RE: Reader Poll: Tell us your favorite baby clothing brands!
BEST BETS
Hanna Andersson -- favorite for girls; soft, high quality clothing, with an excellent guarantee; well worth the money. LOVE the pjs for boy and girl: it's all my kids wear.
MiniBoden -- love the styles; sizing is wonky, but worth it for the styles; soft/good quality; downside is that it's pricey and you have to wait for a while to receive some shipments; have to guess to match things on site; upside is that they have frequent discount codes, free shipping and free returns
Lands' End -- best place to buy coats for kids and love the fleece footed 2 piece pajamas. They button at the waist, so the shirt doesn't ride up. Great for an older kid in the winter. Great return policy and customer service.
LLBean -- good for coats/fleece
Geox -- favorite sneakers; wear like iron; great styles
Primigi -- love these; wear well; great styles
Charlie Rocket -- LOVE IT! CR makes the best jeans, in my opinion. I have never had a quality issue, until recently, but I e-mailed the company and they repaired the pocket on the jeans and sent me those + a new pair! Problem is, they are hard to find in stores, and you have to hunt on-line to find them. My son is 4.5 and has been wearing their jeans and shorts since he was 12 mos old.
GOOD BUT NOT GREAT
Gymboree -- some cute designs, but the styles are common and repetitive; very themed/matchy; hate their business practices/sale structure: yuck!
Janie and Jack -- there are some lines that I LOVE, but many of them are very repetitive and too themed/matchy; expensive
Gap -- decent quality; boring styles; same old thing
SKIP IT
Old Navy -- doesn't hold up well; shrinkage
Babystyle -- doesn't hold up well; shrinkage
BOUTIQUE BRANDS
Cach Cach -- piling, especially bad on their "fuzzy" fabrics, which are common in their line
MisTeeVUs -- excessive shrinkage
Catimini -- sensitive laundry instructions; piling
Mulberribush, Spudz -- good
Baby Lulu -- adorable designs, but sensitive to laundering. May fade, shrink or pile. Need to size up in knits.
I've found that boutique brands, in general, are sensitive to laundering. It's important to lay flat or hang to dry on many pieces, or you risk shrinkage or the garment not wearing well. As my kids get older, I'm moving away from the boutique clothes more and more because they don't hold up as well as others, and the companies don't guarantee their products, and the boutiques usually have stingy return policies.
Annie ~
Mom three Junebugs: 9, 7 and 3