£89 for a baby's coat and hat ...

[twiglett]

message withdrawn

If you've got a McArthur Glen outlet village anywhere near you they will probably have a Mexx. i've also seen it in baby shops, french supermarkets and Selfridges (is a while since i've been to selfridges though).

The most I have spent on childrens clothes was the £60 I spent on a uniform Duffle coat for dd. But to be fair it lasted her 3 years, and has been passed on to ds who wore it last winter as well as this one. So £60 for 5 years 'worth' of coat is quite good I think. (the women in the school shop insist that you buy the coats too big so that you get your moneys worth )

But for a little baby I don't think that you would get enough wear out of it.

£89 is a hell of a lot of money to spend on it - and i agree with you - i would expect to get a lot more for that kind of moeny too - there is that other issue being skirted around ( pardon the pun) about what you are teaching your children when buying them these lable clothes

Twiglett, it makes your sis happy to buy lovely things for your new baby. So for £38 quid, she's happy and your baby will be warm. A win/win situation.
My ds had a Dior coat, reduced from £100+ to £30. I don't think I could have paid the top whack,but boy did that lovely coat give me pleasure for months and months.

Did anyone watch the documentry last night about the politician trying to live on benefits for a week? (now and 20 years ago).
There was one woman on with three kids( two older boys and one younger), and she said that she has to borrow a few grand every now and then for their clothes as they'll only wear desogner trainers!!! Apparently they cost £185. a pair and they need new ones every 6 weeks or so! I was GOBSMACKED!!!!!!!!!
My dd usually wears H+M clothes as they are funky, her one designer thing was a pair of gorgeous dungarees when she was 18 month or so, i can't remember the name...ELLE i think, half price and i couldn't resist.

"designer" trainers!!!!!!!

My DD is only 6 and won't wear any old trainers. She has always been like this though. I bought her a uniform for nursery but it wasn't compulsary and most other kids didn't wear it. I couldn't figure out why all of a sudden she didn't want to go, she was having full blown tantrums every time i dropped her off. The reason, she wanted to look like the other girls (she was only 3 then). Her sister though couldn't care les what she looks like.

My kids are dressed in Tescos/Asdas finest. The bigest expense in shoes, and we do get good ones that are well fitted. But then I don't understand the designer clothes 'thing . As I sit typing in my M & S jeans and top....all of which are at least 3 years old

I buy clothes for my dd from Asda, sometimes I buy from Adams but I find they always seem to shrink in the wash anyone else find this or is it just me? I also get a lot of stuff from MacKays they're clothes are really good value. And sometimes get the odd item from Marks and Spencers.

I'll buy the odd item from Next and have bought clothes from Gap as dd tends to get vouchers for Gap for christmas and birthdays from her grandpa. I try to wait for the sale though so we can buy more for our money. Got a fab coat at the beginning of the year £20 reduced from £58, I would never have paid £58 for it but since it was reduced, fine. it's a lovely warm coat as well and has kept her nice and warm these past few snowy days.

My friend used to buy designer clothes for her neice when she was little. I could never understand how she could justify the prices for this small child who grew out of them so quickly, mind you it did mean that they got passed on to us quite quickly so I didn't say to much about it, lol

If people want to buy your baby expensive clothes twiglett let them, keep repeating the mantra, it's not your money.

I'm a sucker for designers i just think they hang better on dd's skinny body.

I don't buy everything designer also shop at Next and M&S for her

And yes i spent £50 on a EllE coat for dd and feel it's worth every penny

How's this for a budget - Nothing over $5NZ (which is about 2 quid) until he was 6 months old and now nothing over $10 unless its a set or a coat. All the stuff is made in China anyway and if it wears out or shrinks in the wash before they have outgrown it you take it back. I shop right at the end of the sale for the coming year when everything is 70-90% off.

Once he wears shoes I will obviously buy those full price, but that's my exception.

I'd rather have lots of cheap clothes than a few "nice" ones - after all its me that does the washing. If ds is is anything with a "designer" label - it was a present. Other people are quite welcome to spend as much as they like though .

Have to say I'm shocked at some prices for kids stuff. I think Next and M&S are also expensive. Mothercare do packs of 3 sleepsuits for ten quid, and M&S do one for 20 pounds. My ds is 1 and until he was 6 months wore entirely hand me downs or gifts I was very happy not to have spent any money on clothes he wore for all of 2-3 months. My SIL does pass on some nice stuff, but she only buys in the sale, so gap sweaters for 5 pounds etc, which sounds good to me. I think it is all a scam, as someone has pointed out, the George at Asda range is designed by George whatsisname, and so should hang as nicely as his private designer range. It is also unbelievably good value.
Now I have run out of hand me downs, I'm picky about what I buy, but it still has to be good value, because he'll grow out of it in 3 months.

Actually, I remmeber my bf coming back form her NCT meeting when her baby was about 4 months old. Most of the mums had gone back to work because "they needed the money" but all the babies were dressed in Gap and designer gear (and the mums wouldn't contmplate buying cheap stuff). My bf's dd was dressed in very cute, tescos stuff. She said she walked all the way home repeating her mantra "my dd needs me more than she needs Gap dresses" Not a dig at working mums in general, but just that some of these ladies priorities seem to be a little skewy to me.

Oh dear, that's probably put the cat amongst the pigeons......

I know that for a fact the all cottons from George shrinks. Cotton shrinks in the wash. When my friend and I were still in hospital, the baby grows and sleepsuits came back 1/2 to 3/4 inch shorter than a new one. Didn't mind then as it fitted baby better.

Just to side track, the funny story with those is: My friend sent her hubby home with the clothes to wash, and he'd return the next day with them all nicely done. She thought oh what a wonderful job he had done! He admitted that he wasn't doing the laundry. Since it was their first baby and everyone was ecstatic about the baby(so many years of trying), the neighbours saw him coming home and they all offered to do the clothes, he never had to ask. Only bring them to the hospital nice and clean.

Back to the subject, I will pay a decent price for shoes since their feet need proper support. yet I don't intend on spending £18 on shoes that they aren't even walking in. I think they can be barefeet or socked, they have cute enough toes and feet as it is, they are allowed to show it off. Will start saving the money now for that.

Many women go back to work just so that they can afford Tecos or Asda clothes.

(I know I should ignore those comments, I know)

message withdrawn

I take a perverse pride in finding rather adorable frocks from Primark or an even cheaper chain called Ethel Austin.

Shoes, of course, are a different matter.

Twiglett, I agree 100% Don't see the point either. But then it isn't my hobby. We spend far too much on books and videos and music. That is what we are 'into'. So the kids get that sort of thing bought for them too. Thank goodness they seem to enjoy the same things as us, or there would be riots.

I just don't see the problem at all with people spending money on clothes if that is what they want to do. It is no different to spending money on anything. Some people like brand name food, oithers have shop brand. Some buy expensive cars, others get cheaper second hand ones, some have big, posh houses in luxery areas, others settle for something smaller in a lesser area, some buy toys and books new, others use second hand shops, stalls. Where is the difference?

message withdrawn

message withdrawn

I agree it is quite a bit for just 3 months wear but the coat is a gift, and many people spend much more of gifts than they would do ordinarily. Some of the clothes DD got as a little baby were beautiful baby designer ones. They were fantastic but didn't get much wear. But it gave DD's great grandparents pleasure to buy them and see her wearing them.

I buy designer baby wear but only off Ebay, that makes it cheaper than Adams and Next and better quality, my daughter is so very small and slim that continental gear fits better than local brands. I resell it on Ebay and usually make all if not more money back again.
My Dd is also slow growing and at 15 mths is in 6-12 and only some smaller fitting 12-18 styles (not trousers!!)
It took months of research to find brands which fit her properly.
If I could not get them cheaply I would not bother, I'd start sewing!

quite, tinker, although i agree a lot of it is down to attitude as much as ability to pay for people with a bit more spare cash, e.g. your attitude to fashion or how spendy you are anyway. i've had people whom i suspect have less cash coming in than we do looking askance at me when i say we get stuff from nct nearly new sales, for example.

oh, forgot to say, ds once got a couple of t shirts from george @ asda for a present - the quality was just as good if not better that pricy gap ones.

one more thing - i've found some great things for ds in peacocks before, very cheap. you have to choose carefully as quality is not great with every garment and some of the range is blech, but it's worth a rummage in there anyway.