Good sources for Waldorf-friendly clothing?

[Katielady]

I'm excited for my daughter to start Waldorf preschool in a few short weeks. We received a letter from her teacher outlining, among other things, the dress code. I had expected no media images allowed, but she asks that the clothing be free from busy patterns, animals, and words. I agree with the sentiment, but it isn't easy to find affordable kids' clothing that fits that description. I'm thinking I'll try American Apparel, and hit the sale racks at my local Hanna Andersson store. Any other suggestions? I would love to put together almost a school uniform wardrobe for her, with pants in one color and maybe a few different color shirts. Very simple. She's in the midst of potty training so we're all about pants and shirts; sadly, the dresses and leggings I used to adore will have to wait til she's more proficient with the potty.

[SageR]

basicbrilliance.com has a pretty decent selection of solid knitwear, with lots of colors.  It's not as expensive as Hanna Andersson, probably comparable to American Apparel, but better quality imo.

[dogretro]

Do you have good resale and/or thrift shops near your place?  My mom buys most of our kids' clothes, but what I do buy, I buy resale.  This is the time of year for winter resales, too, YAY.  I just bought dd1 a whole stack of consignment sweaters, none of which I would call "busy".  Resale is also very eco-friendly!!!

[frogautumn]

I like Land's End...the quality is good, they often have great sales (like 40% off right now!), and it's easy to stock up on plain stuff. I do the same thing for my DS...a few pairs of pants with elastic waistbands and long sleeve T's in stripes and solids. 
 

Hey, if my memory is correct, we live in the same area. I wonder if our kids go to the same school!

[Melaniee]

Hanna Andersson, Land's End (also check their overstock website), Target (they often have at least one set of completely plain t-shirts for girls, usually solid ones and stripes for boys), Naartjie (sometimes)...

[Katielady]

Originally Posted by SageR 

basicbrilliance.com has a pretty decent selection of solid knitwear, with lots of colors.  It's not as expensive as Hanna Andersson, probably comparable to American Apparel, but better quality imo.

OOh, that site looks great! I love all the colors. I went out last weekend and found stuff at H&M and Old Navy, and a few things on sale at Gymboree too...if you really look, it's surprising how much "plain" stuff is out there. It seems like they make a line of clothes, and most of the signature pieces have stuff on them and a few coordinating shirts and stuff are plain. So if you just go for the plain ones, you're good. It was really interesting looking so carefully at the clothes, I must say. I have always been bothered by kids' clothes with slogans on them ("Daddy's Little Girl," "Future Football Star" etc.) but the images send such major messages too. Girls' clothing has stuff on it that's sweet, cute, pretty, and sometimes sassy or even sexy. Boys' clothes (especially for older kids like my 5yo) have stuff that's aggressive, scary, or showing some kind of sports prowess. I've always been careful to pick images I like for the kids, but after this waldorf shopping experience, I really like the idea of no images at all. For one thing, people tend to compliment girls so much on their clothes, which to me promotes both a focus on appearance and on material possessions. If she's just wearing a plain white sweater and some sage green pants, there's nothing much to say clothes-wise, and you're more free to focus on other things- you can't just jump right to, "Oh I love the kitten on your shirt!"

Anyway, we're OK for now but in a few weeks I think I'll order some stuff from basicbrilliance and report back.

Oh btw, I loved Lands' End when my boy was a toddler but I am frustrated at their selection for girls. Most of the tees have images on them. (Puppies and horsies, etc.) Boo!

[Katielady]

Originally Posted by dogretro 

Do you have good resale and/or thrift shops near your place?  My mom buys most of our kids' clothes, but what I do buy, I buy resale.  This is the time of year for winter resales, too, YAY.  I just bought dd1 a whole stack of consignment sweaters, none of which I would call "busy".  Resale is also very eco-friendly!!!

We do have great thrift and consignment! I love "Hanna hunting" at one store in particular. It has jam-packed racks that are hard to sift through, but you can glance at the tags and see which ones say "18-30 months" etc and know it's a Hanna.

[Melaniee]

I thought of a couple more. We got some merino wool hats, socks, scarves and long underwear from Sierra Trading post last year, it's quite fantastic.  Unfortunately I didn't buy the pants for my Dd and they ran out of the sizes we needed so I found some more at Kid's Fashion Brokers.  They have cotton and wool tights and wool leggings. Their prices seemed fair compared to others, not a bargain, but decent.  In both cases I just put the term 'merino' in their search boxes and weed through what comes up.  Additionally I bought several plain t-shirts, pairs of pants and leggings from Polarn O. Pyret. It's another Swedish company. Prices are comparable to Hanna Andersson but if you like them on facebook or sign up on their email list to get sale notifications, things can eventually get really low-priced ($12 for organic LS shirts, for example).  I've not tried any of their woolens.

[sweetpeppers]

Thrift store, goodwill, etsy, make it yourself....

[WindyCityMom]

I shop at the Thrift Store for 90% of my girls' clothes.  5% I make, 5% I buy new.  They have tons of Lands End dresses, Hanna stuff, and plain Gymboree clothes.  I really love the Lands End dresses... they have discreet pockets sewn in.  DD likes to put her little treasures in there.  And you can always buy a size up, and not have them look ridiculous.