Pre-children, did anyone else say, "Oh I'll NEVER do that tacky character wear?"

[CheerfulYank]

And then four years later find themselves putting a Captain America shirt on their DS whilst telling him to look for his Buzz Lightyear shoes as you're calling the SoftPlay place to make sure they can do a Spiderman cake and decorations at his birthday party in a few weeks?

Sigh...it's a sad place to find oneself, I tell you.

I agree FrameyMcFrame, if a child really likes a character, then I don't see anything wrong or tacky about them wearing clothes with the character on.

BirdyBedtime - I agree that some of them are poor transfers that peel off in the wash and are difficult to iron. You have to watch out for those ones but they're not all like that. I can sort of see how they might encourage consumerism, but they are children's characters. I don't really like seeing kids with "Next" or "Gap" written across them, because then they are just literally a walking advert for that shop. There's nothing for the child to enjoy about wearing a brand on a top, but sometimes they like fun characters they recognise.

MoChan - I don't particularly like brands either. What messages do Buzz Lightyear and Spiderman give to young impressionable minds?

I don't like them, partly because they tend to be cheap, synthetic, nasty clothes. Plus we buy most stuff second-hand so the transfer ones are useless, all worn off.
DD has a pair of Charlie and Lola PJs. I think that's it.

I also won't buy stuff with writing on ('little monster', 'cute', 'princess' or more vaguely 'life is beautiful', 'cool' and 'vintage' ). That's my snobbery but DD doesn't mind as she can't read most of it anyway

I did have vague images of ds running around in lovely. Traditional clothes but he mostly wears star wars, buzz, ben 10, scooby etc.

I have bigger fish to fry and tbh he chooses his clothes so why not?

I'm not really thinking about Buzz Lightyear, to be honest, when I think about messages. I'm thinking about, say, the ineffectual Disney Princesses, and their message that appearance and hooking a prince are all important. Though there's more to it than that, I think. I don't like the idea of DD getting so stuck on a character that she wants EVERYTHING with that on it, getting stuck on a material-possessions-treadmill. Which is what the manufacturers/marketers want, obviously.

Also, I agree re: GAP, etc. I don't like clothes with logos, either.

I have restricted it to pants and one Snoopy tee shirt that I convince myself is retro cool. It's about the only prechild rule i did manage to stick to though!

I hate character wear, totally hate it. DD1 doesn't bother too much with it, except for jammies and pants, (Little Misses and Disney Princesses) but dd2 who is only two, fairly frequently heads out dressed entirely in Peppa Pig wear, including shoes. It makes her very happy! Plus, most of the peppa stuff she has have appliqued pictures on, rather than transfers, so not quite as crap to wash/iron.

DS definately likes a picture on the front of his tshirt, but just as happy with a dinosaur as Spiderman. I try not to be too much of a clothing dictator.

Hate stuff with "trouble" or "if I can reach it, I can wreck it" though. Even when its true.