Kids’ fashion is a whole new world

Last updated on September 29th, 2010 at 12:41 am

Guest Blogger – Welsh Angel typically writes posts that are related to her home town of Colwyn Bay and her favourite pass time of visiting local shops in Colwyn Bay . Her posts on local blogs cover discounts she finds while out Colwyn Bay shop and any recent improvement to the town centre.

Kids’ fashion ain’t what it used to be. It’s come on leaps and bounds in recent years. In my day it was
cast offs and hand me down clothes. Everything was knitted, or so it seemed. It wasn’t remotely “on
trend”. Or maybe that was just me! The only thing on my parents’ minds was that I was clean(ish) and
presentable. These days it’s designer labels and “mini-me” outfits.

This makes for easy Christmas and birthday presents, in that you can always fall back on buying a cute
outfit for the recipient if all other inspiration fails. And what a choice! For girls we now have tights,
handbags, pink pyjamas, cartoon wellies, dainty shoes and an array of girlie accessories. For boys
the range isn’t as good, but still a massive improvement on yesteryear, with trendy trainers, cartoon
pyjamas, dungarees, polo tops, “adult style” jeans and even kids’ suits for really special occasions.
Then there are the new baby sleeping bags – what a great invention these things are! Whoever dreamt
them up deserves a medal. They take away any worries about how many blankets to use or when
to buy a kids’ duvet. Now you can just zip up your child in a 1 or 2.5 tog sleeping bag (depending on
the weather) and that’s it – every parent’s dream solution. And easy peasy too. I know my mum is
impressed and wishes they’d been around when we were kids!

But do these advances in styles and fashion only serve to create more monsters known as “competitive
parents”? There is a definite awareness amongst parents of the “cooler” labels and latest looks and
invariably these trends are inflicted on their resulting offspring. Little boys become “mini-me” versions
of their dads and little girls are dressed head to foot in pink and seem grown up beyond their years.
And all the while the parents are eyeing up other kids at the soft play or in the park to see who’d win
the “best dressed” award that day, which is a pretty sad state of affairs. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing
in that the choice and range of clothes for kids is astounding, from the high street to local boutiques.
Even the supermarkets are in on the act with perfectly decent kids’ attire filling the shelves next to the
joints of meat and bottles of wine! It’s super-cheap too and ideal for nursery days or kicking about at the
park. “Throw-away fashion” as an old friend used to call it. But now it’s for kids.