How homegrown kids fashion labels are bucking the retail blues

SINGAPORE - Good news for fashion-forward parents — the indie kidswear retail scene here is heating up, and the new entrants are making it easier for children to look as stylish as mummy and daddy.

Until a few years ago, the bulk of kidswear options available at the malls comprised high-street brands such as Fox Babies and Kids, Cotton On Kids, H&M Kids and Mothercare, which focused on basics and mass fashion items. A handful of high-end boutique labels such as Club 21’s designer childrenswear boutique Kids21, Fendi Kids and Chateau de Sable offered more trend-led designs but at premium prices.

Over the past couple of years, the online retail space has seen an explosion of e-stores catering to parents with little time to browse wares at malls. The emergence of a handful of small-scale local kidswear designers and online boutiques, such as Emma Laue (http://www.emmalaue.com), Elly (http://www.ellyloves.com) and organic clotheswear label Belle & Dean (http://www.belleanddean.com), gives more sartorial options, although their specialised concepts and focus on baby and toddlerwear make them rather limited.

The launch of Australian kidswear brand Seed Heritage last year heralded a first in the retail scene here. The fashion brand offers a full range of kidswear and accessories, with regular seasonal collections inspired by current fashion trends, and caters for newborns to teens. Singapore is the second Asian market the brand has entered apart from Hong Kong — its three stores here (at VivoCity, Parkway Parade and the flagship store at Wisma Atria, which opened in December) have reportedly seen brisk sales and received significant online buzz.

Hot on its heels was the unveiling of local fashion label In Good Company’s Mini-Me range of children’s clothing. “We also wanted to address the lack of designs in the market for little girls that were neither Disney nor princess-like,” said Sven Tan, co-founder and co-designer of In Good Company. “We thought there was a wee audience for modern, fashion-forward clothing that was well-made and well-priced for its quality. Dressing three generations of women from toddler to mother to grandmother also appealed to us.”

The gap between the pricey, sartorially forward labels and the affordable-but-mass brands is one that Tan hopes to fill. “We are meeting a niche between price brackets, just in between mass, economical brands and high-fashion kidswear. That said, we are the only home-grown kidswear brand stocked alongside Baby Dior and Moncler Enfant at Kids21.”

Echoing his sentiments is Cheryl Tan, founder of boutique PriviKids, which has three retail stores here at Suntec City Mall, Waterway Point and Changi City Point, as well as an online store (http://www.privi-kids.com). “The kidswear retail scene here was mainly divided into two categories — well-designed with high-quality fabrics but expensive, or cheap but badly designed using poor-quality fabrics. (To me), PriviKids bridges this gap in the market. Our collection includes a well-curated range of boys’ and girls’ clothes for newborns to 12-year-olds that are well-designed and of good quality at affordable pricing.” Tan sources globally for the items she carries in-store, and plans to launch an in-house lifestyle and kidswear label in the next two years.

The practicalities of dressing a child stylishly in high-cost Singapore were also the inspiration for Ana Abdat, designer and founder of new-to-market brand Maison Q. The label features reversible clothes with quirky, colourful prints, and the dresses have an A-line design so that they can be worn as tunics as the child grows taller. It is only available online (at http://www.maison-q.com) for now.

“Children outgrow their clothes so quickly yet parents, myself included, cannot resist getting them new outfits ever so often. To justify these purchases, I would often buy a size bigger and insert elastic bands at the waist so that it can be worn for longer. So one day I thought, what if I could give parents more mileage for an outfit?” noted Ana. The concept seems to be a hit, with sales registering steady growth since its launch eight months ago.

She added that the most popular items have been the brand’s limited-edition festive collections, such as drop-waisted Jacquard dresses for Christmas and reversible cheongsums for Chinese New Year. Next up: She is set to unveil Jacquard and reversible baju kurung designs to coincide with the Hari Raya Puasa celebrations in July.

While retail in general is weak, the upward demand for trendy, unique and affordable kidswear seems to be a bright spark for these fashion entrepreneurs, most of whom are looking to expand in the near future, albeit cautiously.

“Growth is always on our mind and the next two years will have us focus on this. We hope to increase our point of distribution via boutique shops that are already in the market. We have also gotten multiple requests for adult version of our clothes, so we are exploring ways to execute this in a tasteful manner,” said Ana.