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.

Thumb wanna swap ds's???

He was baptised last weekend and his suit was for a 3 yr old and only just fitted him.

!
Was he heavy when he was born as well? DS was only 7lb 3oz
I think I'll keep mine tho, ta - he's obviously easier to clothe!

Thumb ds2 was only....5lb 15oz and a month early. He fitted with his head in the palm of my hand to not even the crease of my elbow he was a diddy dot.

crikey! He's doing very well then

I think there is a photo of him at birth on my profile and the very top pic is his on 25th april

the very bottom photo is ds2 at 5 days, the one of he and i in the hospital he was 25 minutes old.

ahhh, what a cutie in his little suit!

Had a delivery of a few stripey tops for my 3 from "Kids Should Be Kids" today (as recommended by Shitemum).

Look lovely, but they are a very slim fit with very long sleeves.

I haven't read the whole thread. But I have to agree with who ever said that it gets worse as they get older. Now my ds is out of the 'younger child' section and the 9+ size (even though he's only 7) I struggle to find anything without, skulls, skater things, busy patterns, etc... I don't mind pictures on t-shirts, it doesn't have to be plain, but why do they think all boys are skaters/into skully evily type of clothing.

Oh and the different amounts of clothing sold in shops for boys and girls ARE annoying. The sales are even worse. There never seems to be any boys stuff left by the time I get there.

The NEXT sale is the worst offender of this i have found.

You are lucky to find half a rail of boys clothes compared to the whole section of girls.

Why are mumsnet so obsessed with stripy tops?

we like stripes, stripes are nice

Anyone heard of 'Du Pareil Au Meme'? It's a french shop that has an English website and maybe shop, I'm not sure, but it's not too pricey and clothing is quite fun...

How about going on ebay and doing a search based on the colours and/or brands you like? Just once every so often you can get lucky as a reputable seller is offloading all their kids' clobber to finance their own spending splurge. Maybe you're already doing that anyway and finding nothing but grunge and slogans?!

I dress my son almost totally in Old Navy and babyGap garb. (Actually my whole family-we're just plain t-shirt kind of people.) When I was a nanny for 3 boys I would have to rifle through their closets before taking them out in public to find something w/o Spiderman, etc., all over it. I'm just not a big fan. Ditto cheap-looking stuff (nylon basketball jerseys, etc.) I'd rather have DS have a few well-made, slightly more expensive clothes than a closetful of cheap crap that says like "I was born awsome" or what have you.

Er, awesome. Oh and I LOVE stripy tops as well.

It pains me to admit it but you just can't beat Boden really for boys clothes (or indeed girls).

I agree with Cadelaide, as the quality of their tops especially is generally a lot better than most. Gap and John Lewis are good too - definitely, Samsmama . Personally , I feel, it's always worth checking out such items on ebay. (I spotted a couple yesterday with good seller reviews.) If you're unwilling to take that leap, you can get onto company mailing lists to be told about any end of line sales that are coming to your area. Boden do it, and I think that as their styles are fairly classic, last year's stuff doesn't date.(No, I don't work for them!!)What I do believe, though, which I know you're frustrated about, is that you cannot just wander into any regular high street shop and find a really nice range of regular priced boys' clothes. It takes a lot of time to find anything decent!

MIni Mode are quite good too

i think your lucky having to get boys clothes, ok they are boring but at least you only have otions of troussers jean shorts.
tees/jumers

with girls its cropped length, 3/4 arms! wtf!
different shoes to go with different outfits etc etc

What about shoes? I found with DS1 once got past size 10 all you can choose is school shoes, smart 'dress' shoes you'd wear to a wedding, or trainers. Trying to find a pair of everyday shoes (ie to wear when he goes out and isn't kicking a ball around a muddy park) is almost impossible. Clarks just don't do them over a size 10 and haven't found any in non-fitted shops either.

So agree with all of this. My best buys have been Boden sale and Monsoon sale (such cute applique t-shirts and nice trousers that aren't jeans). Looking at all the great links here now.

Oh, and forgot to mention Benetton 0-12 (does that exist in UK??), which is the only shop where the boys stuff is infinitely nicer than girls.

Would agree with all the comments made here regarding the problems of boys clothing in shops. I noticed that in Gap the other day; two thirds of the upstairs was given over to girls clothing; the boys section was far smaller and with less choice. And why on earth is the childrens section upstairs anyway in these places? (BTW Gap do some good bargains when it is sales time).

I would ask the same question of Clarks - why is the childrens section upstairs in many of their stores?. Who decided that?.