspraxic, so anything white or pale wont stay that way after she has eaten.

She has recently been happy with some bright yellow tees from sainsbury's. I think they had a shark on.

Even school polos, she asks for boys ones as the girls ones are tight on the arms.

Very few places make age 13 summer school dresses (understand this, as 13 year olds are not in primary school)

We went fabric shopping the other day.
I am making her a couple of summer dresses. One in shark fabric, the other in trees. They will be long enough to cover her knickers! And have vest type tops, so no tight arms. And with some offcuts, matching face masks.

I don't see this as a problem, I've had no problem buying decent stuff for my 7yr old.

Nice cotton dresses from the usual places: JL, Boden, M&S, EBay. Shorts from H&M, basic tshirts from H&M and supermarkets.

Much like adult clothing it varies, I likely wouldn't shop in New Look or Primark for my clothing, and so would not tend to shop there for my kids either.

My 13 year old wanted a jumper. Just a normal, hoodie-type jumper. I looked on all the normal teenage clothes shop websites but could I find one that wasn't cropped? Could I flip! What happened to dignity?

And what's with padded bikini tops for 9 year olds? Looking at various high street shops with gimlet eyes.

This isn't a problem I've found tbh. Dd wears age 7-8, I've had no problem finding age appropriate clothes. I shop mostly in h and m, matalan, primark and supermarkets.

Ds was more of a problem (all cheap boys clothes in his age, bar h and m, came in sludge or camo), but he's recently decided that he only wears camoflauge, so now that's easy too.

You just have to shop around. DD is LOL obsessed so rarely wears anything not LOL branded.
However, try anything sixbunnies. Mine's a fan. Second H&M for nice not pink basics. Boden, I've gone off atm, and I can't justify the price of £15 for leggings that have very little give in. I don't mind crop tops on little girls within reason. Bit cold. DD's still got a little girl's tummy so not for us.
As for the mini adult. I've not really seen this until older teen. I drive in traffic past a high school each day and the level of grooming those girls (and boys) put in is far more than I ever did. Think perfect make up and blown hair. I had patchy orange rimmel foundation and lace up shoes.

I have DSs so it's the sludge colour clothes issue. Outdoors shops tend to be good for more interesting prints and colours, and often they end up with the "girls" versions because they are much less heavily gendered to clichés.

@BogRollBOGOF

I have DSs so it's the sludge colour clothes issue. Outdoors shops tend to be good for more interesting prints and colours, and often they end up with the "girls" versions because they are much less heavily gendered to clichés.

Yes I agree that outdoor wear shops often have something a bit different, and are more likely to have stuff that can be unisex.

I found nice stuff with bold colours and prints and not crop tops in Sainsbury's. But... it took me an hour of hunting and I'd mentioned to a staff member and she told me to look on the back of the rails. So all the stuff I liked was hidden. I also sized up so it wasn't so tight (she's 7,)

I've got some lovely stuff for DD this year from H&M, M&S and Boden. Next has lovely dresses too but their stuff comes up too big for my DD.

So glad summer's here and she can wear them!!

Ah - knew there was somewhere else we did well recently. GAP kids stuff is always nice and age appropriate.

Absolutely agree. I gave a 6 year old who is very tall. It is a nightmare to find any clothes now she is in 7 to 8.

I find it harder finding nice clothes for my 7yr old son than I do for my 9yr old daughter tbh. I think there is loads of choice out there for girls but the boys stuff just seems to be a sea of grey and green or football themed. I buy most of their clothes from Sainsburys and haven't really thought any of the clothes I've got for the girl have been too grown up, or too unicorny!! Her favourite outfit is a pair of leggings covered in cheetahs with a matching t-shirt.

I can’t stand River Island stuff. It’s always been bloody awful.

And why the obsession with little girls being “sassy” and dressing “sassy”?

@MissyB1 loads in Next.

Dont know if anyone will agree but I really like Shein for my 9 yo daughter. She doesn't actually have the girls stuff, some of that is too grown up. And she hates frills, buttons and pink! She has the boys / unisex stuff. Nice tshirts with prints on, baggy trousers, and matching sets.