S and B query on behalf of a 3-day old boy...

[Helzapoppin]

Hello. Our baby boy was born three days ago. It was a bit of a shock, I'd assumed we were having another girl and would use the lovely girl's baby clothes we had in the attic. LUckily he is extremely lovely so is forgiven!
Following an emergency trip to Sainsbury's the poor child is already adorned with sleepsuits featuring a range of diggers and tractors (and traffic lights ?!). They are horrible :(. He looks better in his sister's clothes but this can't go on forever!
Where can I find reasonably priced, traditional boy's clothes that are not covered in monsters or construction equipment (was thinking more ducks and maybe the odd dinosaur or piece of fruit, or nothing at all!)?

On the cheaper end of the scale, I found gap and debenhams to be good.
If you can spend a bit more or use for hand me downs, I loved frugi, monsoon, jojo and mini boden.

Jojomamanbebe do lovely boys clothes. They do nice sleep suits as well as clothes for when he is older . Good washing quality I find.

Congratulations! Enjoy your little man!

I have a couple of 'em, lovely things!

I've used H&M for DS a lot, also Sainsburys. I like plain, bright clothes and have managed to avoid anything sloganed or covered in monsters/diggers/skulls/camo so far.

M&S had lots of lovely stuff when DS arrived. Little doggies were my favourite, though also some neutral coloured rabbits too.

I found Sainsburys sleepsuits the best because of the built in scratch mitts and poppers down both legs. Next sleepsuits have poppers that run diagonally and are a pain to get on and off when changing a nappy. I agree with the others about Boots though they have some lovely clothes and if you are able to get your hands on their baby brochure they have a discount coupon for their mini mode clothes.

Congrats..ooo, just wait until you start doing boy shopping (ie shopping with a boy, for things that the boy needs).
Picture the scene - boy needs T-shirt. Mum and boy head to shopping centre. Boy goes in to first T-shirt shop and buys a T-shirt. Boy is now expecting to go home. Such fun.

when DS was born, we put him in a lot of neutral baby next and then moved onto M&S and gap and debenhams.

Now he is nearly 5, a lot of his wardrobe is Mini boden - mainly because dear parents buy him it and it is ample to do him for the season (and if you buy the right size you can get 2 seasons out of it) and I think it wears really well.

George at Asda is very good but like everything there are some nice pieces and some god awful stuff. Sainsbury's basic jeans for boys are also v good when you spend most of the day on your knees playing trains, cars etc etc.

Agree with wicket keeper - boy shopping is fun - nearly 5 and already down to a fine art especially if you have waited an hour in the only decent shoe shop to get school shoes and you still have things to do after that. Don't think I have managed a good shop in a while - all online.

Congrats and enjoy - I wouldn;t change him for the world!

this place is fantastic and unbelieveably great value babygrows and i will agree with all who mention h&m ive bought my DDs clothes from tere for 6 yrs and my sister has been buying my nephews for nearly 5 and the quality has never decreased and the prices are great. markies are good too for proper baby boy clothes and debenhams have great dino sleepsuits. congratulations on your new DS :)

Hahaha. I thought it was just me who noticed this about boys clothes and that I was shopping in the wrong place or something!

Diggers, skulls and crossbones, monkeys, pirates, monkeys who are dressed as pirates...

what's wrong with tractors?

(However I must admit to the cardinal sin of having a DS whose wardrobe contains everything from skulls, camo and dragons to mickey mouse)

I have lots of stripes and dinosaur things from John Lewis, and lovely bits like dungarees with clouds on :)

also Tesco packs of plain coloured sleepsuits.

Congrats :)

John Lewis and Polarn o pyret on the sales

Green baby.com, Organics for Kids, jako-o.de and Frugi all do fabulous baby wear. Jako-o in particular does beautiful bright colours. It is a little pricier than High Street shops but the quality is brilliant and washes and lasts really well.

I also preferred not to dress DS in mini camouflage/here comes the monster/cheeky monkey style clothes and what I did was mix items from Mothercare, JoJo Maman Bebe, Greenbaby, Organics for Kids and Frugi. As someone else said Mothercare do some great animal type prints (had some fab elephant prints from there). Next used to be good as well.

Purple-heart.com does beautiful tie-dye clothes in all different colours, which I loved. Sizing is a little small, so I tended to buy a size up to get maximum wear.

Congrats
Go here www.loveitloveitloveit.co.uk amazing site, Ruth is a clothing genuis and lots of scandy clothes...they know how to dress their boys well!
H&M for stripes and obligatory monsters
John Lewis
Gap

Many congratulations on the birth of your little boy. My own DS is 18 months and little boy clothes are, IME, terrible!
As other posters have said, John Lewis are better than most, IMO, when they get to toddling. For baby clothes, I rarely strayed from M&S as I found they didn't stereotype too much and the cotton is so soft, washes well etc etc. TU in Sainsbury's can do nice clothes for boys (once you get over the fact that there are 3 aisles for girls!) we had some nice babygrows from there that were different and not all about blue. They are also guilty of only stocking jeans for older boys most of the time though! Boots, MiniClub, also can have nice things.
There are so many shops I now avoid as they just seem to be clothes for men made small for little boys.
Clothes aside, enjoy the new addition to your family and I hope he brings with him as much love and joy as my DS has

Thanks so much for the ideas everyone. I've looked at all the links you gave me and feel much more optimistic! Breton stripes and anything Nordic to be my syle. But first, I'm taking up the fantastic idea of buying a couple of packets of Dylonand some iron on motifs and 'upcycling' some of my daughter's old clothes! :)