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.

Yes - massive! For giant Swedish children. Sadly mine is a little Celtic boy

I've not been to Westfield yet - I live very close to Brent Cross so I shop there (free parking all day!)

Not at all cheap, but Joules, Crew, Darcy Brown and (dare I say it?) Boden tend to do proper boys clothes in non sludge without crappy logos all over them about the wearer's future ASBO status.

Boots and Sainsburys are where I get most of DS's clothes - and Asda! Asda do some beautiful boys clothes (honestly, they do) not all of which have been logoed to death. Cheap and good quality - come up huge though.

I wholeheartedly agree with all comments - DD has a fine choice of clothes, even though I refused to put her in pink! DS has ginger hair, and some sludgey colours do not suit him, but why cant we have a choice! It is not as much fun shopping for boys clothes. DD is hard to buy for now as she is 7 going on 17, but that is a whole new thread!

This shop in Brighton and online is fab and a bit more fun

The last tops I got my DS from Boden were 'aged' and have tiny holes in the collar to give the effect. Somehow that doesn't really work on a 2 year old. They were cheap in the sale but not surprised they were in it. And they are also keen on pirate/shark/camoflague.

Why on earth would I want to dress my baby in war uniform?

agree spicemonster

Amen to all this. I have been looking for some new bits for 20 mo DS recently as all the 12-18m stuff is looking a bit short and have been sadly disappointed. Tend to fall back on John Lewis for trousers but am struggling to find decent t shirts. Also detest slogans and logos. DS is platinum blonde but looks odd in pastels. Even as a baby if I put him in pale blue dungees he just looked wrong.

Spice - westfield is doing free parking at the moment - to beat the crunch!

I used to think there were some nice clothes for boys in Next. Then I went to try to buy something and realised it's rubbish. Why oh why do they have to emblazen NEXT over anything half decent? I was very lucky last year to inherit a huge bag full of boy's clothes. DS is starting to outgrow a lot of them so I have to venture to the shops again - help!

Another bugbear, while we're on the subject, is trousers. Do manufacturers think our children wear stilts, or what?

My expectations of boys' clothes from high street shops are very low these days. Most of the stuff is unimaginative and dire. Saying that, I do have some lovely bodysuits from Gap. I also put my LO into track suit bottoms (from Sainsburys) for meal times, so they are brilliant for this!
The internet is a great saviour. I buy a lot of IdaT, Plastisock, Mini Rodini, in fact it is easy to be spoilt for choice when it comes to colour and great design. I have days when I dress him in quintessentially English clothes and I love Little Linens and Darcy Brown (I buy other labels as well). I probably buy too many clothes, but you don't get to choose their outfits for long, so I'm making the most of it!

Twinklemegan, I agree! DS always outgrows his trousers before they fit in the leg. He is chunky and wears real nappies but even so...
My current bugbear with trousers is how low-rise they are. I got some in Marks and Spencer the other day (aged 2-3) and they don't cover DS's nappy! Do they stop cutting trousers to accomodate nappies after 2 years?!

I think they do, HensMum, because I use cloth nappies and have the exact same problem (well, DS does but YKWIM).

Arabica - I LOVE all those brands. Do you buy from Nordic kids, or somewhere else?

Oh, and entirely agree with Twinklemegan about the NEXT slogans. Even plain t-shirts are emblazoned.

I mean, it's not as if it's Armani or something (not that I ever ever would) - it's not something I'm proud of or otherwise, I just bought the damn t-shirt because it was less minging than the others!

Sainsburys do some nice tee-shirt sets. Got some for DS1 last week in red, green, white and stripey.

The problem is the plain ones are too plain and show up all the dirt. I would rather he had stripey ones so they hide the dinner he spills down them a bit but plain is better than skateboard/surfer dude stuff. Yuck.

They are good for track suit bottoms although I find the cut of the trousers a bit small for my boys' rugby player thighs!

It doesn't get easier when they get older either. DS1 is 11 and Ds2 is 9. Today, in a hunt for t-shirts I had a look in M&S(not a lot of choice clothes shop wise for DCs here) and there was 1 rack of clothes for toddler boys 1-4 and 1 rack of clothes for older boys 4-16.
There were 8 racks of clothes for toddler girls and about the same for older girls.

All the boy's t-shirts had logos on, some not suitable for boys over 12 IMO - cars and things saying "cool dude". There was a choice of 2 styles of jean and 1 style of combat pants. Everyhting is hods, buckles, skulls,etc.

Saltire - I got DS1 some plain t-shirts in M&S a couple of weeks ago. (He is nearly 9) so they do do them and in nice colours too - pale orange, red and turquoise. It was a very big M & S though.

Seems daft not to stock the plainer stuff everywhere and leave out the logo stuff in smaller branches but obviously the margins are better on the logo stuff.

One of the tee-shirts was this one

They seem to have some nice ones on the website - stripes as well as plain, in amongst the logo ones.

totally agree and would like to add in an extra complaint - why does there always seem to be twice as many clothes and shoes for girls as there are for boys? Am pig sick of walking past huge ranges for girls to find the dark corner set aside for the miserable selection of boys' clothes.

Hi Sycamore - Yes, I do buy from nordic kids (great idea of the lollys and choc). Lovely website. I also get a lot of stuff from childrensalon.co.uk. They sell many designers, but you have to be quick with the popular sizes. Absolutely gorgeous clothes to be had there. Other favourites include adventino.co.uk and littlebabycompany.com, but there are too many to list. You can tell this is a well researched area of mine. Can I ask what your gems are?

most boys clothes are shit. I agree.

Hi Arabica,

Online I mostly use nordic kids, but also the hedge pig, peace and jam, yellow lolly and my little corner.

There is a lot of cross over with the same brands and items, but at least you can search competitively for pricing. Also, I tend to look at whose got a sale on and try to limit my shopping to that area of the site.

I do think Nordic kids is the best though - they have the most extensive range of stuff I think.

I bought my 2 year old these stripy but plain nautical t-shirts in Next yesterday. A shop i loathe and only went in cos i was with a friend. Was quite surprised! Nice T-shirts

Got orange stripy T-shirt from Adams DS2. It's pretty colourful and you can see him through thick hedges...

I didn't realise Adams was still trading - lots of slogans and transfers but a few nice plain bits, too - and v bargainous. Thanks for the tip!