Boys clothes vs Girls clothes - what are the main differences you have noticed in the shops?

[Flowertailbird]

I wonder if you can help me out.

My daughter is doing a project on children's clothes and in particular how the clothes labelled as for boys and or for girls differ. She wants to focus on whether or not there is obvious sexism in the clothes and at what the different clothes feature as prints and patterns for example she has seen boys toddler clothes full of words like 'adventure' or 'brave' etc. and girls clothes full of princesses and 'be kind' designs.

I honestly did not notice this when my children were younger, I was oblivious to it but now when she has pointed this out to me I am really quite shocked as to some of the differences that passed me by.

As parents of young children, please could I have your comments as to what you have noticed, if anything, with regards to this so I can pass them on to her.

Thank you and if I have put this in the wrong board or I could get more responses elsewhere I would really appreciate this being moved or put where is most suitable.

You can sometimes get multipacks of block colours from H&M that aren't obviously boy/girl split. But I agree with another PP that if you want bright, interesting prints you tend to need to go for a 'premium' brand which as we all know isn't exactly cost- effective with small baby clothes unless you know you're going to try for more kids and/or have a good resale value on what you buy. Next used to sit nicely in the middle and have quite a good range of unisex stuff but now I'm looking for DD2 it seems more expensive AND more gendered.

@BornInAThunderstorm I've never noticed that before but wow, so very true! This is really interesting to be aware of

Even the "premium" brands like Boden, Frugi etc are very gendered.

Ive found leggings seem to be for little girls only, not little boys, so trying to find some takes twice as long as most shops still sort clothes by gender! And although I'm really not fussed about dressing DC in a gender specific manner, pale colours targetted at girls have never been practical for any small children. H&M have eventually come up trumps with jeggings that are perfect.

Has anyone mentioned pockets? Boys get decent pockets you can put your hands in. Girls get no pockets/ shallow pockets/ fake pockets. My 2 girls get quite angry. Trying to find my 9 year old underpants that have no frill edging or tiny bow on the front is almost impossible.

A lot of people commenting on the boys stuff being bigger - but boys are bigger aren't they? I mean a 3-6 month old vest aimed at girls is going to be smaller than one aimed at boys because girls tend to be smaller. Obv this is totally different from the very short shorts/very tight/sexualised stuff for girls.
I do notice sizing generally varies. For me M&S is huge compared to other brands. My DD is 11 mo but still wears (just) M&S stuff for 3-6 months, whereas for most other shops she's on 6-9 month clothes.

That there is a lot more girls stuff than boys girls is usually rails and rails and boys is a tiny bit in the corner

My DS6 wondered why his pants haven’t got a bow on the front so he knows which way to put them on.
Girls shorts are near impossible to buy. Denim hot pants seem to be it, no knee length, comfy jogger/cargo types to be found.
And why does everything need a picture/slogan on girls T-shirts. Even the almost plain have ‘love’ or ‘dream’ stitched in the same colour.

@TataMamma

A lot of people commenting on the boys stuff being bigger - but boys are bigger aren't they? I mean a 3-6 month old vest aimed at girls is going to be smaller than one aimed at boys because girls tend to be smaller. Obv this is totally different from the very short shorts/very tight/sexualised stuff for girls. I do notice sizing generally varies. For me M&S is huge compared to other brands. My DD is 11 mo but still wears (just) M&S stuff for 3-6 months, whereas for most other shops she's on 6-9 month clothes.

By a few ounces. And the variations amongst sexes would be more than between the average boy and average girl.

Also, DD was bloody enormous, and is still at 10 the tallest in her class.

Practicability, price and comfort.

Girls clothes rarely have proper pockets. The materials aren't as sturdy. They tend to be an the small side,especially shorts. The slogans are cringy and annoying. Many times DD found something she likes , to just put it back because there's some be kind, be yourself, shine bright whatever shite.

Boys clothes tend to be cheaper, especially for basics. With girls, the fussier (which makes them less practical too)they are , the more expensive they are.

Due to the cut and fabrics , girls clothes are often less comfortable and don't allow as much freedom of movement. Quite often there's a Sophie's choice between suitable but quite toddlerish print clothes or a more grownup print in an unsuitable style.

In Britain specifically, colour is v.gendered. I bought a winter overall in dark navy for my daughter when she was 2. She had a red hat. Everyone, at every playground, all winter, called her a he. Apparently a winter overall for rolling around in the mud should have been pink/white?
I realised her clothes was expected to signal her gender at 2!

@microbius. Agreed. I bought my DD all sex neutral stuff, mainly bc she was my first and I wanted to use it for DC2. Funny to think that in the mid-19th c pink was a boys colour and blue was for girls :). Don't think they did sparkles and unicorns then tho.

Girls clothes all have cap sleeves. I tried to reuse my sons bodysuit vests for my daughter but the sleeves on short sleeve vests are longer than the sleeves on all her tops. I don’t get it

@Frozentoo

A lot of posters seem to say girls are limited to only pink however I would disagree - girls clothes seem to come in a rainbow of colours whilst boys are stuck with majority blue with dinosaurs/sharks or sludge colours. Don't even get me started on age 8+ boys clothes that seemingly only come in shades of black or grey with "gamer" or various gaming brands on it. I dont want my eldest to look like a teen drug dealer aged 9 in all black joggers and hoodies - I have to hunt around online for more colourful stuff. Girls however seem to have a range of "older" styles plus the more colourful "childish" options for an older age range

I’d agree with that. I have two boys and one girl and it was always depressing shopping for boy clothes for that very reason

I have b/g DTs who are 3.5. The main differences I’ve noticed are boys clothes have stacks of pockets, girls apparently don’t need to carry anything. It’s also quite hard to find jogging bottoms for girls in girly colours (don’t shoot me, little miss muchtootired is rather particular about her clothing) - the assumption seems to be girls wear leggings. That’s fine, but personally I hate leggings and they’re thin compared to fleecy joggers.

I’ve noticed that clothes for boys tend to have skulls, sharks, cars, construction on them and a lot of them are in really dreary colours whereas girls clothes are bright and cheerful. Luckily I’ve always managed to find brightly coloured clothes for both, and neither of my children will wear clothes with skulls on them because I won’t buy them. Wtf would I want a child to wear a skull picture?!

I tend to buy my DTs clothes secondhand off of eBay so I have a massive market of clothes making it easier to find the style I like to dress my children in with patterns they will want to wear. If I was limited to new clothes only I’d really struggle to find their wardrobes that we’d all be happy with. Next and Joules are my preferred brands.

Can I just say M&S do warm girls' joggers in various colours with pockets! They were 3 for 2 a few weeks ago.

I have a 4-year old boy and 6-year old girl who wear the same size clothes and agree with most the comments already posted. Shorts in particular drive me crazy. Most of my sons shorts are almost knee length whereas all of my daughters are up around her bum. She refuses to wear "boys shorts" 🙄

I agree I don’t think girls clothes are 90% pink at all, I was in Tesco’s earlier and they had loads of different colour girls clothes, loads of red/navy / yellow green. Don’t know where others shop 🤷‍♀️

My dd is 5 and I mostly put her in her brothers old trousers in winter, as many shops seem to only sell leggings for girls.

It's the dinosaur/crocodile/tractors for me🤦🏻‍♀️Everything is blue or army green😫 also hate that lots of the boys stuff is tracksuit/jogger type things.

@HumbugWhale

Can I just say M&S do warm girls' joggers in various colours with pockets! They were 3 for 2 a few weeks ago.

Ooh! Will take a look, thank you!

I'd agree with most of this but, there is a much wider choice with girls' clothing so it is perfectly possible to get darker colours, brighter colours, etc it is not all pink at all. What does annoy me is for a few years now, how many girls' tops have 'be kind' type mottos on.
Boys clothes I agree much less choice, darker colours etc and very unlikely to find any 'be kind' written on tops. There is a bit more choice for younger boys in terms of bright colours and cute animal logos (I noticed some in Asda today) but what really annoyed me was a jumper with 'bold and brave' written in huge letters on the front. You would never see this on a girl's top. Also, whenever girls clothes have more traditionally boys' things on like dinosaurs, cars they are nearly always in pink.

Sooo much

Specific colours assigned to each sex. Not just pink and blue but eg orange and bright green are for boys and purple and turquoise are for girls.

Specific animals assigned to each sex.

Shoes. It is really hard to find practical summer sandals for girls, they are all open toe. Girls’ school shoe styles are much less robust and practical than boys. Girls’ boots are made of impractical stuff like tan suede and don’t fit properly, whereas boys’ boots look and function like hiker boots. Spot the theme

Girls’ clothes are more fitted, so more restrictive. Boys’ are looser. See for example girls’ t shirt shaped vs boys, or jeans shapes.

Girls’ clothes have extra bits of decoration eg flower shaped buttons or bows on vests. Why?

Harder to find warm jumpers and hoodies for girls, i’ve taken to buying borg lined hoodies from the boy range as the girls’ range doesn’t have them.

Don’t even get me started on the clothes aimed at tween girls 🤮

I don't buy my DD (18 months) many clothes as I make most of what she wears, which allows me to make things in a fabric and style of my choice.

However, I have had a lot of comments recently on her clothes about how usual they are and where did I get them. It never occured to me that some of my choices were "out there" for a little girl - we're talking things like a blue and bright pink dress with sharks, skulls and flowers on or a dark green hoody with lions in space on it.

I did recently go into sainsburys with my DH to pick up a new sleeping bag for DD and we both stood at the end of the kids aisle and were shocked. On the left you had the pastel and white section and on the right the sludge and navy section, no awards for guessing which is which.

We ended up picking up a "boys" sleeping bag - which was labelled as a boys sleeping bag because it's green and had the gruffalo on it. Obviously girls don't like either of those things.

I found the selection of girls clothes to be wider but more geared towards making girls look like miniature adults. Whereas boys clothes seems very samey but geared towards being practical for playing.

Footwear especially for girls seems flimsy whereas boys is sturdy.

I have wondered whether subconsciously that parents buy more for girls than they do boys so there is an expectation that boys clothes need to last longer. Some people I know that have little girls seem to have shoes for every day of the week, my DD only has one pair of trainers and a pair of wellies. I don't know any boys who have multiple pairs of shoes (outside of different styles for different functions).

@TataMamma

A lot of people commenting on the boys stuff being bigger - but boys are bigger aren't they? I mean a 3-6 month old vest aimed at girls is going to be smaller than one aimed at boys because girls tend to be smaller. Obv this is totally different from the very short shorts/very tight/sexualised stuff for girls. I do notice sizing generally varies. For me M&S is huge compared to other brands. My DD is 11 mo but still wears (just) M&S stuff for 3-6 months, whereas for most other shops she's on 6-9 month clothes.

I don't believe there is a significant difference until puberty.