Forgive me for this post... Turns out, I'm a bit of boys clothes snob. Okay, I'm a lot of a boys clothes snob. I've never be...

The trouble with boys clothes...

Saturday, April 27, 2013 , ,

Forgive me for this post...
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Turns out, I'm a bit of boys clothes snob. Okay, I'm a lot of a boys clothes snob.

I've never been terribly picky about what my girls wear, though I dislike cartoon character clothes in general {Eisley has one character shirt, Olivia the pig} but most prints that are girly and tasteful are fine by me. Most girly things are cute by nature (i.e. flowers, birds, ice cream cones). Boys stuff? Ick.

I've never cared what I see other little boys wearing, I've never even given it a second thought. But now that I have my own little guy on the way, I think of his blonde hair and blue eyes and his pink cheeks, I just find myself nitpicking what I'll dress him in.

Here's what I'm not into: super heroes, trucks, farm stuff, bugs, monsters, sea creatures, "Daddy's Little ____", "Mommy's Little ____", dogs, robots, airplanes, motorcycles, construction equipment, race cars, baseball, basketball, football, golf, hockey, etc., etc., etc. Those things just don't say baby to me, and yet 100% of the baby clothes made for boys are covered with these things!

Call me fussy if you like, but I'm also not a big fan of dark colors. We're Swedes, OK?! We don't do well in dark, bold colors. Especially when we're babies!

Part of this, I'm sure, is that I have no brothers or boy cousins. I'm just not used to boy things and never thought of boy things as cute. I've been happy to take the girls stuff so far, flowers and butterflies trump monsters and trucks, they just do. As I've said before, my father is currently my only living male blood relative. Dad has always been well dressed for a guy, a Land's End and J. Crew sort of guy. Masculine, modest, classy, clean cut. No golf polos here or graphic tees that say snarky things. This is all I know.

So given my list of dislikes, about 0.02% of the little boys clothes I see available in stores are acceptable for me to think of dressing my baby in. I'm. A. Total. Boys. Clothes. Snob. It's silly, yes. But it's who I am. I've often referred to myself as "aesthetically sensitive", I'm affected easily by colors and textures and such. I think it's part of what makes me artistically inclined, and also picky. That and, I just don't like boy things okay?!

Well, he will be here in a couple short months, so I've started to buy what I can find.
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So Justin teases me that these are unisex onesies, but I adore the aqua and gray colors so when I saw these at Target I had to get them. Seriously, who knows what else I'll be able to find before Paxton comes?
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Then there is this vintage, but unused, winter suit I found at a thrift store. Again, Justin says it's a girl color. But I don't care. I thought it was simple and sweet.
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Khakis are fine and this pair a friend gave me are cute {as long as there are no pleats, long ago I banned pleats from my house, just ask Justin}. I thrifted the onesie, and the gray hoodie I bought on clearance years ago at Gap, in case we had a boy. Well good, now we can use it.

{And Gap, by the way, has more acceptable boys clothes than any other store. I just don't like the dark colors, but they do baby clothes better than anyone else.}
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Then there are sweet little getups like this! Can you believe, I thrifted this for $3 at Savers? And it's very obvious it was never worn or used. On one hand it makes me sad that some little old lady probably spent hours on this, only to gift it at a baby shower and have it donated to a thrift store, unappreciated. On the other hand, my score! I've found a few sweet, vintage & non-vintage baby knits at thift stores and I love them.
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Frogs and ducks are cute, these are both from Old Navy, but also thrifted. {Yes, Justin, they're unisex!}
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And then there are the blankets...
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Okay, the blue and white striped on the left has sparkly yarn so I'll probably be teased by Justin a little more that it's girly. The Circo blanket from Target was on sale; and, if you haven't noticed, all three of our kids have one of these blankets {Viv calls it her night-night} which are their best friends through the baby and toddler years. So he needed one of those.
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But I'm also crocheting a little chevron blanket for Paxton. I found the pattern here, it's very easy and turning out so cute! I can't wait to have him here and bundle him up in it.

I also want to crochet him these shoes--aren't these sweet?
Oh, and these boots, darling!

So, I have just a few things for Mr. Pax to wear, I keep it tucked away in the little orange suitcase until he arrives.
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So if you think all of that is ridiculous and picky of me, don't even get me started on baptism outfits available for little boys.

Let's see, I can pick from...

  1. Little Lord Fauntleroy
  2. Angelic Babe Ruth
  3. Mini-Pastor
  4. Tacky blindingly shiny tuxedo
Hmm...those all are just so tempting. My mom already had a good laugh at me one night when I was looking in horror at the goofy clothes they make for boy's baptisms. She told me I couldn't put him in my gown, which both the girls wore, because it has pink bows on the shoulders and smocking. Whatever, mom.

So, I think in the end I'll go with something simple like this

Cheers,
The Horribly Vain & Snobby 
Boy-Mom-To-Be Heather
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This week on Lark & Lola:

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5 comments

  1. I am TOTALLY a boy clothes snob too! I have never been a fan of the cartoon characters, monsters, bugs, etc.either. My 6 year old daughter wears girly, ruffly cute things and luckily with girl clothes they are so easy to FIND! Cute boy clothes are extremely HARD TO FIND! I have found a few cute things at Old Navy but honestly, I find the best boy clothes are vintage. I find a lot on etsy, ebay,at antique shops and thrift stores. I have a blonde, blue eyed babe too and I usually lean towards the light blues, and greys. Ok, a LOT of grey! I find it really brings out his baby blues! :) I love the great finds you've gotten so far! Good luck with the search! Can't wait to see the new addition! P.S. LOVE the name you have chosen!

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    1. So I'm not alone in my opinion? I'm relieved!

      I agree about the vintage clothes. They don't make them like they used to, right? I love grey too, he's going to have a closet full of grey ;-)

      Thanks so much for the kind comment Jessica!

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  2. I was never a fan of boys' clothes, either, and with two sisters and two daughters I was ill-equipped to do the boy thing. Here's what happened. We have a friend with three boys who began passing their stuff on. Free clothes, what do you do? Some were super cute, some not so much. But "super cute" as a definition evolved for me. On their surface, NONE of these boy clothes are cute. They became cute when I stuffed my little blond-haired, blue-eyed, adorable little boy into them. So that's the answer, I think: you love the kid, you learn to love the clothes on the kid. Although I do prefer girl dresses. :) We were at Once Upon a Child getting shorts for Kate and I just about died looking at the baby girl dresses.

    By the way, I used the girls' baptism dress on the boy. He doesn't know any better yet. :)

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    1. I think you're right! The same thing happened to me with the girls, just to a lesser degree. But that has occurred to me, once Paxton is here, I'll probably love him to pieces whether he is wearing a cashmere knit or a potato sack. :)

      {And I love Once Upon a Child, you've reminded me I need to go there soon...}

      Thanks for the comment Gretchen!

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  3. I agree that boy stuff is hard. I love gymboree, but only their unisex stuff for my boy most of the time. If it makes you feel any better my toddler just saw your choices and said "grants!", so they say boy to her. :-) Carters used to make a lot more green and yellow stuff with animals than they do now, but you can probably find it in the thrifts.

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