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Campaign for Better Boys' Clothes - letter

107 replies

BadHair · 04/06/2004 19:18

Here's a draft of the e-mail/letter to the high street retailers, to accompany the link to the thread.

During recent discussions on the talk boards of the award-winning parenting website Mumsnet, we realised that we, as parents, are dissatisfied with the range, quality and choice of children?s clothes currently available in the UK?s high street stores.

Below is a link to an actual discussion thread that took place during the week of 24-31 May 2004. Its free market research for you, should you choose to view and act upon it.

The people who took part in the thread are parents from all social backgrounds, with vastly differing household incomes, and with children of varying age groups, yet all were agreed that we are not being offered a good enough choice of clothing for our children.

We believe that all high street shops could offer a wider choice of colours, patterns and fabrics for its boys? clothes, and could minimise the use of logos and inappropriate and often violent imagery. We would like to see boys? clothes representing a percentage equal to the girls? clothes on sale, and to be available in brighter, more vibrant colours.

We are also unhappy that so many clothes for our girl children are scaled down, inappropriate teenage designs and that the choice of colours and designs are again restrictive and uninspiring.

We believe that our high street shops are willing to, and capable of, providing us with a much better choice in future seasons. We await your response.

Not too snappy is it? Would anyone like to make any changes, seeing as how its coming from all of us?

Also, if Justine et al are around, are you OK with us using the Mumsnet name for this?

OP posts:
BadHair · 04/06/2004 19:20

Obviously I will put the link it when I actually send it.

Was thinking of:
M&S
BHS
Next
Littlewoods
Matalan (obviously)
Asda
Tesco
John Lewis
Debenhams
Don't know about Gap as I don't shop there, but let me know if you think it should join the list.
Any more?

OP posts:
maretta · 04/06/2004 20:08

What about Adams?

Wasn't involved in the original thread but agree that boys clothes are often very lazily designed.

Stargazer · 04/06/2004 20:20

Think it's a very good letter. I didn't post on the original thread. But I totally agree - boys clothes are so uninspiring. I would also like to add that slimfit trousers make it extremely difficult to buy clothes for my DS. He's not fat, just well built - and we have to buy age 11 for an 8 year old!! As for girls clothes - I hate Barbie (DD loves them)clothes and would prefer logoless clothes for both.

Finally - what about adding Gymborree (not sure about spelling). They do have some nice clothes - but they are quite pricy.

littlemissbossy · 04/06/2004 20:26

well done badhair! great letter. I didn't read the previous thread TBH but agree wholeheartedly. You could add Monsoon to the list, although I like their boys range, it is nothing in comparison to the girls. Good luck

coppertop · 04/06/2004 20:29

Well done, Badhair. It certainly looks good to me!

popsycal · 04/06/2004 20:32

verbaudet

popsycal · 04/06/2004 20:33

i started a thread about adams afew weeks ago.....will see if i can find it - you could link to that too

popsycal · 04/06/2004 20:35

cant find it anywhere!!!

popsycal · 04/06/2004 20:38

have a feeling it may be a chat thread which has been 'filed' somewhere.....

Chandra · 04/06/2004 20:59

Perfect!

Tommy · 04/06/2004 21:01

Excellent Badhair. Hope we get some response!

muddaofsuburbia · 04/06/2004 22:32

Badhair - great letter!

Could you add Woolworths? I got loads of baby stuff for ds which I was really happy with but as soon as he hit the 12 mths plus stage the selection was atrocious!

kalex · 04/06/2004 22:52

Fab letter,

have just added my support on other thread as well,

gscrym · 04/06/2004 23:01

Thanks Badhair, hopefully they'll sit up and take notice. This thread could save them loads on market research. Lets face it, that so far hasn't been great.

meandthomas · 04/06/2004 23:48

The letter sounds good to me... fingers crossed eh

Miaou · 04/06/2004 23:53

I have two dds and welcome the comment about inappropriate "scaled down adult version" clothes for girls. REALLY REALLY HATE being forced to pay for expensive french clothes as the only alternative to miniskirts and crop tops from MacKays (add them to your list?). Many thanks for taking the initiative on this!

twiglett · 05/06/2004 00:02

message withdrawn

treacletart · 05/06/2004 00:41

great letter - I think you should add
adams
boots
gap
hennes
mothercare
primark and
woolworths
to your list

thanks for all the hard work youre putting in for us - do you need any help researching addresses?

Joanne69 · 05/06/2004 00:58

Thanks, great letter. I have commented on the other thread, I have 2 dds. If you need any help getting addresses, let us know.

Joanne

wilbur · 05/06/2004 01:02

Just had a word with dh about this (he works for Monsoon) and he would like to see the original thread and will take it into work. Can someone put a link up to the original thread as I'm not sure I saw it. BTW - dh has just said (off the top of his head) the reason boys' ranges tend to be less extensive than girls' is market-driven - people just spend less on their sons for a variety of reasons. It's like menswear and womenswear - it's a 40:60 or 30:70 split. He would agree about the poor design and logo/branding thing though.

Has anyone else noticed that in searching for brighter clothes for their ds that they keep finding things that are orange? Ds currently has a whole bunch of orange clothes which seem to have snuck in without me noticing.

mummytojames · 05/06/2004 01:04

i ike it even though i think i would have been alot more snappy and point out that its us woman who are keeping them in buisness

Nutcracker · 05/06/2004 01:07

Loads of orange stuff at the mo. Asda was full of it.

wilbur · 05/06/2004 01:13

Yup, Nutty - that was where one of the tops was from, plus one from Gap and another from Adams or Hennes. It seems like orange has been deemed acceptable for small boys. One thing that's bothering me though is that my MIL keeps buying "amusing" tops for ds that say things like "Don't Blame Me" and "100% Mischief". It's probably our fault as we bought ds a t-shirt last summer which said "Weapon of Mass Destruction" which I though was funny for a 2 yr old - but now I think it's a bit unfair - why do boys have to have all this negativity? Sorry if I am duplicating any comments on the other thread.

Tommy · 05/06/2004 01:14

Wilnur - can you tell your DH that we'd love to buy more boys' clothes, if only they were there!!!

wilbur · 05/06/2004 01:34

Tommy - the boys' range is very new and they are waiting to see how it is going. Seems to be going well so it will no doubt expand. Unlikely to ever be the size of the girls' though. Also, the range varies a lot from store to store depending on space so your local store might not have the full range.

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