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Showing posts with label baby fashion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baby fashion. Show all posts

Saturday, 20 December 2014

Aurora's Popsarella dress and cape

Hello!

I'm so excited about this post.

My youngest brother decided to get married rather last minute (we had about a month's notice), on the Friday before Christmas. A low-key wedding for him and his fiancée, and a few close family members.

It wasn't going to be a big affair, so a frilly, pink, meringue-style baby dress was not an option - not that I would have wanted it anyway; if there's one thing I can't stand about buying clothes for Aurora, it's the lack of colour and style choice in high-street shops. To paraphrase Henry Ford;

You can have any colour you want, as long as it's pink

I tweeted about it at the time:


What a great way to limit a child's imagination! Encourage each gender wear the same colours, play with set toys, and suggest only boys can read adventure books, whilst girls read princess fashion books. Of course that won't encourage bullying, either! (I really love what Let Toys Be Toys, Let Clothes Be Clothes, and Let Books Be Books are doing at the moment - breaking down outdated and, frankly, ridiculous stereotypes imposed by toy/clothing/publishing industries).

From this basis I knew I would not be buying a pink, frilly meringue - but it needed to be special, fun, bright and reasonably priced.

It was  therefore a totally serendipitous moment - whilst getting my dirty fix of Facebook - that I saw Popsarella had added some new fabrics, one of which was the aurora borealis print! Fate. Pure fate.

After contacting the lovely and very helpful Laura, I asked if I could have a dress in the aurora borealis fabric - and if she could make a hooded cape. She told me she had been thinking about making capes, and that she would give it a go, getting it to me in time for the wedding!

She did amazingly. I went for the Bettie dress as it's a bit more of a party dress, as opposed to the (still brilliant) Penelope dress (I love this space fabric!)

The cape is reversible and has the aurora borealis fabric on one side, and a lovely wine-purple velvet on the other, with a sparkly, iridescent ribbon-tie. It's big enough that it will fit her for a while!

We had no idea what the colour scheme for the wedding would be: in an it's-beginning-to-get-a-bit-weird-fate moment, we found out once we'd received the dress and cape that it was purple.

 

I got the sparkly shoes and Nora Batty tights from Monsoon. Although Aurora's 8 months old, she'll be able to wear these 0-6 month tights for a while. 







Congratulations to be brother and beautiful sister-in-law. 
This is definitely a keepsake outfit!


I bought Aurora's dress and cape from Popsarella - I just had to write this post, because I love them so much and can't wait to buy more dresses, especially in the space fabric!


Friday, 16 May 2014

Retro sun visor

This week I have been SO excited waiting for this item to arrive. I've been lurking by the front door every time the postman was due.

Ever since we popped to Mothercare in Lakeside (20 miles away, when Aurora was four days old!) and I first saw the Jools Oliver Little Bird collection, I have been in love: reasonably priced retro kids clothes on the high-street.

Obviously I've sought out true vintage, retro, hand-made and second-hand clothes (and toys and books of course) for Aurora, but I have also had to use the high-street shops too. However, I've actively looked for vintage/retro/vintage style clothes, but I've also actively tried to avoid an exclusively pink and princessy wardrobe – not easy if you shop at the usual high-street suspects. It was flipping hard buying clothes for a baby whose gender we did not find out until she popped out. With regard to buying high-street though it's necessary to paraphrase Henry Ford: you can have any colour you want, as long as it’s pink for a girl, blue for a boy, or yellow/grey for sex unknown. Yeah, great, thanks… I am aware these are things that annoy me (and many other parents/to be/rational people) and not everyone, but I honestly don’t see why I should almost HAVE to dress my child in a certain colour, or with certain set of animals/toys/images, just because that’s what’s been decided by other people, that a certain gender prefer. Grr! I feel the same about aiming certain toys, books and activities at one gender.

Anyway I sort of digress, I could bang on about that for ages, but I'm not going to. This post is about sharing the excellent retro sun visor from the Little Bird collection: a collection which is not just pink and princessy clothes for girls or blue and macho for boys.

And here it is!






As soon as I saw it I wanted it and being only £6.00, I was able to get it. Obviously one can Google ‘retro sun visor’ and find cheaper versions, but you can tell from the images that they are, well cheap. 

The Little Bird sun visor has a rainbow headband, which is elasticated at the back, with a yellow terry cloth on the inner part and a thick, yellow plastic visor. It’s not flimsy at all. Also, it’s totally unisex!



I remember having one when I was in primary school in the 80s, and I am so pleased Aurora will get to enjoy a good quality one too, although there are a few years before she can do that...

Mothercare Little Bird sun visor - £6.00 - for 3 - 8 year olds. 


(This post has nothing to do with Mothercare, I just love the visor/Little Bird... for what it's worth; I hate the Baby K collection).

Thursday, 8 May 2014

Aurora's vintage wardrobe

As a lover of all things vintage, it is only natural that I force encourage Aurora to enjoy it also. Whilst she still has no say about how she's dressed, she'll be in carefully selected retro and vintage outfits, when she's not slobbing-out in sleepsuits anyway. 

When I found out I was pregnant I started looking for vintage baby items straight away. I started with the usual suspects - eBay and Google. I really have no patience for waiting days for lots to end, or for bidding wars, so generally go for (reasonably priced) 'buy now' items on eBay. And there are many online shops selling vintage baby items now if you're able to use Google.

I sell vintage and antique items (until recently in a shop in Leigh on Sea, but at fairs now) so I have been fortunate enough to come across some amazing items through meeting other vintage sellers and hunting around vintage, second-hand and charity shops. My parents found these gems in Norfolk when hunting for items to sell.   

As well as getting items online, at fairs and those old-fashioned things called shops, we've been really lucky that people have given us (lots) of clothes as gifts, and some have been vintage.


Here are some of Aurora's vintage clothes -  she already has a better wardrobe than her parents...


 
From top left to right:
  1. Adams' dress from the 90s bought from Rowdy Roddy Vintage* (RRV) - £14
  2. 70s dress, also from RRV - £18
  3. Vintage knitted cardigan from RRV - £8
  4. Vintage romper from RRV - £8
  5. 1960s romper - a gift from family
  6. The flipping excellent design on the 60s romper
  7. One of the 50s/60s dresses from Norfolk - part of a bundle of items 
  8. Another vintage item from RRV** - £9

*No vested interest here, I just love the shop!
**I've honestly not been given/promised anything to promote RRV!