Wednesday, August 5, 2009

What Not to Wear - Baby Boy!

In the spirit of Stacy London and Clinton Kelly from the TLC hit show "What Not to Wear," I would like to address the issue of baby boy clothing.

When I was pregnant and found out I was having a boy I was thrilled. I was also a little relieved. I was relieved because of a superficial reason; the clothing. I figured if I were having a girl and told my friends and family the news, I would have an influx of pink clothing that I could not control. I don't care for frilly pink dresses myself, and I certainly would not have liked to see my daughter clad in such attire.

So I embraced the testosterone coming my way. Little did I know that there are also issues (albeit different ones) associated with baby boy clothing.

My boyfriend's parents recently sent me some clothes for my son. I have to say I was impressed. They selected some really nice items.




These are great and rare. They are atypical of baby boy clothing you might find in any store USA.

The truth is, most baby boy clothing usually has one of the following items included on the fabric:
--A reference to a generic sports team
--Cars and/or trucks
--An animal of some kind; i.e. bear, dog, dinosaur etc.
--A silly quote that the company wants the baby to "say" i.e. "Don't Mess With the Best!"

I'm okay with the dinosaurs and some dogs and bears, even a few cars and trucks sometimes. But the generic sports teams gotta go.

For example, these pants are pretty neat


But if we look a little closer...we find this:

As far as I know, babies are unable to play basketball. Therefore this logo makes absolutely no sense.

I would like to make a statement to the manufacturers of baby boy clothing in the form of a rhyme: Baby boys don't need all this hullabaloo. How about some stripes or a solid or too?

I'm not opposed to text on baby boy clothing; but how about some text that has some meaning? For example. My mom saved some of my old nursey school tee shirts. My son now wears them:


These are retro and cool looking.

My friend Josina and I were complaining to one another about the baby boy clothing issue yesterday. She has decided to take matters into her own hands. She is tired of the generic sports teams, the cars and trucks and even the dinosaurs. She is in the process of creating custom made baby boy overalls for her son Nelson. I'll keep you posted on those.

Baby boys deserve to have clothes that represent them for the cute kids that they are. Now here this baby boy clothing manufacturers everywhere: No more ridiculous sayings and sports teams that don't exist. Let our boys go out in style!

6 comments:

  1. Hey Sarah- Zutano makes tons of bright and bold baby clothes. www.zutano.com - You won't find any basketball logos either!

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  2. I couldn't agree more. Boo to silly sports outfits on our boys!! And also, why the depressingly dark colors on boys clothes as soon as they become toddlers? What ever happende to green, purple and red?

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  3. You know, I used to think boy clothes were pretty unisex, but when I was last in babies R us, they were all pretty dark, macho and boy looking! We don't need to put kids in that, and the same goes for the somewhat slutty girl baby clothes...

    In defense of girls stuff though, some of the evening wear is frilly, but a lot of the summery dresses are pretty nice and just girly enough. These companies spend a ton of money to *try* and make clothes parents will really like!

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  4. Adrian- Thanks! I'll check them out!

    Gry- I know!! What happened to fun colorful clothes?

    Cordy- They try, but they don't always suceed. They should really have more focus groups with parents to hone in on what parents would like to see in baby clothing. Furthermore, it should also be more functional! A lot of these outfits are really annoying to get on and off the baby.

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  5. I guess you are right.I believe in vintage. 1980's.

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What do you think? Feel free to agree or disagree, but hateful comments will be deleted.