Campaign for Better Boys Clothes - long and ranty

[BadHair]

This kind of follows on from earlier threads about crappy boys clothes.
I went to Matalan earlier on in search of cheap and cheerful stuff for my dses. There were 8 rows of lovely bright girl's clothes, some of the materials could easily have been unisex had they not been sewn as skirts. Then there were 2, TWO, rows of boys clothes. One of them was made up entirely of nylon England football strips and the other was full of the usual dull blue-green-grey combos. As most mums of boys know, this is the same in most shops, though Next occasionally have better colours.
I flatly refuse to dress my toddlers to look like football hooligans, and the other stuff was so uninspiring that I walked out in disgust.
I know that nicer stuff is available in smaller, individual shops, but why should I have to track these places down when I should be able to get better clothes from the high street biggies? In the past I've seen stripey jumpers in the girl sections that could easily be worn by boys if the ubiquitous pink-and-lilac threads were replaced with perhaps red and purple. So I don't see why I should have to dress my boys in dull cr*p.
SO, to finally get to my point, I'm thinking of petitioning the high street retailers as I'm so fed up with being fobbed off with boring clothes. Does anyone else want to sign up, and if so can you suggest what colours you'd like to dress your boys in?

Okay, hoxtonchick, the next boys' stuff clearout will have your name on it!

Sign me up!!!
Its absolutely appalling. nothing..thouroughly agree with everyone

I do like the next stuff. Maybe its just because i've got a huge store near me..

Has no-one tried H&M? I bought a job lot of lovely bright orange t-shirts for DS there this spring - lovley colourful clothes and cheap!

there is no point to this, as soon as boys are old enough to talk they want there bob the builder top on every day alternated with noddy top and just jeans, forget shoes, they want to wear their trainers

JoJo Maman Bebe catalogue used to do good unisex / non-frilly girls clothes, but haven't looked recently. Not the cheapest, though. (but cheaper than Boden)

Right - was in Woolworths today - utterly pants selection except for bright TV character stuff which can get a bit much sometimes. Many skulls and "comic" slogans along the lines of "really-horrible/naughty/insert insult here-child-wearing-this-t-shirt-alert". My ds is as cute as a button - he's not evil!!

But big suprise of the day was Wilkinsons!! Small selction of cheap but cheerful plain orange, turquoise and yellow T shirts and some stripey ones. Not much else to write home about, but certainly encouraging. I don't think Wilko is UK-wide though

BadHair - I'm with you !!

Yes! Me too! I have 2 ds' (5 and 1) and I second everything that's been said so far. I don't do: camouflage (at all) logos, so-called cute stuff or cartoons, which leaves me a bit short. For the summer I've got plain shorts from Boden and some nice t-shirts (only 1 skateboard - a compromise), and he does have some skull-and-crossbones jeans from Next (another compromise). I allow a bit of pirate stuff as an improvement on the army stuff that he wants.

And the girl's stuff - it's virtually all tarty - my dd is 3! And I hate lavender.

This is getting to be quite a long list of protesters!

In hennes in brent cross today they had lots of plain boys t-shirts (for 1-6 yrs), 2 shades of yellow, 2 of red, 2 of blue, bright green, white; all £1.99. Also nice bright more expensive t-shirts (£4.99) and lots of patterns that weren't camoflage and lots of plain red and orange trousers and shorts in various shades and styles. I had to stop myself from buying tons.

What, ponygirl, you mean you don't want your three-year old dd to dress like an underage hooker???!!!! Here's umpteen UK clothes manufacturers say you should.

Maybe we should start a parallel girls' thread. All I can say is, those boy-owners who think dressing a girl is easy -- try it!

Aloha - your ds in a cashmere scarf? not really?

the rest sounds bootiful

I like clean crisp looking clothes - for about the 30 sec they last

Anyone else want to join in? Mothers of girls welcome too.
I'd like to get this sent off by Tuesday so join in quick!

Ohh yes! Please add me to your list.

As a mum of 3 boys this is one the reasons why I despise going clothes shopping now and the poor little chaps have to suffer with bog standard boring stuff all the time.

I want my boys to be dresses as BOYS not advertisments for X Y Z and I hate all the football stuff around at the moment especially as it makes the problem 10 times worse with half the selection of boys clothes being covered flags.

The Adsa 'george' shop in Croydon is the worst I have ever encountered for boys Vs girls. I was disgusted!

I've just signed this but count me in ... the clothes are just dreadful at the moment - can't stand logos, plastic 'transfers', ugh ... impossible to find stuff.

BTW, if anyone has friends/family in Australia, you can go to the Aus Pumpkin Patch website and place an order to be sent to your Aussie relatives for them to forward to you ... I've done this in the past. Their stuff is really good and washes well. Also generally like Baby Gap but hate Next cos 99% of their clothes are covered in numbers/logos, Marks and Mini-Boden are dull .... blah blah blah.

Now I'm off to look at some of the websites mentioned here-in once I change a not so pleasant nappy!!

Oh, before I go ... pyjamas. All I want is shortie pyjamas for my 2 year old, plain without the obligatory plastic transfer (as I call it) which makes him sweat like crazy but can I find them ... no!

Meant to type 'skimmed' not signed!!

Count me in too. Looking for brights for the summer and have said to every shop been in - why not red or turquiose or....

managed to find a few but it is the exception to all the dulls out there. Ds suits all the khaki stuff but not all the time, fgs he's only 2

Me too please, count me in. I went shopping for neww clothes for ds yesterday and came back with nothing. Next was the worse culprit, 75% of their children's clothing was for girls and the rest was full of unsuitable and very dull clothing for boys. I will not dress my son as a football thug, the look repulses me as does army/military stuff. My quest was further complicated by the limited fabrics (100% cotton)and styles (long sleeves/trousers only) that ds can wear because of his eczema.

Count me in to. Agree with camouflage looking horrible, although I think my ds looks sweet in his england strip and not like a thug at all

I'll sign anything that'll get more boys clothes into the shops. I get particularly hacked off when you see 3/4 of the shop for girls, 1/8 is boys under 1 and 1/8 is boys 1-2.
The only other option is to got to shops that sell Timberland, Burberry etc and get a 2nd mortgage for a pair of shorts. I don't think 80quid in anyones money is right for a denim jacket for a tot.

Oh definately sign me up - I hate the stupid violent/menacing pictures on boys clothes and as for colours - well its just different shades of sludge isn't it?.

Havnt read all the thread, but boys shoes are just as bad. My cute three yr old wants cute shoes but because he has big feet for his age he is supposed to settle for black ugly shoes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lunarsea-I am glad I'm not alone in my bargain hunting.I am very jealous of those shorts though-what a bargain-I am obviously paying too much.I am off carbooting again tomorrow to see what I can find.

Was looking through the Vertbaudet (sp?) catologue this morning & they seemed to have some decent boyswear in bright colours.Much better than the High St rubbish you see about.

I feel very strongly about this too. My two boys are three and four and I am struggling this year to find anything nice. I hate logos , character stuff and long for bright colours. It used to be such fun buying baby clothes but now its just a drag. I am forking out good money for stuff I get no pleasure in seeing them wear.

Type 'oilily boys' into ebay and start bidding for the worlds coolest boys cloths at gap prices...

The jeans are so cleverly designed, can be worn from full length thro 3/4 and then shorts, and ours are on their 3rd child!