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Keep it local, baby With the array of kidwear and gear sold by Austinites, it's a snap for wee Central Texans to exude style By Jenny Miller SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN Thursday, July 19, 2007 – There was once a time of pink blossoms and puppy dogs and unicorns. We call this the dark ages. Before the whimsical appliquéd bodysuits, before the Sex Pistols rompers, before the personalized melamine dishware and the teddy bears fashioned from vintage curtains, we lived in a world in which baby and children's goods tended to be overly cutesy and overly mass-produced. The great news these days for Austin parents of all persuasions (edgy, upscale or down-to-earth) is that it's easy to find unique, often handmade goods for baby, and it's possible to keep purchases entirely local. Take Moxie and the Compound, a South Austin shop that sells only local goods. The large children's and baby section was the original source for 1970s punk-rock rompers (made by owner Kayci Wheatley), and it also teems with tiny Western shirts by Ramonsterwear, cheekily sloganed Rockit Baby bodysuits and hand-sewn baby-cessories. When Wheatley opened Moxie four years ago, she focused solely on baby and kids' items — starting with the punk-album bodysuits inspired by her husband's collection of late-1970s singles. "I had a line of clothes that I sold wholesale. I knew a bunch of people who did that, so I said, 'Let's open a store,' " Wheatley says. Less than a mile away (the edgy baby movement seems to have South Austin roots), Rockit Baby founder Christine Scott runs her mostly Web-based business out of her home. Her specialty is silk-screened T-shirts that declare things like "Chicks Dig Me" and "My Mom's Tattoos Are Cooler Than Your Mom's." "When I had J.V. there was nothing out there," Scott says, referring to the dearth of edgy items available for her son, now age 8. "Now it's at Old Navy. People aren't that shocked anymore — I don't get that 'Omigosh!' reaction." Baby-based irreverence has indeed gone mainstream. The latest phenomenon in babyland isn't as much tongue-in-cheek T-shirts, but the rise of so-called mompreneurs, usually stay-at-home mothers who build businesses based on some creative or practical innovation. A high number of mompreneurs and "alternaparents" call this city home. Salam MacGregor, mother of two school-age children and founder of Once Upon a Box, makes put-together children's party kits. Ranging in theme from Astronauts and Aliens to Carnivals and Cotton Candy, the kits include invitations, thank-you notes, paper cups and plates, candles and a cookie cutter. MacGregor, a former advertising executive who now works out of her home in West Austin's Rob Roy development, weighs in on the mompreneur trend: "There are all these opportunities you can only see after you have kids," she says. "You have all this background in business and you come up with solutions of what you need and what moms need." Another in-town innovation is Diaper Baggies, made by Lakeway-based mom Tasha Collier. The adorably adorned zipper-close plastic baggies were inspired by Collier's own diaper difficulties (she has two children). Unlike regular plastic bags, these are specially designed to keep messy diapers odorless and leak-free until they can be tossed — and they're cute. Over in Tarrytown, Kelly Kirkland, a mother of three, runs Mayfly and Junebug Designs out of her home. The company offers personalized birth announcements, invitations, stationery, diaper bag tags and, most recently, customizable plates and placemats. There's also Two Blue Peas (www.twobluepeas.com), a nationally known but locally based online shop that carries unique or handmade baby items — say lime green patent leather mini moccasins or a hand-sewn felt sushi set. Sarah Brown and Helen Huckaba worked together in marketing before starting the business this year out of Huckaba's Circle C home, which makes it easy for Huckaba to care for her 10-month-old daughter, Lillie. The business partners cull unique products from all over the country, and they also carry local children's apparel line Mullins Square. The who's who of Austin mompreneurs could go on and on. Just log on to any of the chat rooms, start haunting the baby boutiques or get together with girlfriends for mommy-tinis if you want proof. Or, check out the items we've collected. There's something for every baby, from classic to mod to modern. And it's nice to know the next generation is already hard at work keeping Austin the way we like it: homegrown. |
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