When I was pregnant, I felt like the only person in the world who was completely and utterly turned off by the ‘blue is boys, pink is for girls’ mentality when walking into the baby sections in high street shops. Why couldn’t I find any gender neutral clothes for babies, without it just being grey or white? Why was everything separated into the medical sex of the baby? It turns out I was just looking in all the wrong places. In fact, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of shops marketing themselves as being gender neutral, and so many gender neutral clothes hiding under gendered sections in high street stores, if you just ignore the labelling. Here are some of my top picks on where to buy gender neutral baby clothes…
Another Fox are one of my favourite small businesses to buy from for Arthur’s clothes. They’re amazing quality and well designed. I particularly love that they do a ‘matchy matchy‘ range so that you can twin with your child – minus the stereotypical and unoriginal twinning slogan t-shirts reading ‘mama’ and ‘mini’. Oh no – this matching range is unique, stylish and a wardrobe must have. Don’t forget to sign up to their newsletter for 10% off your first purchase.
Lindex are, in my opinion, one of the leaders when it comes to gender neutral baby clothes. Their baby clothes are not separated by gender, and you can definitely tell they have been designed to be completely gender neutral, but still have style and flair. In the kids section, you can filter by gender if you wish, but you’ll be pleased to know that the majority of their clothes will display on both the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ selections. If you’re after gender neutral pyjamas, Lindex is the place to go… in fact, I couldn’t help myself whilst writing this post and bought some for Arthur. They often do a ‘3 for 2’ offer on their pyjamas and basics, so look out for that and grab yourself a bargain!
Bear and Babe are another popular small business with booming bright prints. From gender neutral baby clothes covered in oranges, rainbows, hot air balloons and tigers – there’ll be something you’ll fall in love with for sure.
The Bodhi Tree Shop is another gender neutral shop which is perfect for comfortable, neutral loungewear. Arthur has the waffle crew and shorts set – it’s comfortable, well made, and looks lovely too. We always get so many compliments when he’s wearing it! They have an amazing sale on at the moment too, with many items half price!
Fred & Noah are another completely gender neutral store. With a variety of vibrant prints to initial tees, they even do beautiful changing mats in some of their popular prints!
Incy Wincy Darlings is a newly launched clothing store – their instagram bio states ‘No gender rules or expectations’. Their mission is to create modern, trendy and debit card friendly baby and children’s clothes. If you want oranges with smiley faces and bees on their knees then this is the place to shop. It’s a small business ran by a young mum, which is exactly the kind of business we always love to support here at Jodetopia.
Bella + Frank are a kid’s clothing store with sustainability at their heart, with most of their clothes made using recycled polyester (GRS) and recycled wool and fibres. They aim to be a completely plastic-free business by 2025 as part of the New Plastic Economy, so they are definitely a clothing store to keep an eye on if guilt free shopping is your thing! With digitally printed, funky and bright patterns (the Frank dog knit is on our wishlist!) that aren’t at all separated by gender, they’re a go-to for gender neutral baby, toddler and children’s clothes.
Little Loves Cornwall clothes are handmade to order and have a huge backing on social media after a recommendation by Stacey Solomon. From bright leopard prints to the most beautiful botanical babygrows, there’s plenty of gender neutral, luxury handmade clothes to choose from.
Pre-COVID lockdown, Newbie was one of my favourite shops to get Arthur’s clothes from, as they had a small shop in Bluewater shopping centre, which is one of our favourite places to go and feed the ducks! They have a great online shop too with a unisex section, but like many shops: don’t be afraid to browse both ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ sections – you’ll be surprised at how many gender neutral items of clothing are hidden in the gendered categories.
Tobias & The Bear are another lovely gender neutral shop with absolutely no labelings of gender. I wish that I had known about this shop when Arthur was a tiny baby, as their baby clothes are so unbelievably adorable and their bear print dungarees are right up my street. They’re currently running a £10 off a £50 spend if you sign up to their newsletter, too!
Like the idea of gender neutral clothes but the high street is too convenient for you? Forget about the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ section and shop where you like! When I asked my followers on Instagram where their favourite places to buy gender neutral clothes for their children were, the same few shops kept popping up: Zara and H&M. Both of these are extremely accessible and well priced. A lot of Arthur’s clothes from shops like Zara, H&M and Next are a complete mixture of items from the girls and boys sections. In fact, I absolutely swear by the ‘girls’ section leggings in Next, and there’s lots of items in Zara that, despite being stocked in the ‘girls’ or ‘boys’ sections, are completely gender neutral by design.
I think its clear that gender neutrality is the way forward, and slowly but surely, more and more high street brands seem to be recognising this and opting more for clothes with a ‘unisex’ label. However, until the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ sections are abolished forever, we can’t truly call these high street stores gender neutral – for that, the boutiques and independent businesses are booming, and they’re the businesses that we need to support as consumers, now more than ever.