Where to buy kids' summer clothes when everybody else has decided it's winter.
The Menoirs | MANCUB
A note from our Founder Dominique
The pumpkins are out, the knitwear is in, and every shop has apparently agreed that nobody will need a pair of swim shorts again until approximately May.
Meanwhile, some of you have benches to roam.
October half term. Christmas in the sun. February escape. Dubai because you fancied it. Or maybe you live in Florida.
Apparently holidays don't pay much attention to the retail calendar. Who knew?
The problem is, finding good kids' summer clothes in winter can be weirdly difficult. Especially if you don’t fancy dressing your Cub in whatever lonely pair of swim shorts has survived at the back of the sale section since July.
So, in defence of everybody refusing to accept that summer has an official end date, here's my guide to shopping for sunshine when it's very much coat weather at home.
Why is it so hard to find summer clothes in winter?
Because retail works in seasons.
People, inconveniently, do not.
And Cubs grow FAST!
That perfectly good pair of swim shorts from your July holiday? The quality is still absolutely there. The fit, less so. By February they're hovering somewhere around the mid-thigh and probably belong on Vinted rather than in your suitcase.
And it's not only Cubs.
Men still need swim shorts, linen shirts, and holiday tees in December too. Apparently becoming an adult doesn't mean agreeing only to travel between May and August.
Then there are the far less glamorous occasions. Swimming lessons. Hotel pools. Spa weekends.
By the time October half-term rolls around, the high street has moved firmly onto coats, boots, and Christmas pyjamas, while plenty of families heading somewhere considerably warmer - or simply discovering that last terms swimming shorts no longer fit.
It's always seemed slightly ridiculous and very annoying to me.
Which is why at MANCUB, the Holiday Shop stays open all year.
If it's sunny somewhere, we're selling for it.
Where can you buy swimwear out of season?
First thing - stop searching by season, and start searching by destination.
Try holiday shop, resort wear, winter sun clothing or kids' swimwear rather than looking through whatever a retailer has decided is currently 'New In'.
Specialist brands and dedicated holiday edits are much more likely to keep summer clothing available outside the traditional May - August window.
And yes, this is the part where I shamelessly point out that we do exactly that.
Our MAN & CUB Holiday Shop stays live throughout autumn and winter and is regularly restocked with swimwear, shorts, tees, sunglasses and the bits you'll actually want when you land somewhere 28 degrees warmer than Manchester or London.
Very convenient of us.
The winter sun packing formula
You don't actually need twelve completely different holiday outfits for a Cub.
They will, after all, attempt to wear their favourite thing six days in a row regardless of what you've packed.
I'd go with;
Two pairs of swim shorts - One on. One drying.
Three or four good t-shirts - Pool. Lunch. Dinner with slightly cleaner shorts. Repeat.
One proper shirt - something light enough for the heat, but smart enough for the restaurant that looked much more casual on Instagram
One layer - a hoodie for the airport, and aggressive air conditioning
Sunglasses - Cubs in sunglasses are CUTE! And don't worry about them breaking - ours are Unbreakable
That's more than enough.
Keep it light. Those RyanAir excess baggage charges are daylight robbery and will not get the holiday off to a good start. Money better spent on ice cream
Buy things that work together
This is where the holiday packing gets much easier.
Keep everything in roughly the same colour world, and suddenly you don't really have individual outfits. You have a small pile of things that all work together.
Our Cabana Stripe Swim Shorts in Navy for example, will happily sit with a white tee, sage, navy, a linen shirt, or a lightweight knit.
The Palm Shadow Linen Shirt and Palm Shadow Swim Shorts do the same job if you want something more obviously resort.
It means fewer things in the suitcase and fewer 7.30pm negotiations about why that shirt apparently can't be worn with those shorts.
And obviously, you can match
Holiday is arguably peak MANCUB territory.
At home, Man & Cub turning up to Tesco in full matching getup might raise some questions.
On a beach? Perfectly reasonable. Actually, encouraged.
And if you read our last Menoir, you'll know I don't think matching has to mean identical everything. Same colour story, same print, same generally world.
Although, judging by the photograph at the top of this page, sometimes going completely matchy matchy works pretty well too.
So, where do you buy kid' summer clothes in winter?
Honestly?
From people who haven’t taken them off their website or thrown them into a clearance bin full of odd sizes.
Swimwear doesn't suddenly become unnecessary because somebody has put a pumpkin in the shop window.
Families travel all year.
Cubs swim all year.
Cubs also, irritatingly, grow all year.
And some of you quite simply have places to be.
So we're keeping the good stuff out, and better still, designing and releasing it all the time.
It's always sunny somewhere, and life is better in the sun.
