Top high street store John Lewis scraps ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ kids’ clothes and even makes floral dresses unisex in PC bid to avoid ‘reinforcing gender stereotypes’
The move has been praised by campaign groups - but criticised by others threatening to boycott the chain
JOHN Lewis has ditched "boys" and "girls" labels from its clothing range in an unprecedented move.
The popular chain instead uses new labels that state "boys & girls" or "girls & boys", making them the first high street retailer to introduce the change.
Caroline Bettis, the head of childrenswear at John Lewis, said: "We do not want to reinforce gender stereotypes within our John Lewis collections and instead want to provide greater choice and variety to our customers, so that the parent or child can choose what they would like to wear."
The new labels are on all own-brand clothing for newborn to 14-year-olds, with the change introduced in 2016.
Non-gender specific clothing ranges have also been introduced, with dresses covered in images of dinosaurs and toy soldiers.
The change is also expected to be reflected in their online store, which currently divides the clothes into "girls" and "boys" sections.
The change has been both welcomed, and pilloried, by different groups.
Let Clothes Be Clothes group, which campaigns to end gender stereotyping, shared the news, writing: "We are absolutely thrilled by this announcement from John Lewis."
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The chain had previously been called out by an angry dad who spotted a lunchbox covered in spaceships and astronauts marked that it was for boys.
Labour councillor Joshua Peck shared his fury at finding the lunchbox he had wanted to buy for his daughter was labelled "boy's space print" - with the outspoken dad questioning if the chain department store thought the product was "too sciency" for girls.
Others took to Twitter to share praise for the move, with one writing: "This is excellent! A step in the right direction and hopefully other big stores will follow suit."
Another wrote: "About time!"
But others were critical, with one writing: "Pandering to politically correct nonsense is not what we expect from you."
Another added: "Most normal people are happy for boys to be boys and girls to be girls. The worlds gone barking mad."
A third said: "Why would John Lewis ally themselves to such a tiny, vocal minority in the face of common sense?"
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