Ack! That’s hideous! I’ve never been a size 2. Even at Target. One of my friends wears negatives sizes – the concept confuses me. Does that mean she slips in & out of 3 dimensions? And she is in desperate need of that bag of Reese’s candy. Stat.

Ha! I guess the Liberty of London florals should be saved for little girls and THAT’S ALL. Good god, Target.

Liberty of London? I must have missed that rage as I have never heard of it before. Don’t know how though. I’m in Target once a week at least.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post, I needed a really good laugh.

My Husband wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a shirt like that.

I know what you mean too about the boy’s clothes, they are so boring.

Have you tried the adjustable waist jeans?

Elastic and buttons inside the jeans so you can cinch them down to avoid the showing of spidy.

Gap, Old Navy, Hanna Andersson – all have them.

I also have a skinny boy whose pants fall down. I have a couple of these, http://www.dappersnappers.com/main.html

Awesome product, even for ‘big boys’.

I once went to Express to buy the exact same pair of jeans I already had, I’d magically gone down a size in the SAME store! Of course I’ve since gone back up a size in EVERY store, but that’s another subject!

One thing about girls sizes is they come in slim and have adjustable waists. My girls are 9 and 10, but wear a 7 and a 12. The slim option allows it to fit both waist (sometimes with the adjustable part as mentioned above) and also in the length due to them being slim sizes (not baggy but good length). See if they have that for boys?

I like the Liberty of London stuff in like dishes or cups, as a few not a whole set. They’re kinda retro to me.

Bestest cute boy shirts – Mini Boden. And those elastic things inside Levis and Gap jeans are the schnizzle.

Describing a Target dressing room as the Katrina Superdome is BRILLIANT.

now that shirt is a freaking dandy. i may have to buy my husband one. he can wear it when i send him out for tampons.

I’m SO with you on the boys’ clothes. I’m still able to get a few things at Target for my giant barely-four-year-old, because they tend to have 5T. Everywhere else he’s swimming in a 4/5 but too big for 4T. And I HATE HATE HATE the stupid superhero and fourth-rate crap cartoon shit.

Dappersnappers! Where have you been my skinny-as-a-board-but-tall toddler’s whole life?!?

Recently I lost my mind and decided to play the “Maybe this store has pants that will fit me” game at Target. I tried on some size 2 pants that were Way Too Big. (I’m small but not that small!)

So then I tried on a pair of size 1 pants, and they were Way Too Small.

So I left.

Oh wow!! Where can I get a Dappersnapper for adults? Having seen many rap videos, I know they must make pants for women with small waists but large behinds, but darned if I’ve ever found any. I’m ready to go the bungee cord route.

I just peed in my pants at just a peon’s comment.

I’m kinda perplexed by the Liberty discussions – when I lived in London, Liberty was high-end, luxury, super-pricy (and yes, mostly retro-flowery) stuff and I get the impression (not in the US, here) that Target is… not so much?

Re jeans and skinny boy hips – tried braces? Uhh I think you call them suspenders?

I am not on board with the whole Floral-Liberty of London-Laura Ashley stuff. I lived in the 80’s where I wore floral dresses ON PURPOSE. I don’t need to relive that.

My youngest is 12 and his pants still fall off his boney ass. He now wears manly boxers with lemons and monkeys and turkeys and stuff on them.

i don’t get it, either. and i kind of like girly things…this stuff was selling out online like the first day it arrived. probably not the shirt you showcased…but still. crazy!

When a store starts having 00, you know the vanity sizing has gone too far.

Those dappersnappers are blowing my fucking everloving goddamn MIND and THIS is why the internet is USEFUL and NECESSARY and… just… HOLY SHIT DAPPERSNAPPERS.

Also, the girls’ section of Target is full of semi-slutty, too-low-cut for a 1st grader with ugly Bratz-type graphics clothing. Ugggg.

Also? It took me a couple of beats to realize that shirt was… for.. MEN??? I can’t be interpreting that correctly, but if I am, WTF??? It looks like, like, Laura Ashley from 1997 to me.

That looks like the shirt Zach Braff wore in Garden State.

What’s weird is that 2 months ago I bought a pair of Maurices brand jeans in a 0/1. YES, a 0/1. You better believe I sent a picture message of those puppies with the size sticker still on it to half of my best friends, right? Then I go to Target this weekend and buy a pair of shorts that are size 5. And I still fit in those 0/1 jeans. WTF?

I too hate the boys section. I dread that my nearly 3-year-old is already growing out of the toddler boys clothes for the exact same reasons. Blech.

I know exactly what dress you’re talking about! I have a shoulder injury from trying to get it on and then back off! I think that thing was only meant for skinny people who just think they’re heavy, not for those with actual weight to be smoothed out.

That’s not a shirt, it’s a Magic-Eye Puzzle (TM).

At Costco, they have the OPPOSITE thing going on. They are marketing F-ing MATERNITY PANTS to FAT CHICKS. On the sign– “roll the pants up to cover your muffin top” I laughed out loud while calling my BFF on the phone, and the sales lady, who was WEARING the clothes and not fat, came around to help me. I walked quickly away, still snickering!

I literally had that same shirt (but in red) from Liberty of London (when it actually was in London) circa 1991. But I’m a woman and am allowed some poor fashions choices.

They must think Americans will buy anything.

I like these for keeping their pants in just the right location:

http://tiny.cc/03faq

And another one on Etsy:

http://tiny.cc/wb74o

…and yeah the Katrina Superdome was right on and whattheeffdopeopledointhereanyway?

I too was sad having to move into the boys section. But they do have cute alien and astronaut s/s shirts right now. In the recent past I bought l/s “robot repair shop” and another about a plane. So, they’re there. Maybe you’re not there every week like me :) as for pants old navy runs long and skinny

I don’t know what target you shop at, but I want to go there!! Usually it’s just the high-end stores that decrease the sizes and yes, I have to admit, even though I know they are doing it, I DO go back and I AM willing to pay more for it to make myself feel good, esp. being a size 10-12. So maybe if you’re like a 6 or an 8, you don’t really need that service, but for bigger people, or at least for me, I appreciate it.

The trick, at Target, is to notice that the sizes get bigger as you go further back in the store down the Women’s side. So at the front (Mossimo) you may be an 8, but halfway down (Merona) you’re a 6, and by the time you get all the way to the back you’re a tiny 4.

But I don’t know where the limited edition “designer” stuff fits in this particular algorithm. And that shirt is just all wrong in any size except perhaps Cabbage Patch Kid.

I hear you on the boys department. Why is it that suddenly boys have to have gross or rude t-shirts? Can’t they be cute anymore? Or at least not rude?

And Target has the adjustable waist pants. You can only buy pants with adjustable waist now. Didn’t they tell you that when your boy grew to a certain age? They rock.

Ha! I LOVE Target, with a fiery passion, and am there at least once a week…but no power on earth will compel me to enter their dressing rooms. I have never been there when the rooms weren’t a hot mess. When I buy clothes there, I buy the size I think I need, go home, try it on, and if it doesn’t fit, I exchange it for the next size up or down, lather rinse repeat. Those fitting rooms are a no fly zone for me.

Oh, I TOTALLY second the Mini Boden comment – their stuff is really cute, really good quality and really fun. Admittedly, I only buy stuff for girls, but I’ve looked at the boys’ catalogue and it’s just as cool.
As for Liberty’s, yeah, when I was a teenager in London it was the kind of place my mother liked – floral, old-fashioned, kind of twee and icky-pretty. I can imagine it’s OK on, say, a notebook or something, but I’d rather die than start wearing it…

Target’s sizing drives me bonkers. Though I have to admit I got a great pair of jeans there for all of $15. And the swimsuits and plain tees are good too. I don’t go for anything much beyond that. And I’ve had to take back several tees when they screw with the sizes. But I’m guessing it is the manufacturers call?

I too have a boy with no hind end…I mean even with diapers the kiddo had plumbers crack. It only worsened when he decided to potty train and we went to the pull ups. So I’ll be looking into the dappersnappers too.

Too funny!

Strangely, I saw that stuff today for the first time at Target and thought WTF this stuff is UGLY and even if I did like one or two things a tiny bit my husband would DIE before allowing that shit in the house.

Also, yes, I too lament having to move on to the boys section in a couple of years. Not that boys clothing in general holds a candle to the cute factor of girls clothes (but I digress). I scored a black tee for my 2.5yo at Target today with Chewie on it. How AWESOME is that?

This is exactly why my wonderful MIL and SIL send my boys clothes from Marks and Spencer. I can’t stand American clothes for boys- it’s all the same stuff.

my son’s 4 and WTF? So sad that there are now no more dumptrucks/helicopters, etc. Suddenly big boy and all serious….

hahahaha! Yeah, I think Target’s sizing is crazy, too- but only because I am NOT really a 14 in Misses’- I am only a 10. I USED to be a bonafide Gap size 4, though. Ugh.

mini boden stuff is cute and good quality. however, the shirts for boys are around $25 – 32 and the pants are around 38 – 40 ( i think–checked out the stuff at nordstroms). its kind of tough shelling out that kind of money.

DAMN – you have THE funniest commenters on here! I’m totally not going to live up to the standards. Normally the comments suck and I hate skimming them for useful tid-bits like dappersnappers but daaaaaaaaaaamn…I cracked a smile – at COMMENTS!

Lands End for skinny boys says my sister.

Don’t even get me flipping started on GAP jean sizes. How am I a 4/6 in THEIR pants/shorts and a 10/12 in THEIR jeans? Seriously? SERIOUSLY. SER.I.OUS.LY. MFers!

blog WIN!

Yep, size 2 pants at Target, 0?? at Old Navy and Ann Taylor (please don’t ask) and a 6 at one of those teeny bopper stores, the one with the horrible blaring music and stinky perfume I think they actually spray on their clothes. It must shrink them.

The last time I was at this weight was 10 years ago and I was pretty much a solid size 4 at every store. Times have changed.

That shirt looks like something my Aunt Rosemary would wear.

Katrina … Superdome … [dying over here]

I just went to Target Saturday for like some Centrum and baby shampoo. Came out $214 later, with a Mad-Men-appropriate tangerine dress, a shoulder bag, some shoes … um, surely some other stuff. $214 worth. What?

I buy most of my sons jeans from Lands End. I wait for the sales. Boring, yes but well made. The denim actually looks clean. Good cargos and cords too. Slims have the adjustable waist. Once you are on their mailing list they are awesome with the discount codes. Usually I am paying Target prices for a lot nicer stuff.

hiya, I’m in the UK and agree about Boden being great. The online sales are well worth looking out for, you can get some good deals. Someone mentioned Marks and Spencer – they deliver to the US, as do http://www.next.co.uk. My son is six and I have the same problem – I still want him in cute!

I wonder why Liberty has suddenly come to the US? It’s very old fashioned and Liberty accessories were probably most popular here in the early 1990s! I think it’s more used to soft furnish period homes here, I don’t remember a fashion range really taking off?! Early April Fools?!?

I’ve always gotten my son’s jeans at The Children’s Place. They’re adjustable waist, and we’ve always had to bring them WAY in but the length is good. We’ve tried the adj. waist from Old Navy, but they were too short.

We’re at the end of our Children’s Place run though. They only go up to size 14 and he’s a couple weeks from those being too short. He’s 12.

I’ve gone from the choices being sports and Marvel character graphics to skulls and guitars.

Just wanted to say I second the Marks and Spencer’s, they do really cute stuff for boys, and so far everything I’ve bought has been good quality.

I am with you on the kids clothes at Target. Same goes for Kohls on this front. We have been buying in the boys section for about year with our almost 5 (WEEP) year old and I am always distracted by the toddler section across the isle. I do not mind the sub par Marvel stuff b/c my kid goes BANANAS for that stuff but all the other crap, SUCKS. And do not get me started on pants. Total bummer to find anything decent for a kid his age and size. Oh well.
We have had good luck at Gymboree and Kid’s Gap though.