Attention, manufacturers of toddler boys' clothes!

[frazzledgirl]

(Inspired by yesterday's trip round H&M, but frankly applies to an awful lot of shops)

I do not wish to dress my lovely son in any kind of garment which labels him 'loud', 'noisy' or 'spoiled'. He isn't. And even if he is, I'd like a chance to fool other people that he isn't

I would like a choice of more than two kinds of shoes.

Ditto hats.

Bright colours are not taboo.

Sludge colours get VERY boring after the first few months.

Sticking a cr*ppy cartoon transfer on a t-shirt (Ben 10/Cars/etc for a two-year-old FFS?) is not the be-all and end-all. And what's wrong with plain t-shirts anyway?

And having had this exact same moan to EVERY mother of a small boy that I know, I might be PFB but I am not alone!

I swear, when I find a retailer that consistently sells decent, colourful, child's clothes without any sh*te transfers or slogans at a reasonable price (i.e not Boden) I will shower money on them... so sick of hunting around for the odd couple of decent bits in each shop.

Ahem. As you were.

Amen to that.

Not just small boys - it gets worse as they get older.

No bright colours at all over the age of 5 or 6 - it is all sludge.

I couldn't agree more! My DS is 3.5 and I have the same problem!

The other thing that annoys me is that the boys section is usually half an aisle (might stretch to a full aisle if you're lucky) and the clothes for girls is usually approximately 2 - 3 aisles ....why???

Frazzled - hear hear!!!

I do sometimes find Pumpkin Patch quite good though - they do have some nice colours. And Sainsbury's can also do some nice bright things....

Oh and don't even get me started on the relative sizes of boys' and girls' sections!

Don't get it. Mums buy the vast majority of their DCs' clothing. Haven't heard that mums of boys have any less cash/love of shopping than girls'. There's a huge market out there - why is no-one exploiting it?

i feel the same
found the babble boom range at debenhams on line to be nice for ds3

I really like the John Lewis stuff. Nice bright colours, and no slogans or cartoon characters. Not as pricey as you might think either.

Hear Hear!

You are definitely not alone. 2 DSs here and the other day I took back the awful slogan t-shirts which MIL had bought from Tesco to exchange them for some perfectly nice plain ones and quite a good short-sleeved shirt too (for the same price).

Now I just buy anything I see which I like in about 3 sizes and put it away till needed.

I'm so with you on this.

We often resort to buying expensive Frugi clothes as they are one of hte only places that treats small boys like small boys and has nice colours logos etc. DS has gone to nursery today wearing a bright red top with an owl on it. He looks like the 2 year old he is!

And what's with the local toy shop to me who has a wall full of girls clothes and no boys clothes at all. They've lost any custom from me jsut because of that.

Hear, hear ladies. I have three boys and it totally pee's me off the lack of anything decent for them. Went into New Look yesterday to look at summer stuff and the girls had rack upon rack of lovely bright clothing and the boys was two racks to cover baby to young lad, all bleaurgh! and uninteresting, went into Peacocks (the only other shop that sells childrens clothes since Woolies closed) and it was the same.

I suppose will have to start looking online for something decent, that doesn't cost £10 for a tee shirt.

OH well done Frazzlegirl I've just had this thought about getting clothes for my DS to. All I want is something decent no logos/writing etc, so nice colours. Enough of them to.

Someone posted on her once a link to kidsshouldbekids.co.uk which has some great unisex tshirts. I bought loads and they are great quality.

can i just add

I DESPISE PASTEL FECKIN BLUE AND DO NOT WANT TO DRESS MY BABY IN IT!!!!!

ahhhhhhhh, that's better.

seriously though, i almost makes me cry when i have a few quid to spend on ds2 and all that's available is racks of pastel blue. hello? red, green, orange, anyone heard of them? they're colours too and my lovely dark haired baby looks delicious in them but i have to scour ebay for the most part to find anything nice and bright for him.

I agree on the slogans. No more monkeys please. I do not want to temt fate in putting my two in a top that states I am a terror. I also dont want NEXT or another shop name on them either

Am in agreement with all of this. It drives me mad! I was in John Lewis last week and thought the baby stuff was gorgeous, but ds1 is 2 years and even there the clothes for his age were rather dull I thought. I am jealous of my friends with girls!

Same here - why do boys clothes have to be so boring? I used to like Verbaudet because they seemed to have nice bright colours instead of moss green and sludgy brown but even they have gone downhill now.

I agree!! Why do boy's clothes always say 'trouble' or 'naughty monkey' etc while girl's clothes say things like 'princess'. Now if I had a girl I wouldn't want put her in a top with princess on, but at least that's a 'nice' thing to be. Why are our little boys being labelled as naughty from birth FFS? Arrgghhhhh!!!!
Have a collection of 'amusing' boys t shirts from MIL in a drawer (can't return, she helpfully removes labels). My son will never wear them.
PinkTulips - I will start the anti pastel blue revolution with you. Let's burn it all...

Mini Mode (at Boots or online) is good. I'm quite sorry that DS has nearly grown out of their stuff, they only go up to age 6. They don't have a big range but it's reasonably priced and good quality, and they often have lovely vibrant colours like turquoise or orange.

I agree on the ubiquitousness (sp?) of sludge colours. DS just can't wear them at all, they make him look a bit ill.

And if there are any decent boys clothes, there are never any left in age 18 - 3Y. Why? Because there are so few of them!

I buy stuff right at the start of each 'season' (bleugh) because if you don't get it as soon as it appears in the shops, it's gone

I am struggling with finding anything that is not brown or pastel/navy blue for my DS (only 4 months at the moment) but I have found I do like the mini-mode stuff from, boots. Do you have a very big sainsburys near you? Discovered a new one near my mum's, sadly 3 hours drive away, that had some great boy's stuff and almost took up as much shop space as the girl's section!

not just toddlers, it gets harder as they get older. It has got to the stage where if H&M have something nice I buy it in the next size up as well as DS's size as they change their stock so regularly and you never know when they'll go through a hideous stage in their designs.

I agree wholeheartedly. So depressing. I have 2 dses. Pumpkin Patch is good as someone else has mentioned, and I find their stuff (tops especially) good quality so they are still in good nick when it comes round to ds2 inheriting them.

We have a version of this thread every year BTW! One year I think the OP e-ailed it to some of the clothing manufacturers, but nothing much seems to have changed.

Jako-O is what you are looking for, my friends.

Plain T shirts galore in every colour known to humanity.

Priced in Euros, so suffering a bit from the exchange rate, but still worth it.

I'm in! DS is 3.6 and its getting even harder. And my blood pressure is getting higher with every shop I enter

Will be tie-dying more t-shirts this year I think.

Those stripy t-shirts on kidsshouldbekids are excellent. I must admit ds always wears sludgy brown combats or cords as they don't show the dirt, but I can never find nice t-shirts without nasty slogans.

I cannot bear those combat pants with fake boxer short elastic in them . He is a 2yo not a bloomin' teenager. I had to cut out a fake boxer short waistband out of his trousers today, I hadn't noticed when I bought them.

totally agree with everything said so far, my blond boy looks great in red, bright blue, rich green, purple, can i easily find nice but not hideously expensive clothes? oh no. its really hard to get nice stuff that isn't covered in "i'm a wee shite" or brand names/logos.
M and Co have their fair share of "i'm a terror/horror/future axe murderer" crap but do have some plain stuff and it washes ok.

hope someone from the big shops takes this on board, ALL the mums of boys feel the same.
Special mention to my local Tesco where the girls have 4 aisles to the boys 1. Bah.