I have an 8 year old girl who I don't want to kit out in head to toe Boden, or conversely in lots of nylon black and pink swirly dresses with black leggings

[TheHonEnid]

am I doomed?

La Redoute?

H&M.

[suspicious]

are their clothes nice?

[hollow laughter]

MI we have just returned from H and M

the groovy kids clothes go up to 8

please have a look at the 9-14 range next time you are in there

truly hideous

oh get a grip and go to the high street - loads of stuff, not all shops tarty are boden frumpy

I like them. Especially the pirate sweater which is actually in the boys' dept. Lots of coloured cords, skinny jeans and so on. Works for my two.

Oh bugger, yes, Tamum told me it's all pre-teen lapdancer stuff for older kids, damn, sorry.

how old are they though MI

What sort of things would you like for her/what style?

I bought some lovely things in h and m for dd2 and dd3

poor dd1

I'd love to hear your suggestions jesus

Zara

I dunno

nice things

funky tops - not everything pink and sparkly (I did buy her a nice long sleeve t in the gap, blue with cherries on)

things that are blue and green
little skirts with leggings but nice simple colours and patterns, not camoflauge or nylon or glittery or overly girly

not boden quailty, but nice fr designs

not usu too synthetic or trendy

website is poor though

Not sure what age they go up to but I've often struck lucky in Mothercare.

zara is nice but I think my nearest is about 3.5 hours away

I have a visceral reaction to embroidered fleeces and jeans myself.
Vile.
I do therefore wish my well meaning neighbour would stop dumping bags and bags of the stuff on me.
I can't believe that anyone cold possibly buy so much. She now does a drive by and just hurls a bin bag over the garden wall. My mother was convinced it was a body when she first saw it.

was about to suggest zara too

ok badge will try

I quite like joules and fat face but joules is a bit young and fat face has sludgy colours and strangely (as she is a bit of surf chick) dd1 doesnt like the designs much

debenhams had nicer stuff last year.
dd1 had tigerlily stuf.
laredoute is nice too, better colours.

La Redoute? Vertbaudet? Decent clothes for older girls, but awful customer service and you get bombarded with mail and rubbish free gifts if you purchase something.

There is a Zara in Bournemouth.

bought her a very nice pale grey skirt with black pattern from matalan at xmas, maybe I'll gio and look in there

I quite like Mothercare but again only goes up to 8 (dd1 is skinny but tall)

What about Next? I like their kids/girls stuff - even though the adult stuff has gone down hill lately.

is there fimbo? with a kdis bit?

Gap sale rails - just found my 7yo a lovely sweater dress, just plain cream wool with a fancy-stitch upper bit. They had them in sizes up to 13. (Very nice with leggings, if you're not wholly against leggings.)

I like Zara too, though haven't scrutinised their bigger girls range - they do have some nice plain stuff for boys - so girls' stuff likely to be OK (by analogy of comparing Zara big boys' stuff to H&M's (the latter very skully-hoodie)).