Pants are never too skinny

January 3, 2018 7:26 PM

My son is a slim 6 year old and needs some different varieties of slim cut pants.

Ever since he was born, my son has fit well into Carter's brand clothes because they are very slim fit. Right now he has just hit a growth spurt and any pants other than Carter's fall off his hips. He is thin enough* that most pants from other brands are falling off him.

I like Carter's well enough, but he is outgrowing the items that are available in stores and I have purchased some online, but we would like other options.

What other brands have you found to be slim cut in either pants or shirts?

BONUS: slim cut t-shirts in vintage fabric, he really really prefers the soft style t-shirts to traditional. I should say that he also refuses jeans most of the time, we are looking mostly for sweats here.


*I PROMISE I am feeding this kid CONSTANTLY. He probably eats as much as I do.

posted by aetg to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (22 answers total)

American Apparel for tees, Old Navy skinny/adjustable waist for jeans. My boy has been slim since always and I've been buying variations on both for years.
posted by 41swans at 7:29 PM on January 3, 2018

I have a very slim child too. He's 5.5 yrs old and wears a size 4 in Tea Collection. Depending on your child's height these may or may not be too short (it's borderline but passable for my son, a little short if we need to fold the waistband for added tightness but basically fine). Bonus for me is you can get pants more structured than sweats, like cargos and jean-like pants, but very soft, comfortable material. Kind of spendy but sign up for emailed discounts and look at their bundled pants.
posted by JenMarie at 7:30 PM on January 3, 2018

OH A QUESTION I AM AN EXPERT ON My 5 year old is a super slim boy. Tea Collection pants are probably the best fit I’ve found but they are not super high quality and tend to get holes quickly. J. Crew brand runs slim(I have one pair of elastic waist pants from there but it’s mostly zipper and snaps). I always look for these two brands in consignment stores and have had good luck. I’ll pay $10 for Tea Collection but not $30. Gymboree is inconsistent but the two pairs of lined pants I bought from there this winter fit him well.
posted by Ideal Impulse at 7:31 PM on January 3, 2018

Seconding Gymboree. My kid likes those lined pants, too.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:40 PM on January 3, 2018

I have a super slim 7 year old, and I keep him clothed in Target. Their cat&jack brand has really cute slim fitting or adjustable sweats. He also refuses jeans most of the time.
posted by katypickle at 7:41 PM on January 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Agreeing about Target -- several of their lines have explicitly slim-cut pants.
posted by BlahLaLa at 7:49 PM on January 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

H&M boys’ clothes tend to run slim and I’ve had good luck there for my son.
posted by Cuke at 7:57 PM on January 3, 2018

Lands End has "slim" sizing for many of their boys pants, though some styles are slimmer than others (generally the chinos and skinny joggers have worked for my super tall and quite skinny kid). He also has a random pair of Old Navy skinny jeans that fit OK, but the JCrew chinos fit better.

He basically lives in Lands End and Target long-sleeved t-shirts.
posted by Maarika at 8:39 PM on January 3, 2018

Have a slim tall 6 yr old boy. H&M and Gap Kids (they have great sales, don't pay full price) is 100% your jam.
posted by jbenben at 9:01 PM on January 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

I buy the slim cut skinny jeans from Old Navy for my very thin son. They are almost always on sale.
posted by Nimmie Amee at 10:56 PM on January 3, 2018

For the T-shirt’s, hit up Hanna Andersson. All of their clothes are super high quality. Their sueded T-shirt’s are amazingly soft- I wish they made king size sheets from the stuff. They also make The Best Undies In The World. My kids won’t wear anything else- completely covered elastic and they never, ever ride up.
posted by PorcineWithMe at 12:27 AM on January 4, 2018

Tea Collection and Hanna Andersson are great for skinny kids, in my experience. I’ve had no problem with quality except the occasional fading of some colors (randomly, usually in dresses). The quality is far superior to Carter’s, Old Navy, H&M, et al.
posted by lydhre at 3:03 AM on January 4, 2018

Boden is another great brand - they have skinny and slim pants for boys. Their stuff lasts forever and if you sign up for their emails, they tend to have sales pretty frequently. Nordstrom also carries some of their kid line if you want to see it IRL (unfortunately, they usually won't match their sale prices because they consider themselves different entities).

I bought my kid's clothes from them for years and years until they outgrew the kid lines. I can't justify buying the Boden women's stuff for them at this point - I find them jeans at Lucky Brand, Nordstrom Rack or TJ Maxx. Lucky Brand has kid clothes, but I think only at their outlets (some of their jeans run super skinny).
posted by dancinglamb at 3:49 AM on January 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

All of my kid's pants have the adjustable waistband things. Look at The Children's Place if you don't see them where you normally shop.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:00 AM on January 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

Parent of a 10-year-old who's been consistently at the 3rd percentile for weight his whole life: you want the adjustable waistband thingers. They're in most Target pants at this point (Cat & Jack, the jeans, the uniform khakis, etc.) and many other brands mentioned above, but they don't usually show up in sweatpants, athletic pants, etc.

I yank those suckers as far as I possibly can and generally don't have a problem.

For sweatpants, etc. I double up the waistband in the back and do a really ugly but functional job of hand-sewing it together to pull the waist in. My kid so far doesn't care.
posted by spamloaf at 5:11 AM on January 4, 2018

I'm in Canada so I don't think you can ship these to the US unfortunately, but in case you do have a Canadian connection, MEC makes "Hoofit" pants and my son lives in them, he is super skinny (still wearing Gap size 2-3 undies at 6, the next size up is still not quite fitting), and they fit him true to size for the most part. He won't wear jeans either, I wait til these pants go on sale and buy the next size up. I love them because he can layer long johns underneath in the winter, and in the summer they are cool even when it's hot.
posted by lafemma at 6:36 AM on January 4, 2018

Oshkosh is the bigger kid version of carters. I will say the sweatpants aren't quite as skinny, but get drawstring ones.
posted by Valancy Rachel at 6:37 AM on January 4, 2018

I get my super skinny 6yo's pants and shorts at Children's Place. The skinny sizes still have an adjustable waistband.

ETA: Kiddo is super tall in addition to being thin, so I have him in 7/8 pants for length. But with the waistband adjusters on the slim fit cut they fit perfectly.
posted by vignettist at 7:21 AM on January 4, 2018

Yeah Target Cat&Jack slim joggers are cut slim enough that my skinny to normal kid complains that they are too slim cut. Adidas pants also run tight in the waist for length.

I would skip Old Navy, athletic pants tend to have a roomy waist.
posted by typecloud at 9:48 AM on January 4, 2018

My kid is younger so I haven't tried his sizes yet, but for little kids, Primary.com seems to run slim. Seconding Hanna Andersson, too.
posted by john_snow at 11:24 AM on January 4, 2018

Cat&Jack have had a number of drawstring-waist pants where the drawstring has a piece of elastic along the back. These are amazing, because you can cinch it up with a bow/knot, and your boy can pull the pants on and off without undoing the bow.
posted by that girl at 2:41 PM on January 4, 2018

I'm obsessed with the adjustable waist jeans from Gap for my 4yo super skinny dude. For reference, he still wears a few pairs of 24m shorts since I have such a hard time finding things to fit his little waist.
posted by gatorae at 8:18 PM on January 4, 2018