Teeny Manolo

In honor of the new Manolo Moda, I am highlighting a Latina designer, Paulina Quintana.

Born in Chile during the regime of dictator Augusto Pinochet, her family was persecuted by Pinochet’s government and   Amnesty International brought them out of exile to establish their lives in America.

Paulina graduated with a degree in Art from UCLA, and designing children’s clothes was not her original career goal.  But she began a line, and with their bright colors and contemporary graphics, her clothes eventually caught the eye of Barney’s and since then she has become a noted designer. Quintana insists on paying her workers a living wage in non-sweatshop conditions and runs her business in an environmentally conscious manner.

I really like Quintana’s clothing.  She really tries to do different things with color and designs.  I appreciate that she is not afraid of color, because we all know that colors are a mom’s best friend when it comes to doing laundry.

or Princess, as the case may be.

Now, it is rare indeed that you will find me flogging clothing for children that is specifically marketed as a “Black Tie Collection,” for rarer indeed than unicorn sightings at a Paris Hilton performance are the occasions on which children are properly invited to attend black tie functions (which of course begin in the evening) and naturally the use of “Black Tie” as a swanky euphemism for “expensive” is horribly infra dig if not actually nouveau riche.

But then, how is Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess Pavlos of Greece to know? Heiress, socialite, It Girl, designer and model Her Highness Marie-Chantal (formerly “Miller”) undoubtably totes her tykes to all manner of state dinners and debutante balls, and I’m sure she’s never met a nouveau in her life, especially since Warhol died before she reached puberty.

As I said, it goes against my stuffy, literal-minded grain to promote such a thing, particularly when the designer is all, like, “Oh, we just called the brand plain old Marie-Chantal” to be all down-homey while featuring a baby wearing a crown as her logo. Plain old Marie-Chantal indeed.

But.

But.

Would you look at these clothes? And, furtherto and forafter, would you look at the prices?

NAT
Lace Collar Shirt
Price: $102.00 Sale $30.60

NELL
Baby Girl Fancy Halter Dress
Price: $125.00 Sale $37.50

So you’d be getting a gorgeous little baby party outfit of heirloom quality for $68.10 instead of the completely-out-of-the-question $227.oo. That is what I’d call a frugal indulgence, and most definitely something to be considered when one simply has to commit an act of Salvation Armani.

For girls sizes 2-12:

God, I want that for myself! Yes, I confess it: I miss Laura Ashley!

NANETTE
Peal Style Cardigan
Price: $141.00 Sale $42.30

NEEMA
Raglan Blouse
Price: $134.00 Sale $40.20

NEW YORK
Reversible Dot Skirt
Price: $154.00 Sale $46.20

And the boys are not forgotten. They are just camouflaged as their grandfathers:

LANCE W07
Cashmere V-Neck Vest
Price: $141.00

NOAH
Boy “Grand-Pa” Shirt
Price: $122.00 Sale $36.60

NEWTON
Boy Dress Trouser
Price: $147.00 Sale $44.10

NORWOOD
Boys Blazer
Price: $218.00 Sale $65.40

One notes, one does, that Plain Old Marie-Chantal knows that good cashmere never needs to get marked down to sell.

She’s such a practical girl at heart.

As I was doing my usual stumbling around on the internet, I came across a site that I am very happy to promote on Teeny Manolo.

It is called Global Mamas. 

On the main page, they explain their mission:

By purchasing Global Mamas products, you are offering sustainable livelihoods to women and their families living in poverty.

All proceeds go directly to the women and to nonprofit programs that assist them with business development.

Global Mamas is a Fair Trade Manufacturer, which means they met stringent criteria set forth by the Fair Trade Federation, which is based in the United States.

I really like the idea behind this enterprise, and I feel that we here in the US are not offered as many Fair Trade products as other countries, such as Canada.   Next to the description of each piece of clothing, there is a link to both the batiker and the seamstress who made it.  Think of it as being a bit like your own personal version of Kiva, but getting cute clothes in the bargain as well.

While you may not win a Nobel Prize for Economics, it just might make you feel as good as if you had.

For Christmas, my mother bought my son a shirt.  And I liked it. If you knew the type of clothing that my mom normally buys for the Munchkin, you would topple over in shock, I assure you. I know I did.  My mom is great, but her fashion sense and mine? Let’s just say we both tend to do a lot of private eye-rolling.

After I had been revived with smelling salts, I managed to gasp out, “Wh-where did you get that? How much was it?”

When I found out she had bought it for eight dollars, out the smelling salts came.  Again.

And whom did I have to thank for such a nirvana of a shirt for such a great price?

Why, H&M, of course.  The house of fast fashion and famous celebrity collections also offers clothing for children from ages 0-14 years.  Yeeaaaahhh baby, I was so there.

Luckily, I have a store near me that carries the children’s lines, which not all do.  I went in, curious as to what I would find, as I think everyone knows by now that I find boy’s fashion Boring with a capital B.   And, because I love you all, I also looked at the girl’s clothing, even though I never do because I just get jealous. 

I saw clothing that was, in a word, awesome.  It was of high quality, had color combinations not normally found in bargain clothing  (hello, chocolate brown and baby blue for the boys!) and best of all, did I mention it was pretty cheap?  Two t-shirts could be had as a color coordinated pair for $9.90.   Pants ran around $14.00.  They also had turtlenecks, which I had been hard-pressed to find this winter, for some reason. Lots and lots of graphics as well. 

Alas, in my corner of the world we are already beginning to warm up, not that we were ever really cold to begin with, so turtlenecks just seemed a bit much.  None of the spring line was in yet, so I was unable to purchase anything because the Munchkin’s winter wardrobe is already covered.  That was unfortunate, because I really wanted to buy something.  Never had I been so upset at being so well organized. I am practically salivating for them to get their spring line into the store.

The clothing for girls was equally fab, and the infant clothing was even better.  I cannot recommend this store highly enough. To find out if you have an H&M near you that carries children’s clothing and accessories, here is a link to their store locator in the US. 

There is no online shopping for residents of North America, but if you’ve got a close friend in Sweden who’s willing to get the clothes to you, it might almost be worth it.

One of my favorite clothing lines for children is Small Paul from designer Paul Frank.

Paul started out in his garage in Orange County, California and came up with his now-iconic Julius the Monkey graphic.  He began with a wallet with Julius’ face emblazoned on it, and interest grew after a friend requested that Paul make him the same wallet.

The Small Paul line features bright, irreverent, and funky graphics that kids love to wear.  I tend not to like graphics, but I make an exception for Small Paul. The clothes definitely have a Southern California, beachy feel. My son’s bright orange Julius tee is one of his favorites and I have seen a  smile creep onto people’s faces when they see him in it.  Cute monkey, cute kid, who could resist?

But seriously, Small Paul has come out with different signature characters for boys and girls, including the popular Skurvy Skull.   Julius can take on many different looks as well on different pieces, sometimes sporting a beehive or X-ray specs, or whatever else suits the designer’s fancy. As with most designer clothing, the prices can be a bit spendy, but the tees can be reasonable, and even more so on sale.

This is a small sample of the current line:

I was out enjoying the fresh air a couple of days ago, and I noticed a mom carrying her newborn in a Bjorn.

But what really caught my eye were these fabulous faux fur baby booties by MiniMink.  Listen, that baby’s feet looked so cute dangling out of her carrier, I wanted to eat them.  And I am not normally an ooogie-ooogie type of person over babies.  Well, over my own, but not really anyone else’s.   So it’s saying a lot that I sort of started to drool.

It doesn’t actually have anything to do with country music, I just needed the beats; fans of the early Baroque period should feel equally comfortable reading this post! We are all non-partisan-and-equal-opportunity-like around these parts, as long as you don’t expect me to actually LISTEN to Garth Brooks.

You wouldn’t make me, would you?

I thought not. And so to today’s per diem topic du jour for today.

Ears.

Specifically:

Ears on hats.

Now, if you follow as many celebrity blogs as I do (and why would you? I get paid for it) you’ll probably know that this is just about the most famous hat in the world right now, and the Garner-Afflecks could probably comfortably retire on their earnings, should they open up a website devoted to selling said chapeaux.

Now, we luv us some hats, we do around these parts. Particularly the parts that are apt to get cold in the wintertime or hot and burnt in the summertime, and particularly on the wee ones. It is our advice (we use, you understand, the royal “we”, as we understand the royal family aren’t using it right now and we want it to feel valued) it is, we say, our advice, to accustom the little ones to the wearing of hats as early and as often as possible.

There are several reasons for this.

One: so their little heads don’t sunburn/freeze, depending on whether you’re in Belize or Boston, Aruba or Aspen.

Two: because sunscreen makes a mess of baby hair and hoods invariably fall down and cover their eyes and they think someone’s blindfolded them for some malicious kidnapping purpose or something and, naturally, begin squalling.

Three: they learn how to untie those strings, velcro and buttons sooner than you’d think and then you’ll have a fight on your hands, if they’re not already accustomed to wearing the darn things.

Four: Ears. Ears on hats. Check it out:

on big people:

Bad idea.

However;

on little people:

Try it for yourself: