Showing posts with label Circo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Circo. Show all posts

Friday, July 15, 2016

New at Target for 2016: Cat & Jack School Uniforms

A few weeks ago, I logged into Target.com to order another Cherokee brand scooter for my daughter. My daughter had been wearing the same one for several years. It had become a wardrobe staple and I was hoping to order one in the next size up.  Instead, I couldn't find it online.  Upon further investigation, I realized that all Cherokee items had disappeared from their website.  I became suspicious and began to research this further.  When I visited Cherokee's website, I found no mention of school uniforms at all. I placed a call to Target to learn more. While awaiting a call back, I happened to stop in our local Target store and noticed a new brand in the girls clothing department.

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Cat and Jack ™ is a new line of kids clothing available at Target that officially will launch on July 17, 2016. In Target stores, it will replace both the Circo and Cherokee brand items. While the new collection includes school uniform items, it also features everyday fashion items. The Cat and Jack ™  items come with a guarantee for 1 year. The return policy supports this quality claim with a statement that "Cat and Jack ™  products are made to last, but if something doesn’t or if you’re unsatisfied for any other reason, you can make returns up to one year after purchase."

Here are some other interesting things from the media release:

Q: What materials are used to make the products?
A: You’ll see a lot of soft, comfy cotton knits. And there’s a sustainable polyester material called Repreve used in some of the denim & pocket bags. Its fibers are removed from plastic bottles that have been melted to a liquid state, a process that allowed us to recycle 6 million plastic bottles during the production of the fall Cat & Jack assortment alone.
Q: How involved are kids in developing the Cat & Jack product?
A: For the Big Kid collection, kids ages 6–11 gave feedback on everything from legging prints to tee graphics. They also created looks with their favorite items to share how they would mix and match items in the brand.

The school uniform items arrived in my local Target store last weekend.   Despite my daughter's pleas that it is still too early to be shopping for school uniforms, I spent some time checking them out. The quality of the items seem comparable to the Cherokee brand and the uniform items are also very similar in style.  The sizing will include extended sizing in slim and plus options. I am excited for this new line and I'm anxious to try the products. My criticism of the new school uniform line is that the "nightfall" color is not a true navy. It is a lighter shade of blue that may not pass inspection at schools with rigid uniform policies and enforcement procedures. If navy is the required color at your school, I would recommend you shop elsewhere.

The Cat and Jack ™ boys school uniform collection includes flat front or pleated pants with a reinforced knee, short and long sleeve polos, short sleeve oxfords, button up cardigan,  a sweater vest, a windbreaker jacket, and socks.

The Cat and Jack ™ girls school uniform collection includes more options.  The bottoms include a flat front pants with a reinforced knee, a ponte knit pant, a stretch twill capri, a two button ponte knit scooter, and a skater skirt. There are several styles of dresses including a pique pleated tennis dress, a short sleeved ponte jumper, a woven pleated jumper, a belted safari dress, and a sleeveless ponte dress and a woven plaid jumper in 2 different plaids.  Tops include short and long sleeve polos and woven blouses Sweaters include a short sleeve pullover sweater with the built in blouse, a cable knit cardigan, and a v neck button up cardigan.  The collection also includes coordinating socks, tights and hair accessories.

(photos from the Target Cat and Jack ™ 2016 lookbook)


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Monday, March 28, 2016

School Uniform Wardrobe Review for a 3rd Grade Girl


What's in our School Wardrobe?

It's been a while since I looked in my daughter's closet, took inventory of what's in her school wardrobe and shared a full school wardrobe review. My last full review was 3 years ago when I shared our Kindergarten School Uniform Wardrobe. This year, I really didn't do much back to school shopping. She hadn't grown much, so many items from last school year were still in good shape and still fit. But we have added a few new items that I picked up on sale.

Since the year started, we've transitioned all of her shirts rotating out all of her girls size medium shirts (7-8) to girls size large (10-12). The list below shows the types of wardrobe items in the school wardrobe including which brand. I think it is a good example of how diverse her wardrobe is by brand. A handful of these items were received complementary for evaluation in a review, however, most were purchased from the family budget. Disclosures are included in the full review posts, when relevant.

Girls School Uniform Wardrobe Inventory

  • 3 short sleeve polos (Dockers, Classroom, French Toast Waist Tuck)
  • 3 long sleeve polos (Lands' End Peter Pan, Cherokee, Children's Place Ruffle-Placket)
  • 3 pair of Cherokee Flat Front Uniform Pants (While we've tried other brands that I liked, my daughter prefers these bootcut basics from Target.)
  • 6 scooters (Cherokee Pleated Scooter, Cherokee Uniform Scooter, Lands' End Ponte Button Front, Schoolbelles Side Pleat Skort, Lands' End Solid A line Skirt and a Dockers Scooter)

    Before you ask - Yes, its a fair question. Why do we have 6 scooters? If you're building a school wardrobe for the first time, I would only recommend purchasing one or two. We've acquired these over time. My daughter seems to get the most value from scooters as some of these skirts have been in the rotation for 3 years already.

    The Docker's one has been hanging in the closet with tags on it for since Kindergarten waiting for her to grow into it. It has an elastic waist, but it is not adjustable. The skirt may be too short once her waist grows into it. Lesson learned; adjustable waistbands are key.
  • 5 sweaters (Lands' End Performance Zip Front Cardigan, Children's Place Uniform Cardigan, Primary Cardi, H&M, Gap)

    Again, you don't need 5 sweaters. My daughter now has a favorite which she now carries with her in her backpack daily. The rest hang in the closet and might be worn on the weekend. But it did take trying different brands and styles to find her favorite.
  • 2 pair of Boot Cut Yoga Pants (Children's Place Bootcut Foldover Active Pants and Lands' End Yoga Pants)
  • 4 short sleeve t-shirts (Children's Place t shirt, Primary Polo, French Toast v-neck T, French Toast crew.)
  • 2 long sleeve t-shirts (Circo, Children's Place)
  • 2 pair of shorts (Gap, Lands' End)

    Both of these were leftover from last year's wardrobe and will need replaced for Spring because she has finally outgrown them.
  • 4 active skorts (Children's Place)

    Again, you surely wouldn't need 4 of these in a first year wardrobe. In fact, you might not need any. My daughter likes to wear the Children's Place active skort for PE days during warmer months. We have 4 of them because I kept buying them on clearance forgetting that I had already put one away in the next size up. Yep, that happened 3 times. Oops.
  • Sneakers for PE (Striderite)
  • Mary Jane style shoes (Striderite)
  • Accessories : bike shorts for under the skirt (French Toast), cuff socks (Gold Toe), knee socks (Code Socks and French Toast) and tights (Circo and French Toast).

What's missing?

Jumpers or dresses. Simply because my daughter is not a fan. She has a strong aversion to jumpers, always has. Maybe it's hereditary since I'm not a fan either. I used to be able to get her to put on a cotton polo dress, but not since first grade. She simply prefers to wear separates. If your daughter likes dresses and jumpers, you'll need fewer separates.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

The Spend - our actual cost for School Uniforms

Microsoft Clip Art MP900341783
So after reflecting on the school uniform items we purchased for our daughter's first year at public school, I wondered how much it all cost.  I tend save my shopping receipts in a box during the year, so I dug through the box to find the receipts for all of the items I mentioned in our Kindergarten Wardrobe post.

According to Statistics Brain, the average annual cost to parents for school uniforms is $249.  Unfortunately, this source doesn't provide any background on what they include as school uniforms.  If I don't include items such as shoes, coat, backpack and lunchbox that we'd need regardless of dress code, I come in right under the average at $234.  If those big ticket items are included, my spend is way above average adding an additional $146 to my annual spend.  So here's how it breaks down:

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Tops:
Izod short sleeve polo $7, Old Navy short sleeve polo $6, George Girls' Long Sleeve Polo Shirt 2/$11, H&M short sleeve t-shirts (2) $6, H&M long sleeve t-shirt (2) $10

Bottoms:
Lands End skort $20, Izod skirt $7.50, Cherokee Uniform Pants (2) $12, Children's Place Yoga Pants $5, Circo leggings $5, Izod shorts (2) $7

Dresses and Sweaters:
Lands End dress $22.50, Lands End sweater $22.50, Cherokee sweater $10, French Toast sweater $10

Accessories:
French Toast Tights (2pk) $11, French Toast socks $7, French Toast bike shorts $8, French Toast belt $9

Other necessities:
Lands End lunch box $14, Lands End Backpack $26, Oshkosh jacket $30, Stride Rite sneakers $30, Stride Rite shoes $46

All items are rounded to the nearest twenty five cents.  In some cases, I could not locate my actual receipt, so I then substituted the retail cost of the item that I could verify online.  In most cases, I purchased items on sale, used a coupon code and/or received free shipping.


(photo used with permission from Microsoft)

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