It’s no secret I’m a John Lewis obsessive. What’s not to love? I’ve lost many an hour perusing their swoon-worthy kitchenware, caressing their luxurious towel collection and drooling over their skincare ranges. Their staff are off-the-scale amazing – Sarah in the Horsham store intervened, with perfect timing, when my parenting was critised (by a fellow shopper) post-tantrum as I wouldn’t let Cas grapple the Wedgewood display. Bravo Sarah for spotting a speechless, teary mother in despair. And that, right there, epitomises everything that’s fabulous about the lot behind John Lewis – they just seem to know what it is you want/need.
With this in mind, it seems they recently read my mind. Trawling through their website one evening, having lusted over some tribal cushions and hankered the Hush collection, it dawned on me that John Lewis had considered everyone in my family except four of the loudest, most obvious members of the crew, the 8-14 year olds. That was until NOW!
In the last few weeks, John Lewis has launched their older kids collection – but if you’re suddenly thinking “how am I gonna get Hugo wearing velvet shorts with braces a la Lord Fontleroy?” think again. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the classically styled, impeccably turned out JL would want to force our tweens into chinos and waistcoats like some gentlemans’ outfitters pushers, but they’re not silly – they know if kids of 8-14 say no, then as much as I might bribe, it’s a NO! Designed by their own in-house designers think casual comfies, without a sniff of polyester, a swoosh or jaw-dropping JD price tag. Soft cottons and jerseys, in muted tones and on trend cuts seem to have peaked the interest of my boys (see their outfit picks below) – which takes some going, considering the only weekend clothes purchased in the last 4 years have been from a high-street sports mega-store!
The John Lewis older kids collection for boys and girls seems to tick all the boxes – comfy, on-trend and socially acceptable,with a parent-friendly price tag to boot! Less ASBO and more “HELLO!”.
Now, if only the John Lewis lot could read my mind again (or at least my blog) and do something about the massively favoured girls’ collection (63 items) vs the boys more skinny “capsule” range (11 items)! But I’ve been well informed that more boys garms are due to drop later this week, so come back for more!
This post has been in collaboration with the fab folks at John Lewis, but, as ever, all comments, opinions and rants are my own.
