I've found some good stuff in Asda for DS1 (3yrs) - he likes wearing shirts (like daddy ) and they often have at least one a season that is really nice quality (have had a couple that people have thought are gap or boden). Yes, there are some of the monster things and grotty things but it is worth a dig around as the stock seems to move quite quickly.
TKMaxx is another place to pick up good bits and bobs if you have one near you...
Taking this one step further, it's not just that all the boys clothes are boring, has anybody else noticed that there only seems to be about a third of the space allocated to boys clothes and two thirds (or more!) to girls clothes.
Was in M&S with my mum the other day, wanted stuff for DS1&2 and also for DN1&2 - definitely much more choice and variety for the girls. Things like they had several cagoule-y /mac things for the girls but none for the boys, they had lots of nice hoodless cardigans for the girls, boys had a couple of jumpers and a couple of hoodies, no cardigans without hoods, baby girls had several different varieties of padded trousers but none for the boys - and so it went on.
What did they expect the boys to put on when it was raining and the girls put their macs on? Why do boys need a hood on everything (OK so that is probably because they are so cold because they don't have a mac...). It's not just M&S, it's most places that provide a better variety of clothes (as opposed to the designs on the clothes IYSWIM). grr. all goes to make shopping for boys clothes a doubly miserable experience!
feel better for getting that off my chest , sorry didn't mean to side track your thread SSS!