If your a mum you might find this interesting as there is nothing like really cool gear for young kids..read the interview and enjoy.
Stella McCartney
Perhaps the biggest perk of being a fashion designer is the ability to design not for yourself but for your kids. Just ask Stella McCartney. Not only is she about to bring her fourth child into the world, she’s also about to introduce a new collection specifically for the 12-and-under set. Pieces like cashmere blend pea jackets and floral dresses are designed to be both affordable and timeless, so you don’t have to choose between dressing your child well and sending her to college. And the line even features shrunken versions of pieces from her main collection. Still, McCartney knows that as fashion consumers go, kids are as fickle as anyone.
Q.
Do you take more pleasure in designing for yourself (and your friends) or for your kids (and their friends)?
A.
I take pleasure in designing for both myself and my kids. Being so pregnant right now probably means I want to dress myself a little less, but hopefully when I have had my fourth baby and (fingers crossed) regained a waist, I might dream of dressing myself again! The two things are so separate yet so related. I think most mums secretly take more delight in dressing their kids, but maybe as I get older, I might find myself spoiling myself more! The reality is I am so lucky to be able to design for both myself and my kids; luckily, it is not all about just me or them, but lots of other people wearing it too!
Do you let your kids weigh in on the design process at all? If so, have they vetoed anything? Or have they asked for anything in particular? And do you oblige them?
The kids are involved just by the mere fact that they are the most important things in my life, so are present in my brain at all times. Their likes and dislikes creep in, and sometimes I have to be careful of that, as my daughter is 3 and deep in the pink thing and I have to remind myself she will probably hate it in six months!
I try to think beyond just my experience of kids. When working on the collection, though, I have to go beyond their ages and think of older kids, think about all their needs, their parents, the timelessness, the ability to hand down to other generations, gifts, quality, cost, accessibility, distribution — every element is key, as it all makes kids’ clothing important. I am not just dressing kids, I am creating memories … hopefully!
Did you learn anything particularly noteworthy about kids’ design from the capsule collection you designed for the Gap?
I’ve wanted to do kids ever since I’ve had kids and probably even a little bit before. And everyone has said to me over the last years, “When are you going do kids?” So I had a lot of pressure with the collaboration I did with the Gap, and I continue to feel that pressure still now, because it’s really about always having a great collection.
When I collaborated with the Gap, it was a “one-off” collection, and it really had to appeal to such a wide range of people. And now, launching my own kid collection, it is still really important — especially since children’s clothes have sort of become disposable — for it to be accessible and realistic on the price points but still be timeless, have great quality and can be passed down for generations. For me, those were the points that were really key to achieve.
It’s really a modern way of looking at kids’ clothing, especially being a designer brand that is trying to be more considerate to the needs of the market. I think it’s the right thing to do. I find it inconsiderate to do kids’ wear and be incredibly expensive, because you are a designer brand. Our biggest challenge was trying to tick all of the boxes. We really wanted to make it modern from creating the right design for the right age group, to having unisex styles, to being available online immediately and to the price point. It really made the most sense for us right now to do it this way.
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/birth-of-the-cool-stella-mccartney-kids/
