Why are boys clothes so rubbish ?!?

[Runnersknee]

My little boy has just outgrown 18-24 month clothes and omg I knew there was a lot less
choice for boys compared to girls but I’m disappointed by the selection.

Choices seem to be tracksuits, clothes covered in characters / graphics or baggy checked trousers and everything in grungy colours. I’m not ready to stop with the ‘cute’ cloth s for my baby, he’s only 2!! And it’s one tiny rails of clothes for boys compared to a massive section of girls things !!

Most boy mums I know feel the same. I can’t understand why shops continue to make the boys option an after thought ?!?

Also if anyone can recommend places that actually do nice things for boys then please let me know !! Up till now I’ve been dressing my boy mainly in the supermarket clothes but really not keen on their boys offering.

Massive gap in thr market for cute, fun, bright boys clothes. I'd love to be able to put my boys in more colourful stuff, I have to hunt for what they do have. I fortunate to be able to spoil my boys and think it's a shame for the economy that I don't spend as much as I could do due to lack of choice! If I had an entrepreneurial bone in my body I'd start the business myself!!

Blade and Rose, Kite, Frugi and Boden all have nice stuff and different options.

I think you’re misled about girls options!

girls are limited to pink and frilly. Yes variations on that theme but IMO it’s as limited as boys are. Walk into next and it’s pink one side and brown dinosaurs the other. Finding non-pink or practical trousers is a challenge- girls trousers seem to be slim fit, and even jeans will have pink flowers or princess style embroidery.

girls definitely don’t have more options, it’s pink or pink. Pastel purple maybe at a push.

i used to buy from eBay a lot. Get more value for your money. Pumpkin patch, vertbaudet, Jojomamanbebe, gap, and the like were my go to, and I never restricted by gender, I’d happily buy “boys” clothes for girls and coce versa. EBay I also got some good designer bargains which were a lot less gender styles and colour coded.

The are depressing print-wise but they’re cut SO much better. Even the pants! Girls pants are so much flimsier. My daughter’s leggings last waaaaay less time than my sons’.

So many people seem to think this is clever ‘why not shop for your son in the girls section? Clothes have no gender!!’….. well, because I want them to be able to play without their clothes restricting them? Frills, rubbish flimsy fabrics, knees that get holes, too-short t-shirts that aren’t long enough in waist or sleeve. Depressing!

So yeah, rather than my sons wearing girl’s clothes, my daughter wears boys clothes. Obviously she loves unicorns and rainbows and all that but we do not shy away from the boys section! And I shopped for my boys (no longer small) in fun shops with fun prints.

My mum went through a phase of buying them both camo, probably because it was the only thing available, that was depressing and dreary!

On a more budget end, the Asda Little Angels range often has some great pieces in it and they wear really well too. Just because Organic Zoo is too pricy for me most of the time, even second hand. I don’t think it’s in store though, just online.

@Usernamenotfound1 tbh pink and frilly is exactly the way I would dress a girl if I had one so I think my eyes just get drawn to all of that in the shops 😂

Next is particularly bad for girl v boy. Look at the difference in these pants! Girls deserve good elastic!

Boys

Girls

…Can’t have 2 links in one post apparently!

I agree with others about George at Asda having fun, affordable boy bits. I don’t have a boy but lots of the stuff I buy from the Little Angels range on their website for DD is categorised as boys even though I think it’s really cute and suitable for both.

Agree with others about not necessarily discounting girls bits either. There’s lots of nice unisex clothes out there that have to be categorised one or the other online but will work for both.

Wait until your son is into the child section and out of the infants. It gets worse!! 😥

I'd say buy from the girl section, but the girl section is full of tighter, shorter clothes. Shopping for three-year-old B/G twins, I can tell you there's a market for generously-cut, brightly-coloured clothing, without everything being pink/glittery/unicorny. I don't understand children's clothing.

100% agree OP. Rows upon rows upon rows of girls clothes, with about half the amount for boys' and stuffed in to a back corner. And almost all over 2yrs are horrible- murky, minging colours, covered in nasty Marvel characters or weird graphics/ slogans and just tracksuits tracksuits sweatshirts tracksuits.

It makes me so annoyed, I actually told my husband once that if we won the Euromillions, I'd set up a clothes brand exclusively for boys as a hobby job.

YANBU

Boots often do nice clothes.

The grass isn't greener on the other side though as many girls clothes are impractical or inappropriate. Hot pants for 2 yr olds for example or told they have to be nice, sexy or cute.

Try John Lewis own brand. Often got bargains there in their clearance sale. Agree with PP’s about French style, their supermarkets often have good boys clothes.

So clearly you’re the target market for pink girly clothes.

the boys sections will be aimed at those who like the brown dinosaur stuff you’re not impressed with.

can’t have it both ways 😂

Characters can be a difficult one. I avoided as long as possible but to be honest at a certain age it’s just all about characters and it’s hard avoiding Bluey and Elsa.

I’ve three boys. Hate all the joggers and character stuff too. Also hate everything in blue/brown/navy/black. Also hate camo.

I buy them lovely clothes from Frugi, Villervalla, Boden, Kite, little green radicals, maxomorra

Next have lovely stuff. Yes it's more expensive but their stuff is really soft and worth paying a bit extra imo. Also there is a clearance section on the site with some bits half price or better . I've got gorgeous Christmas jumpers for next year.

Agreed but also they shouldn't be gendering clothes i the first place, blue doesn't = boy and pink doesn't = girl, my boys love pink and hearts and flowers etc, as well as vehicles and supposedly 'boy only' stuff. I'm sure there are plenty of girls that love tractors and blue and green too. I buy clothes for my boys from both the 'boys' and 'girls' sections, I avoid anything I personally deem 'too girly' but otherwise some of their favourite clothes have been 'girls' ones.

Yeah, mine's a teenager and everything is grey, navy or black and its hard to find anything trousers that aren't joggers or jeans (which he doesn't like).

Honestly you can just buy 'girls' stuff for more colour with a little one, no one's going to know! The only problem is that so much of girls' stuff is pink only and that everyone has now decided it's a 'girl' colour!

yes It’s rubbish isnt it- although wait until they get to 7+ and it’s even worse!!! Unfortunately I just had to cherry pick the least offensive bits from each shop (cant get a load at once from one place) so I had to always keep an eye out. H&m online sometimes has a few bits, Asda sometimes has one or two ok bits, Primark and tu is usually a no go for me, I do tend to get most of our bits from Vinted though purely as they have nicer bits.

Came on to say the same - Verbaudet and La Redoute. Used these even 28 years ago for my son, some beautiful clothes. Now getting things for my grandson!

I used to get all my sons clothes from Next, Asda, sometimes Sainsbury's. Mothercare when it was around.

I always found the clothes were lovely. Next especially do all sorts of bright colours and designs.

But I do seem to be in the minority, my eldest is nearly 18 and people used to complain about the boys clothes even back then.

I found the opposite for the first 2 years, the boy stuff was full of fun bright patterns and the girls was all pastels.
now they're older, the girls stuff looks nicer but it's so impractical. You struggle to find anything that's not tight, itchy, frilly. Girls shoes have no grip and have holes in the top to let stones in
It's dressing them in a way that trains them not to be active or run or climb.

They should do all styles in a range of colours and get rid of the boy/girl divide. In primary school age the only thing that needs to be a different shape is pants.

My boys are bigger now but this was an issue when they were little.

I shopped in John Lewis Boden and frugi sale (often sizing up for next season). Little.bird.by joules Oliver also offered better boys options. Vintage nyed might be a good bet to.

The same problem exists for older boys 1 rail in the shop Vs. half the shop floor.
It has outraged my oldest child most memorably when He simply couldn't fathom why the shop had twice as much space for girls underwear compared to boys.