Yes I said it. There is something quite cool about a pair of cords on your kids.  There are so many options for cords, they are a staple in every brand’s Fall range, but rather than picking up the first wide leg, baggy pair you find, have a look at the cut. You can find everything from Bootleg, Skinny Leg and Flares to the good old Regular style. Everyone from 77kids for American Eagle Outfitters to J Crew and Stella McCartney for Gap have great styles to choose from. Joe’s Jeans have even picked up on this season’s stud trend to include on theirs. That’s one for the girls.

For the Boys:

Stella McCartney for The Gap

77kids by American Eagle Outfitters

JCrew 5 Pocket

For the Girls:

77kids by American Eagle

French Connection @ Little ASOS

Joe's Jeans @ Saks

This is the site to go to if you are looking for something unique, different, and decidedly cool, for your MiniHipster. The Vintage section of FRUiTS is filled with a wide variety of one off pieces for both boys and girls as well as babies. Their philosophy, besides being in love with kids fashion, is to provide the world with interesting clothes in the hope of finding them a new home. The emphasis is on quality and style, so they assure that all their vintage clothes are in excellent condition, and therefore ready for anything your children can throw at them. I spent hours (of fun) looking through every piece and had some trouble selecting only a few!   Be careful, you could get lost in love in this site.

A few favorites from FRUiTS:

Seeing as we’re running a competition to win a £300 shopping spree with Little Asos (see here for details), I thought I’d show you some of my current favorites from their site:

FOR THE BOYS

Mini Boden Printed Hoody:

Toby Tiger Knitted Multi Stripe Jacket:

Toby Tiger Blue And Red Stripe T-Shirt:

FOR THE GIRLS

French Connection Ditsy Floral Dress:

Diesel Girls Vintage Wash Ribbed Cuff Denim Shorts:

Mini Boden Jersey Holiday Dress:

Check out the full range on their site here: http://www.asos.com/kids , and don’t forget to enter the competition!

I HAVE to get me some of these!

Munster is in serious contention for THE coolest boys clothing label around today.
Based on a fictional naughty child called Mikey Munster, the range embodies his personality and style, and takes heavy influences from street culture, music and art. The range also guarantees to be comfortable & durable ticking both of mum’s approval boxes.

Here is a little insight into Mikey Munster:

For they say he gets into the minds of the small,
makes them pick their nose and wipe it on the wall.
There’s one way to tell if li’l Mikey Munster is near,
shine a torch on your child and look to the rear,
For the shadow of Munster can be seen with ease…

Here are a few favorites for my boys (winter items, as it’s on it’s way here in Australia…):

The brand is available in worldwide through selected outlets including online, with a complete dealer list on their website.
Happy shopping!

www.MunsterKids.com.au

I just came across this fantastic ‘design your own’ option on the Converse website. The cost is $45 for the kids shoes.  But don’t worry, there are also big kids sizes, so you and your minihipster can both design a pair of your own funky Converse and hit the streets together!

The design process involves 10 steps (which you can do in any order).  It took me about 10 minutes to complete, but only because I kept changing my mind and taking my time in selecting the design for each part!  You can see my artistic handywork in action through each of the steps below:

Step One – to get started, select the ‘blank’ shoe.  I chose canvas chucks:

Step Two – the outside body. You can chose from a selection of patterns or solid color. I chose one of the funky patterns:

Step Three – the tongue. Again, can chose from a selection of patterns or colors. I chose a color:

Step Four – the racing stripe. You can select from four colors of red, white, black or dark blue. I chose dark blue:

Step Five – the laces. There are five colors to chose from, and I opted for pink:

Step Six – the lining. An artists work is never done! Now for the lining, where you have the choice of colors or patterns. I thought I’d keep it simple and go for a color:

Step Seven – the heel stripe:

Step Eight – the stitching!

Step nine – your ID. In case your converse design isn’t individual enough already, here you can add your ‘ID’ to either the back or the side of the shoe:

Step Ten – the inside. Chose either pattern or color. I opted to spice things up with a second pattern:

And for a view of the finished product, here is the top:

And the front:

Pretty darn cool, if I don’t say so myself!!  Click here to get started on your own custom Converse for you and your minihipster, and have fun!

While my budget doesn’t quite stretch to buying Burberry, a girl can dream can’t she ; -)

The Burberry Childrenswear collection includes adorable lines for both boys and girls in “Newborn”, “Infant” and “Junior” – full of mini-me designer pieces referenced directly from the adult lines.

All your favourite grown-up Burberry items, also available for your minihipster!

I just love some of this season’s pieces, and included a few of my favorites:

For the girls, the Check Bubble Dress:

And the Hooded Poncho in merino wool and cashmere:

For the boys, the Argyle Vest:

And just because they are ‘oh so cute, I’ve included some Burberry images from the Nieman Marcus website:

The Fancy Check Dress, and yes, it’s pretty fancy!

The Bib Front shirt and Bubble Check Skirt:

Rubber-Print Tee Shirt, and my favorite Exploded Check Bermuda Shorts:

Burberry Childrenswear in the US is available online at: http://www.burberryusaonline.com

The Mini Social – Designer Bargains for your minihipster!

The Mini Social brings the best of both worlds – designer kids labels at up to 50-60% off.    And who doesn’t love a bargain!  The site has free membership (it takes less than a minute to sign up), and runs a new sale every few days at 11 AM EST, with each lasting just 48-72 hours.  And if the bargains weren’t enough, when you refer a friend who makes a purchase you’ll get $10 deposited into your account to use towards your next purchase.

A discount on designer duds isn’t the only thing you can feel pleased with yourself about. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to several favorite women’s and children’s charities, including the United States Fund for UNICEF and Shoe4Africa. It’s the social with a conscience.

This week’s sales include:

• egg by susan lazar kids
• Tea Collection, and
• Robeez

Check it out at http://www.theminisocial.com/

Surfs Up with Board Shorts!

It’s that time of year again when we’re getting ready to hit the beach or relax pool side with our minihipsters. I always enjoy shopping for board shorts, as there’s such a great range of fun, hip shorts that scream summer.

Here are some of my favorites:

The Gap has a few great choices, including these ‘Bright plaid swim trunks’ at $19.50 for the ultimate preppy look while hitting the waves:

Or Hawaii Five-O style with these great ‘Bold hibiscus’ swim trunks from the Gap:

or tropical fever with these ‘77 dip dye board shorts’ from 77 Kids:

Always cheap and cheerful, Old Navy have a large range of board shorts and your little guy is sure to love these ‘Shark-Teeth Swim Trunks’:

Finally, if you’re looking for an excuse to burn through some cash, there are some great trunks from Vilebrequin for $110. Here are Junior Swimtrunks in Navy Tahitian Flower:

And in Light Blue Turtle:

Surfs Up!!

Threadless is a community based t-shirt company with an ongoing, now with an open call for design submissions. This means that every Monday they have a new range of limited t-shirts up for grabs, with designs which have been submitted and rated by the community (a.k.a. you & me!).

After finding huge success they later launched Threadless Kids.
Divided into two main categories: Babies (0-24 months) and Kids (2-12 years), and with an additional product group for each, onesies and hoodies respectively.

Selected winning designs are printed on American Apparel kid-sized t-shirts (& onesies for the “nanohipsters”). All Threadless designs are produced in limited batches; when sold out customers can request a reprint but this can only proceed when demand achieves the minimum production volume.
So if you see something you like, don’t hesitate!

www.threadlesskids.com

Zara’s kids range

Someone forgot to tell me that one of my favorite stores now does a range for kids!
I only noticed when I walked past a store on the weekend and saw the mini-mannequins in the Zara window.  Just where have I been hiding? After all, I live in Manhattan so I should know better…!

So in case you haven’t seen their range, check out these images from their 09 Srping / Summer collection:

Ten out of ten – I love both of these outfits!

Can I please get a pair of these sandals?? What great color!

Yet another great pair of sandals, and a very cute summer outfit.

This giraffe T is fantastic!

What a great scarf.

These shoes are very cool, and green and gray is a fantastic combo…

And for the timeless preppy look!

And I won’t divulge what I got for myself when I popped into Zara, but needless to say they have some pretty good pieces for summer!

Check it all out on their website:

Zara Kids
Zara homepage