The clothes my daughters wear is a constant source of headaches in our house because pre-teen style ain’t no laughing matter! They are very vocal about what they want to wear and tell me quite regularly that they ‘have nothing to wear’ despite having a wardrobe full of clothes. The irony of this isn’t lost on me, it seems like only yesterday that I was saying the very same thing to my own mother!
Dressing pre-teens vs dressing kids
There was a time when I could buy them all matching or co-ordinating outfits and maybe it was a bit twee but they looked scrumptious. Now it’s all sporty clothes, athleisure, Topshop jeans and cropped tops if they can get them past me. My girls favour street style clothing and they love sporty brands such as Fila, Adidas and Calvin Klein (dream on kids!) which aren’t affordable at all when you consider how fast kids grow.
Managing what they would like to wear versus what I want them to wear is a bit of a battleground.
I feel there is a huge gap in the market for children aged between 10 and 15 years of age. So many clothes are either too cute and babyish and at the other end of the scale you’ve got clothes that are just a little bit too grown and sexy up for my liking – and don’t get me started on unicorns, pugs, cacti and flamingos. I swear if I see another unicorn slogan t-shirt I’m going to scream!
Taking the M&S pre-teen style challenge
You will have deduced from the title of this post that it is written in collaboration with M&S, a brand I have worked with before on both childrenswear and fashion and frequent in real life too so I have no qualms about recommending them to you.
I was interested in how the girls would react to M&S clothes as kids are so brand-aware these days. Their reaction has been brilliant and they have worn all the pieces a lot since they arrived. I think the fact that they didn’t have to shop in store helped as it removed any pre-conceived ideas they might have had. They have been able to appreciate the clothes for what they really are which is cool and rather stylish as it turns out.
Izzy’s hero piece is the zip-up demin pinafore and a fisherman coat. She has been admiring a very similar one in Topshop for a while and this ticks the box for almost half the price. She’s happy, I’m happy. Hooray!
Maia is the fashionista of our family and frayed denim, frills and biker jackets do it for her. I’m sure there will be many more battles to come but at this moment in time, I feel like I’m winning. Let’s see how long it lasts…
I’d love to hear from you if you have children of a similar age to mine and share our style dilemas.
Antonia x
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This post is written with thanks to M&S for gifting some lovely pieces from their SS18 kids collection to Izzy and Maia. As always, all words and opinions are my own.