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Color blocking
Rosa's closet
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15 Mei 2012 | 14:17:01
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I found the vintage green color block tank top a while ago, but since I'm terrible at estimating sizes, I couldn't really decide whether it was a very small baby size or if it could be a good fit for Rosa. I decided to take it home, and it fits Rosa perfectly!
Tank top: vintage, floral harem pants: H & M, onesie: HEMA |
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Gnomes meet strawberries
Rosa's closet
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13 Mei 2012 | 10:48:05
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When I put Rosa her gnomes and dots dress on (handmade with the famous Belgian Van Katoen pattern), she insisted on wearing her way too big pink strawberry rain boots with it. Ah well, why not? ;)
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Skirt & play
Rosa's closet
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08 Mei 2012 | 13:25:01
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These little skirts aren't super practical at Rosa's age: with all her climbing and crawling they hardly stay in their place for longer than a minute. So usually within a few moments the skirt is somewhere near her armpits, and after pulling it back many times, it often stays there for the rest of the day ;).
Wrap cardigan: Petit Louie, skirt: Name it, striped onesie, leggings and socks: HEMA |
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Polkadot overalls
Rosa's closet
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02 Mei 2012 | 23:08:35
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These vintage polkadot overalls/dungarees are an absolute favorite here. I always think that Rosa looks adorable (I'm her mom!), but when she wears these pants I really can't stop thinking (and saying ;)) that she's utterly adorable! These vintage overalls have a nice fit and are not overly baggy, like lots of today's dungarees. We bought these at Fawn Vintage.
Red polkadot overalls: vintage via Fawn vintage, onesie: HEMA, shoes: H & M |
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Ethnic style
Rosa's closet
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02 Mei 2012 | 11:37:41
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I love to dress Rosa in folkloristic, handmade clothes from all over the world. She already has some embroidered Mexican dresses, a skirt from Laos, colorful dungarees from Guatemala, a Peruvian cardigan and we keep adding new things.
I found this embroidered tunic with another matching one at the Queen's day flea market. I have no idea where it's from: Asia, South America? Anyway, it looks good on a Dutch girl!
Tunic: flea market find, skirt: Name it, onesie & tights: HEMA |
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On a budget
Rosa's closet
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27 April 2012 | 11:24:33
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It's true that it's often easiest to dress your kid (or yourself) nicely when you carry a big bag of money with you. But if you look carefully, you can sometimes also find really nice things on a budget. A little while ago I found Rosa this blue polkadot trench coat at Dutch discount shop wibra, for only €13. To my surprise it was well-made, with nice details and so far the quality seems okay. The only thing that I sometimes worry about when I buy things that are this cheap is the labor/environmental circumstances under which these clothes are made: can they ever be all right? I'm really no saint who buys everything eco and fair trade, but with prices this low I can hardly imagine that work circumstances are okay, and then I would be happy to pay a little more (and then this coat would still be quite affordable).
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Too big, too beautiful
Vintage
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26 April 2012 | 16:38:29
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One of the silly things I too often do is buy Rosa clothes that are still way too big for her (like: buying things for when she's six!), thinking that 'one day she must grow into them'. Not a smart thing to do, I know... Therefore I thought I'd better share my favorite vintage finds for 4+ years with you from now on, so that they can be bought by people with more 'age appropriate' kids!
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Opus
Design
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25 April 2012 | 21:01:42
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Very stylish and subtle, these little outfits from Opus. The beautiful soft tone color blocking and asymmetrical details make me keep looking at these!
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Rosa Matrosa
Rosa's closet
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24 April 2012 | 20:02:15
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Another little sailor dress! I think combined with her hairdo Rosa looks straight from the 1930s here!
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Unique depends on where you are
Rosa's closet
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22 April 2012 | 21:25:40
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I sometimes get enthusiastic reactions and inquiries from people from outside the Netherlands & Belgium when Rosa wears colorful HEMA clothes. That's always a bit funny to notice, because for us here it's 'just HEMA', our most common department store for basics. I do love shopping there for Rosa, but you often see half of the kids at the playground wear those same HEMA outfits. And though I'm convinced that you should buy the things you really like, regardless of how many other people do or don't wear them, I can't deny that clothes start to bore you earlier when you see them worn by so many people all the time.
So it's funny to realize that a kid in, say, the USA would look quite unique wearing the same HEMA outfit that a kid here in the Netherlands would look super middle of the road in. Same thing goes the other way round: Rosa has a few dresses from Baby Gap and Target that are probably the 'all over the playground'-clothes in the USA, but that are basically unique here ;).
Hearts dress: Baby Gap, floral onesie, socks and leggings: HEMA, shoes: Shoesme |
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Some recent additions to Rosa's vintage wardrobe
Rosa's closet
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20 April 2012 | 16:46:35
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I keep a long list of favorite little vintage outfits on etsy, and every now and then I allow myself to buy one for Rosa. I thought the little red gingham/lace dress would be perfect for our holiday in Portugal this June. I know it's a little crazy (especially when it's only for a one-week-holiday), but sometimes I see something and immediately have a certain occasion in my mind that those clothes would be perfect for, and then my imagination goes wild. I can just perfectly picture Rosa walking around in this dress in sunny Portugal, with some cute little sandals on her feet... Oh my, now my crazy imagination also makes me want to buy sandals! ;) (I've been eyeing the red saltwater sandals for both me and Rosa for some time now) Let's at least hope for some good weather in Portugal! (and some more here in the Netherlands this summer, so that she can also wear the 'Portugal-dress' here...
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The Miniature Knit Shop
Handmade
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20 April 2012 | 12:22:22
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For the last time
Rosa's closet
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20 April 2012 | 11:15:03
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When I put Rosa one of our favorite jumpsuits on, I quickly realized that this would probably be the last time she'd wear it. When she was younger she outgrew clothes kind of quickly, but Rosa isn't very tall (she's a bit on the small side when it comes to length, not when it comes to being a chubby ;)), so she has been wearing a size 80/1T for quite some time now. But now this jumpsuit was obviously too tight, what a shame... But lucky for us we have lots of great jumpsuits waiting in size 86!
Jumpsuit: Kik kid, Cardigan: Name it, coat: Nijntje, scarf: DPAM, socks: HEMA, shoes: Shoesme |
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About jeans and first shoes
Rosa's closet
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17 April 2012 | 12:54:31
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I took these pictures about six weeks ago, but so far I've been creating so much more content for this blog than I have been able to turn into actual blog posts that I hadn't yet come to the point of using them... So here you see Rosa on a series of pictures that's special for two reasons: 1) she's wearing her first 'real shoes' that we had just bought (which turned out, call me crazy & sentimental, to be kind of an emotional 'milestone moment' for me as her mom) and 2) she's wearing jeans.
Let's start with the jeans: I know that there are people who can't wait to put their 3-week-old baby his or her first pair of jeans on, but I've never quite understood that. Rosa is 16 months old now, and so far I haven't bought her any pair of jeans. As a wee baby she was gifted a pair of really really soft and sweet jeans -that could hardly be called that because those pants were so very soft- but for the rest I just don't see the need yet, besides maybe for crawling on the pavement. They seem so rough, unflexible and uncomfortable to me, especially compared to the soft leggings and sweat pants that a kid can also wear. So I think on this picture (where she's about 15 months old) Rosa wears jeans almost for the very first time in her life. And in fact I think it hasn't happened again in the six weeks after these pictures were taken...
Do your young children wear jeans? Are they somehow more practical & comfortable than I'm aware of? I'm curious!
Okay, second topic: Rosa's first shoes. It took us quite some time to get that thing straight, in fact we struggled with finding Rosa a good pair of shoes all winter, and when we finally found these, winter was almost over ;). You see, Rosa has never really worn little booties or soft shoes inside the house, she always prefered being barefoot or only wearing socks, and that seemed fine to us. But she just refused to wear any kind of booties even if we went outside: she'd usually already put them off within the first few minutes of a bike or stroller ride, and after a few episodes of riding all the way back because apparently Rosa had dropped one of her booties somewhere earlier on our bike ride, I was getting a bit tired of that. Somehow none of the baby booties seemed the right fit for her, they fell from her feet so easily, or they didn't fit properly at all (which had quite a bit to do with her chubby little ankles: apparently even baby shoes aren's made for the chubby little ones!). Also, I noticed that her feet were often cold after a bike ride with only baby booties on.
So we started looking for real shoes. But this was even more complicated: her feet were either still too small for 'real shoes', or (again) her ankles were too chubby for them, or the shoes were just too stiff for a baby that still has to learn how to walk. Also, we were never fully sure about her shoe size: visiting a few specialized children's shoe shops, they all came up with something different. And good children's shoes are crazily expensive: should we buy them a bit 'on the big side' so that she could at least wear them for some months, or wouldn't that be a good idea?
Finally we found Rosa a pair of cute little red Shoesme sneakers that seemed a great fit, that she didn't take off immediately and guess what... that she really loved! From the first moment we bought them, Rosa has been pointing at them and bringing them to me, making clear that she wanted to wear them. She also stood much more stable once she started wearing these.
Now that we finally knew what kind of shoes were a good fit & size for Rosa, we quickly bought a similar pair in the same size online, and I think we'll stick to these for the next few sizes. Shoesme has some nice colorways and designs, so we can keep varying for a while without getting bored (the other pair she wears now is pink with silver and green stripes).
Meanwhile all Rosa was interested in was eating the paper that her shoes were wrapped in... Somehow this thin paper is a real treat for her! (if she gets the chance she also eats toilet paper ;)).
Cardigan: HEMA, t-shirt: Zeeman, jeans: ?, shoes: Shoesme |
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Misha and Puff
Handmade
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16 April 2012 | 23:52:19
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It's stylish, timeless and never bores: oh how I love good knitwear! But not all knitwear gives you the wow-feeling, and unfortunately not every sweater knitted by your grandma has this delicate balance between a bit oldfashioned and a bit brand new. So meet Misha and Puff, a new USA-based shop that offers fantastic hand-knitted children's clothes. I think they've found that perfect balance!
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Quack!
Rosa's closet
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16 April 2012 | 10:54:05
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Rosa wears lots of vintage, but I buy all her little vintage clothes through online shops in the USA. Though I consider myself quite an experienced thrift shop & flea market hunter, I never ever find any good vintage children's clothing here in the Netherlands.
My little theory (if you're interested in hearing it ;)) is that in these 'Catholic South' surroundings where I live, families were this big in the 1950s and 1960s that every little dress or outfit was passed on to the next kid in a long line of children till it was completely worn out. Though that still leaves the question where the nice 1970s and 1980s outfits are (back then the large families were mostly history), I think this could be a reason why I never find 1950s or 1960s dresses here. Now that I think of it, maybe it also has something to do with the fact that people in the Netherlands have long been very frugal, while the USA developed into a consumer society much earlier than we did.
Anyway, whether my theories are right or not, I never find anything good here. And just when I was thinking about that last week (and complaining a bit to myself), I finally was lucky: three sweet dresses in one week! Okay, they may not be the delicate 1950s designer dresses that can be found in the best American children's vintage shops, but both Rosa and I were quite pleased with this cute duck pinafore! ;)
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Puff pants parade
Nice & new
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15 April 2012 | 21:36:45
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2 Molo soft baby pants via Emilea3 Mala jogging pants via Emilea6 Danefae sweat pants via Emilea8 Katvig velour pants via Emilea |
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Must-have pants
Rosa's closet
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12 April 2012 | 21:35:55
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With children's clothes you can go all the way as much as you like, building an extensive wardrobe in all sizes for all possible occasions, but in the end it's often a very small amount of nice & comfortable clothes that your kid ends up wearing about all the time.
If you can't or don't want to spend too much money on your baby's wardrobe, or if you want to stick to a small but practical wardrobe, this is one little 'investment piece' that I can recommend to you wholeheartedly: a pair of Danefae striped puff trousers!
Pants like these are super comfortable to wear, you can combine them with almost anything, the puff style makes them wearable for a very long period of time (see, Rosa already wore them here back in October! And chances are that she'll still be wearing them next October), the quality is great, the colorful stripes are really cute and never bore, what else can I say... I think these are the best about €25/$35 that you can spend on a piece for your child's wardrobe! (and if you're lucky you can even find these for much reduced prices at the end of the season, I think Rosa's were only €14 or so)
Striped puff pants: Danefae, wrap cardigan: Petit Louie, floral onesie: HEMA
Stay tuned for a roundup of great puff pants (about all nice Scandinavian brands have them in their collection)! |
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