Sick of boring boys clothes

[hanbee]

I have two boys, 5 and 3, they both have October birthdays so at about this time of year they start running low on clothes that fit properly.

Walking round the shops I see acres of beautiful girls party dresses and get to the boys section to find a third of amount of clothing all in dull greys, black and blue. My heart sinks, there seem to be no colourful, playful clothes for boys.

Please tell me I'm wrong! Where are your favourite places to shop for boys?

M&S, Next and BHS are dreadful.

I like John Lewis, H&M, Sainsburys, Gap for my 2.7 yo who is now into young boy sizes.

Also Scandinavian retailers generally do lovely unisex kids' stuff, like here.

Frugi have some lovely stuff, and good sales.

I just got some lovely red and green trousers for ds from GAP.

Boden are sometimes colourful (more for younger ones)

Otherwise I have used Jak-O or PO.P.

Boden and joules are quite nice... bit pricey though.

I also like primark and sainsburys. Sainsburys does a lot of colourful stuff.

Oh and Polarno o Poyret (or "that nice shop") as me and my friend call it, cos we can't say it.

Also, don't worry because once girls get to about 9, high street stuff is completely vile, but the boys' stuff is quite nice. Your smug time will come...

I'm big fan of h&m and sainsburys these days as they have much more colourful clothes.

H&M is great for brighter colours and they wash really well.

Little boys look great in leggings. My 3yo ds has a few pairs, spotty ones, bright red ones, stripy ones. And plain tops and tunics that are found in the "girls" section don't turn him into a girl (god forbid )

If nobody fell into the marketing trap of thinking only boys can wear boys clothes and only girls can wear girls clothes, there wouldn't be a problem.

DS2 (10 weeks) has some lovely stripy knitted leggings from M&S girls section, and I've had loads of comments about how nice it is to see colourful clothes "for boys"!

Just watching, I have the same issue with boys clothes. I hate going shopping for them as I end up buying the same things in different sizes as there's not a lot to choose from :(

I have 3 boys, 7, 5 and 1

H&M
debenhams
tkmaxx

I dont find it any harder to buy colourful fun boys clothes than girls

my ds' have lovely bright coloured joggers and jeans, with cute tshirts in all sorts of designs

Then again, I think a lot of the girls party dresses are pretty tacky, and not especially fun.

I agree with just shopping in the girls' section but it's hard to find even a t-shirt without a 'girly' detail such as gathered sleeves, a frill or a bow. It's like there is a campaign going on by mainstream manufacturers to keep the sexes in totally separate boxes from birth. The idea of unisex clothing for young children would be horrifying to them.

Probably so they can make more money, as people won't hand clothes down to the opposite gender, like they did back in the day.

I agree Postman, I often buy baby DS clothes from girl's section, as I don't see why he could not wear bright, pretty colours and should be restricted to muddy brown only. But it's getting harder nad harder just to get plain simple shirts and bodies, they absolutely have to be covered in glitter, frills and bows

About 20 years ago I was doing research into the children's clothing market and all the responses from mothers of boys were that boys clothes were dull and boring. Nothing has changed which is a shame.

When my own boys were small I dressed them in a lot of red and stripes, and many of their clothes came from the girls department. At that time there wasn't such a pink, frilly, glittery explosion in the girls dept though.

Thanks all for you responses. Much of my boys clothes come from the shops you mention (the more expensive ones via eBay!). My older son is happy to wear anything colourful but my younger one is going through a phase of having very fixed ideas of what is for boys and what is for girls (this is a boy who chose purple shoes for his first pair, sigh).

I just wanted to check there wasn't some boys clothes heaven that I was unaware of.

It is disappointing that there's such division between clothes for different genders, I think it's very sad that the retailers perceive that there's a need for little girls to have a lot more choice.

Gosh I find it so much easier to shop for my boy than my girls. There's tons of gorgeous colours out there for boys. Definitely in john lewis, m&s and h&m. I find very little that isn't sickly or cheap-looking for girls. Where's the best place to get nice girls' stuff?

Wait until you get into the older sizes and the problem becomes worse... most things sludge coloured or with violent pictures . Sainsbury's still OK - have to buy the bright things when you see them though.

Agreed that stuff for girls over 7 is grim. Just scaled down versions of teenage stuff. Horrible. Also agree boys stuff horrid too. POP is the best but not cheap. Though the stuff is good quality and lasts. Boden also good. For really cheap,stuff Imget the odd Sainsburys top or Gap oKish.

Asda stuff looked nice when I was in today. I like gap, h&m, sainsburys, blue zoo in debhanams and boden. I get my boden stuff off ebay, they do a lot of seconds on there. TKMaxx is also good.

I so glad I posted this. Thanks for all your suggestions I have found a few new brands that I can buy second hand from eBay.