To think boys clothes are mostly ugly?

[4boys1978]

Random shower thoughts (or bed thoughts, whatever) at 2am.

I have 4 DS’s. Their ages range from 6 months to 8 years.

I’ve noticed I really struggle to find bright, colourful clothing that I actually like for them. I mostly have to order online from next, frugi, JoJo and similar brands.

Whenever I just pop Into primark quickly I can never see ‘nice’ things for boys. Girls have tonnes but never boys! What’s that all about.

Boys seem to be stuck with camo, cars, dinosaurs or really dark colours. It’s all a tad strange.

AIBU? Has anyone else noticed this too? It drives me crazy

I have found this too. I tend to buy bright trousers from places such as next or Fred and Noah and pair with plainer tops from other shops. There is plenty of time for boys to wear brown, blue or green! And no way would I put my boys in white shorts unless for a wedding or something! They wouldn't last two seconds.

As a parent of only boys, this annoys me no end. It doesn't matter where you go, there is always aisles and aisles of girls clothes and lucky if there is 1 aisle of boys clothes.

Also when the back to school clothes come out or the world book day costumes, it's always the boys aisle they use up and make the boys selection much smaller. It makes me so mad, everytime!

I have even messaged a few of the companies asking why but they never message back!

Interesting to hear from the shop owner about the 70/30 split! That’s the bit that always annoys me.

If you’re looking for colours at the minute, H&M have a lot of oranges, teals, yellows and lilacs in the older boys section!

Fat face has some lovely Crayola brand stuff at the moment. Otherwise DS is mostly in Boden.
He’s in age 12 though so not sure what I will do when he outgrows it.

I think both boy and girl clothes are mostly hideous in shops, but can usually find something I like if I need to. Next is best, I like rainbows with a dark background and that's a big theme of theirs. Our local H&M is all sludge/pink but online is good if you have the patience to trawl.

I mainly buy clothes on eBay or Vinted. I'd much rather have a bundle of bright, well made clothes from JoJo Maman than most high street offerings.

And I don't wear white myself, let alone put my three year old in it 😂

Oh I never shop by aisles, just sizes. So in h and m I would just look in both the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ section for my toddler, and buy him whatever from either. I think green cardigan was last purchase, and that was possibly from girls section but it’s just a plain green cardigan.

This is why I buy from Boden. It’s expensive but is hard wearing and can be passed down.
Lovely bright colours, cute stuff, and even things for age 11-12.
Their summer adventure shorts are in lovely bright colours. I tend to pair them with multipacks of Next or M&S t shirts (yes they do brights too) to keep the cost down

I haven’t seen what’s in the shops at the moment, but I do an annual single shop in preparation for the summer, without needing any top-ups. I invariably come out with a multitude of brightly coloured shorts, t-shirts and nice short-sleeved shirts for those times when you need to be a little bit smarter.
Where do I get all this? Zara. I’ve been doing it for the last eight years or so and, so far, haven’t been disappointed.

In fact, go in next t shirts, they are awash with bright colours for summer

I found it far harder to dress my DD. I didn’t want pink, purple, glitter, characters/unicorns/kittens etc, which meant slim pickings in most shops. John L and GAP were good, tho GAP got more sequinned as she got older.
DS looks lovely in a preppy look, polo shirts, check shirts, stripe tees, plain trousers, shorts and jeans. I buy for him in John L, M&S, GAP, H&M, Next and Primark.

But in some shops the boys section seems almost non existent

I definitely agree with this! I went into our the city centre h&m the other day and they have a children's section in the shop. What this actually means is they have a girls clothing section. I asked the store assistant where the boys clothing was and she directed me to 2 small rails in the men's section. The entire children's section was just girls clothing, shoes, hats, coats etc.

I disagree. I buy mostly from the boys section for DD. I'd rather have her in camo print and blue than sparkly "be kind" logos.

I picked up a couple of bits in asda recently - they had a few unisex outfits which was great, including character ones that featured both boy and girl characters. The worst shop for me personally is our local morrisons - there used to be a side for boys and a side for girls (irritating but at least there was a choice). Then they took the boy stuff down and replaced it with girls' underwear, accessories and seasonal stuff. Now all the boys have is about 3 garments tacked onto the end of the baby clothes! As someone who shops there frequently and has 3 sons, it's very irritating. And I would just shop the girl section except it's mostly frilly pink things and my 4 year old in particular would not be happy

On trips abroad with our DTs ( now grown up), we were always struck by how much brighter clothing was in countries such as France, The Netherlands.. For adults too. Outerwear, coats, jackets in particular brightly coloured and patterned, unlike the sea of grey, navy and black you see in the UK.
We would always buy a couple of outfits for the DTs. Prices often considerably higher than we would pay here, but much better quality.

Khaki
Navy
Brown

Dinosaurs
Crocodiles
Sharks
Monkeys

Drives me mad.

@MargaritasOnMe Our Morrison's is the same, it's ridiculous! A sea of pink on one side (I checked last time and there were only three items on the girl side that didn't contain pink), and on the other side girls underwear, baby girl clothes and just two rails of older boys stuff, all sludge colours and angry animals. The baby stuff is ok, much nicer than the older children's clothes because it's more neutral.

Lots of small, independent businesses are out there making beautiful, brightly coloured clothes. Check out Etsy / Instagram etc. You choose your own fabric/ design. More expensive, yes, but better quality and lasts a lot longer. Also supporting (usually) other mums working from home.

MargaritasOnMe You're completely right about Morrisons! You've just reminded me that a few weeks ago the had brought all their summer clothing in and I thought I'd grab DS some swimming shorts for when we go away whilst I remembered. After looking in all the aisles and eventually asking an assistant to help locate any pair she discovered they actually didn't have any in the store, not that they were not in stock but they just didn't sell them. We counted 9 different swimming costumes for girls but not one pair of swimming shorts. She was very apologetic and said she understood my frustration as she herself had boys.

Agree but it's not just boys clothes.

And when they get a bit older the dinosaurs make way for gaming symbols. My kids aren’t gamers and have no interest in clothes with that on.

It does get easier when they get into man sizes

My eldest is already into the men’s sections at 12

I used to despair. In every shop they devote the bare minimum to boys especially Tesco Asda and H&M. I’ve loaned to so many managers about it - the decide they floorspace allocation apparently.

It used to be literally the only time I wished I had a daughter

Kids pants drive me crazy.

Boys have elasticated cuffs and waistbands, often a decent gusset, and fit well.

Girls get flimsy knickers with bows on them

@GettinPiggyWithIt

It does get easier when they get into man sizes

My eldest is already into the men’s sections at 12

I used to despair. In every shop they devote the bare minimum to boys especially Tesco Asda and H&M. I’ve loaned to so many managers about it - the decide they floorspace allocation apparently.

It used to be literally the only time I wished I had a daughter

Ah, bit then, you'll have been irate because girls clothes have FUCKING FRILLS AND RUFFLES everywhere

2 girls- everything and I mean everything has a rainbow, flower, unicorn or glitter on it!!!
Trying to find a plain coloured T-shirt for my eldest I ended up in Next Boys

I have a little boy and I love the boys' clothes. There is some really cute stuff. I live abroad but when I'm shopping in the UK I try to get stuff in the sale from JoJo and John Lewis.