Baby Clothes - only pink and blue?

[starfish99]

Hi all
I'm pregnant with my first and due in November. We've started to shop for the baby but are not going to find out the sex so need to buy gender-neutral items.
I'm shocked by how gender-biased the clothing is. In Next for example, there was only one outfit that wasn't either pink or blue. If we have a girl I don't want to dress her in pink all of the time and if I have a boy I don't want to constantly dress him in blue. The patterns are also so stereotypically designed - blue aeroplanes and rockets for boys and pink flowers and fairies for girls. If they must stick to pink and blue why not pink rockets and blue flowers?
I find it incredibly sexist - is this really want people want or is this what retailers think we want? I was wondering if there have ever been any petitions to retailers to try and encourage them to stock more gender-neutral clothing?
Could anyone recommend a retailer that has a better range?
Thanks

[Purpleflamingos]

Agree with the loss of mint green and yellow for babies. We didn't find out the sex of either child and our nursery was mint green, cream and a pale latte shade. Once the dc were born we were showered in clothes suitable for the sex as though we were doing something wrong by neutral vests and sleepsuits.

Dd wore a lot of jasper conran from debenhams as they had a lot if white and navy little girl outfits. She dresses herself in cerise leggings and pink peppa pig top or her pink tutu these days if given the choice.

[Happilymarried155]

Boots are good, mothercare, also found a good website called essential one that I ordered some off the other day.

Next had have a few uni sex in at the moment I bought some lovely white ones with yellow embroidery on, two with pandas and another set with bright colourful spots and stars. These were all from next just the other day! X

[SnowPetrel]

Haven't read all the posts on here so apologies if anyone's already said this, however it appears to me that the pink/blue industry is without doubt a ploy to sell more stuff. If it didn't matter what on earth colour babies wore then a lot more stuff could be handed down to siblings of a different sex. If you have a girl and then a boy, for instance , then you are generally stuck with buying lots of pink, and then buying lots of blue (unless you don't care, or dress them both in neutrals).

If clothing colour didn't matter then clothes could be passed down a lot more, depriving retailers of the ability to screw even more money out of parents. This would also be more environmentally friendly than buying a lot more clothes for a second / third etc child of the other gender. They stay in each size for 5 minutes so the clothes would be barely worn and perfectly serviceable. I think it's time for a children's clothes revolution, personally. We don't have to buy this stuff, right? "Boycott pink and blue", anyone?

[DrewsWife]

I'm due in December and have similar problems. Bhs have lots of white newborn stuff. We picked up a fair few bits and bypassed the pink and blue.

[DanyStormborn]

I found good unisex brights in Boots and some fairly unisex looking cartoon-character stuff in H&M. Ebay is great for stuff that's no longer in the shops - I've got brand new stuff and some great quality used stuff. Sainsburys had some nice unisex farm animal stuff earlier in the year, not sure if it's still there. M&S is good if you like white. My local Next has some unisex sleepsuits but all the rest is very gender specific.

[Firsttimemama3]

There's some nice neutral things in Matalan:)

[Plateofcrumbs]

Oh wow that 'love it love it love it!' website - I love it!

[amy83firsttimer]

John Lewis in the sale, 3 pack of sleepsuits with built-in scratch mitts. £6. Either red, blue and green or a more feminine set. We don't know what we're having so I've bought the.red etc pack in 2 sizes. They're lovely.

[fanjodisfunction]

I bought most of my gender neutral stuff in mothercare, they had some lovely rainbow and noahs ark stuff in a couple of years ago. I find next always do pink or blue, no white or yellow and sometimes asda is worse with batman and mickey mouse for boys and pink overload for girls, though im sure I saw alot of white and grey in there the other day which is a nice chnage.

[millymae]

I've only just seen this post - have a look at this web-site

//www.loveitloveitloveit.co.uk/

I've bought lots of stuff over the last couple of years from here - hardly a light pink or pale blue item to be seen!!

[QueenOfThorns]

Those are lovely, cupoftea. My DD has the set with the star shaped bib as well. I just love that vest with the elephants!

[eurochick]

Those are very cool cupoftea. I found mamas & papas to be better than anywhere else. We found a reasonable selection in creams, greys and yellows in there. That is where all of the bodysuits we have got come from.

[GrouchyKiwi]

Also: If you've got friends making things for you (knitting, sewing, etc, the clever people) then you could specify colours?

One of my friends made gorgeous bootees with red/orange/yellow/white variegated yarn, which are the cutest, and a little cardigan in rich red and blue stripes. I love them and can use them with all of my babies, which makes me happy.

Have to say, though, I really rejected the idea of pink things when our DD was born, but discovered it looked very cute on her so she wore a lot of it in the end. You can find some pretty neat clothes that make pink look punkish, not overly girly. There were times when she was wearing an outfit comprising a pink & taupe striped top with taupe dungarees and I had old women asking me how old "He" was.

[squizita]

Leggings I'm afraid I'm still not convinced - it's a bit 'lip service' to the criticism of a name which was clearly chosen because it was more catchy than "not everything sold to girls should be pink" and slightly contradicts itself, talking about the importance of language and not making a child feel they've chosen wrong, then using 'stinks' in their name.

But then again you couldn't really have a campaign called "not everything sold to girls should be pink and domestic/beauty focused because it's sexist" and expect it to take off, could you?

[squizita]

This website has some great ideas for alternatives to twee stuff: www.babymoos.com/shop/

[GrouchyKiwi]

I love Vertbaudet for colourful clothing and they're quite good with their neutrals, but yes, expensive.

John Lewis always has some lovely bright things, and H&M as mentioned.

[liquidstatehasrisenagain]

Wow those clothes are fab cupoftea. May have to have a nosey in boots tomorrow.

[leggingsarenottrousers]

Squizita -

They do address some of your points about the name on their site www.pinkstinks.org.uk/about-us/faqs.html

[cupofteaplease]

I just bought these in Boots- they are very colourful. I was feeling pretty despondent after going into Next and only finding pale blue and white for boys, and blue, navy and red in Mamas and Papas.

[squizita]

I do have big issues with forced gender attributes being "banned" though as this can play right into the patriarchal idea "if it looks female its weak".
For example certain crafts/technologies being neglected and mocked because older women always did them. For a couple of decades, by " modern" women themselves.
The message behind the pink is what should be attacked. Its interesting that they use quite a lot of pink on their own website!

[leggingsarenottrousers]

I don't dislike the 'Pinkstinks' name. I completely agree that colours don't (or shouldn't!) have genders. But that particular shade of pink that seems to have been vomited all over little girls, DOES stink. I see the name as an objection to that the enforced pinkification of EVERYTHING rather than a review of the colour itself.

[mrsnec]

I think you're right squizita.
It's the messages and the images that irritate me too. One of the vests mil gave me today says 'if you think I'm pretty you should see my mummy' on it. I nearly threw it at her! But the hand knitted silk matinee coat with owls for buttons I'll keep!

Anyway I was wondering about that too if my own childhood influenced my views in any way.

I had very girlie toys, was arty, have pictures of me in fancy dress as a chef. My dm once explained that she wasn't allowed to be particularly girlie so wanted me to be as girlie as possible and always kept my hair long for example as she was never allowed long hair.

Having said that, in most of the photos of my childhood I'm sporting burgundy velour in some form or another or yellow and green in the summer but it was the 70's.

[squizita]

Pushon shame they called it 'pinkstinks' although it is a catchy name. As you mention: pink is just another colour. It doesn't stink. It would be great if boys wore pink, and it would be great if girls had a greater range of colours.

To me, the connotations of 'pink stinks' is "don't let your daughter near pink or she'll turn into a bimbo". Which isn't quite the reason/message I think they're aiming for: their motto's "there's more than one way to be a girl".
Perhaps it's a hangover from my own childhood where one of my parents 'read up' on some theories and took them rather literally (to be a good little feminist, you must not notice boys or be arty or cook or wear pink- pretend to be a boy!) which gave me some big hang ups/shame as a teen.

[mrsnec]

I thought I'd be in agreement with all of this but my mil has just given me a massive bundle of clothes in orange, red, yellow, lime and various shades of beige and I am finding myself more drawn to the pink girlie stuff and feel ashamed of myself almost!

It's as if the orange and yellow stuff is too garish and the beige stuff too bland. I wonder if now I know she's a girl I'm compelled to go down the girlie frilly route? Hope not!

[Pushonregardless]

Great thread. My new baby, due in October, will be mostly kitted out in navy blue and red, thanks to the M&S 20% off sale this week.

This stuff makes me so cross.

I hate the term 'gender neutral'. What does this even mean? That an item of clothing or a toy doesn't conform to our own man-made perceptions of what it is to conform to being female or male?

Colours don't have genders. Pink is gender neutral. So is blue. So is beige.

Some of you might be interested in this campaign, which covers off all products, not just toys and clothes.

www.pinkstinks.org.uk/

I'm scared I won't be able to let my son or daughter choose their own colour preferences as a child. Even if I try, marketing, advertising and other people's prejudices will inform him/her, won't they?