Clothing disappointment

[Clare11]

Have just popped into the 'pop up' shop in the old 'seweastdulwich'. What a disappointment.

Lots of lovely things for girls. Items with interesting bright fabrics, handmade feel etc.

But for boys? Tshirts. Hmmph.

Really tired of finding it impossible to get brightly patterned and interesting clothes for little boys. I do my best so that my two year looks like a toddler and not a 'mini man'

Is there anywhere to get great clothes for little boys? Think I will be dragging out he sewing machine and making my own!!

[oimissus]

H&M always seems to have good clothes for boys, bright colours instead of the usual sludge.

[Strawbs]

H&m and next are your best bet..

[midivydale]

I agree! I buy alot of ds clothes at h&m as the sizes suits him and the clothes wash really well. Swedish brands in general do v well on the colour front. Polarn & Pyret are great too.

[crystal7]

I agree, really hard to find nice boy's stuff. I notice it especially as my eldest is a girl and has around double the amount of clothes her brother has (not sure if this is a good thing...)I really don't like the colours and the fact that the tops need to have either some sort of vehicle or a dinosaur on the front.

H&M are good, they don't have their ful range on line though- better to buy in store. Regent Street has a big kids department. John Lewis have some quite nice things sometimes. Agree with midivydale, Polarn O Pyret is fab. Lovely fabrics and prints and amazing quality plus many of their things are unisex which is useful if you have one of each. Very expensive though, even in the sales. I find a few bits in Gap too.

Don't get me started on boys shoes...

[hazelnunhead]

Cos have a small but interesting selection of childrens clothes, perhaps not for basics but for a few things. I agree with Swedish and also Danish labels (molo etc) , usually great fabric and last forever.

Zara?

[SR]

I have a girl but I did notice that monsoon are doing young boy clothes now, some bright toddler style stuff amongst the mini man..

[sanity girl]

H&M. The kids dept in the Brixton store is excellent, better than the regent street store IMO

[EmilyPie]

Some good, brightly coloured, unusual and ethically produced clothes in some of the links in this article. Not cheap but definitely worth a look http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/apr/29/top-10-ethical-shop-childrens-clothes

[snowboarder]

I like gap, Boden, sometimes some of the supermarket stuff. The little bird range in mothercare is cute and quite unisex. I always chose red/blue/green over sludgy brown colours. Boys shoes are the most boring things though - in clarks you look at the girls - pink/purple/silver...boys - brown or navy if you're lucky. Why no red? Orange? Green? Summer not so bad as a choice of crocs/doodles/converse but huh for winter boots!

[EmilyPie]

Gently elephant in Brockley is good for boys shoes. My 2 yo has a nice pair of red shoes from there.

[colababe]

I love Toby Tiger for little boy things also Gap and Zara can do more toddler things occasionally

[Norfolkvillas]

Totally agree re mainstream brand boys shoes. My fave brand for boys shoes is Pediped. They're American but Biff in Dulwich Village stock them.

My second baby is a girl, not yet in need of shoes, but it seems the offering from Clarks / Start Rite etc is just as hideous for girls, but in a different, more sickly, way...

And a second vote for Mini Boden for boys clothes

[crystal7]

Biff have some great boy's shoes, my 22 month old has just grown out of a pair of Pedipeds. Camper shoes are lovely too.

I forgot about Mini Boden, Joules is also good- in the sales!

Norfolkvillas I agree re Clarks shoes for girls, they have some nice winter boots though.

[BB100]

Next Directory

[Pickle]

Vertbaudet have some cool boys things, I stumbled across the website earlier this year and now buy most of my kids clothes from there. You tend to get bombarded with email offers, which is a nuisance, but there are some good deals to be had.

[snowboarder]

Oh yes I quite like vertbaudet too - there's a gorgeous yellow duffle coat I've got my eye on for my 2 yr old! Re shoes - I seem to end up with boring clarks just because they're reasonable and more easily available. I adore camper but sooo expensive! I've also found the options seem to get increasingly boring as they get older - the black school shoe choice for my 4 year old literally almost all looked like men's shoes. Only one single nice-ish dinosaur themed school shoe!!

[mrs f]

Some really cool boys / kids clothes

Tootsamacginty

Indikidual

Theif & bandit available at Lilbeans online shop

Polarn o pyret

Ruff & huddle

The Bright Company for sleepware (although I would say that!)

Personally I'm a total convert to boys in leggings, they are really practical for active kids & great for potty training / independence. Plus they look cool & defo not an awful mini me look! For this reason we end up buying a fair amount of girls clothes- so few places do "boys" or even unisex leggings

[Ginster]

I can (I am biased but still) point you to one of the sites in the Guardian article that EmilyPie posted as it's my sister-in-law's website http://www.welovesquirrels.com/

I've bought some great stuff here and believe one brand stocked is even an ED-based business! Items are also beautifully wrapped before being speedily shipped.

[simonethebeaver]

Tootsamaginty gets another vote here. Not cheap, but (other than dresses!) completely unisex so can be handed through siblings. A friend of mine, who had just had a boy after already havinga girl, cried when we bought her one of their jumpers as she was so happy to get something without a dinosaur or a digger on it.

I like this site, which has fairly regular sales, and sells a variety of brightly coloured good quality clothes:

Http://www.loveitloveitloveit.co.uk

I don't touch Clark's for shoes. My eldest is a girl and it's wall to wall pink and sequins. Emmanuelle Marshall at the ED Warehouse has great stuff for boys and girls.

[snowboarder]

Oh yep have a couple of ruff and huddle tops for my two!

Also agree re boys in leggings - although I do feel it has a bit of an age limit - my 2 year old happily potters around in them but the 4 yr old wouldn't tolerate them!

[Chunksmum]

I have given up with high street shops unless online as the choice for under 2's is awful!

I do all of my sons shopping in Shoreditch or online, pop up on the east london line and there are some fab independent shops for children my favourite being Oh Baby London and The Purple Shop. Great colours and designs.

Shops online I love are: Alexa & Alexa, Ollie loves Alfie, Bobo Chooses, Kidsen, Little Fashion Gallery & Zara.

Love Polarn O.Pyret, honestly my 13mth old has a better wardrobe than me! I think there is more choice as they get older.

[mrs f]

Really Snowbaorder!? Ruff&Huddle is my friend's company! So glad you like them! She has just started a full collection of clothing, getting stocked in Selfridges amongst other places!!

And yes, I think our leggings look won't last forever although I'm happily embracing it for now ;-)

Just brought C some Theif and Bandit leggings, very cool, from Lil Beans online shop... lots of nice bits there

And couldn't agree more that either way it's desperate, all diggers and dinosaurs for boys and pink fairy crap for girls, that's why I love Tootsamaginty and Indikidual etc.