Jean-ius style

So last week was all about girls and their tights. I felt a bit bad about being so girl focused, so this week I'm going to take on something a bit more boyish, or at least unisex.

The inspiration for this post goes like this. The other day I was walking home from a lunch meeting through some parkland quite close to our apartment. The canal was frozen over and covered with snow, like icing on a big cake. The trees were completely bare of leaves and the sky was a steely gray - creating the impression of a rather naff Christmas card. As I came over the final hill- thanking the lord for my gumboots and anticipating a nice warm cocoa- I almost fell upon a group of boys using the slope for some afternoon sledding! 

All bundled up with their mittens and scarves the children were tossing themselves down the hill with the energy of small, pink faced bolts of lightening and then running back up with little breaths choofing out of them like steam trains. It was a truly exhausting sight. And yet I was also more than a little jealous. (PS I am going to find my own sled this week.)

Needless to say, no one was wearing tights. For sledding you need something much sturdier. Something like jeans. They don't tear, they're nice and warm and they don't absorb water (too) quickly.

 Ok, I know that last week I was all down on jeans, but sometimes there is nothing better than a good pair of jeans to get you through an afternoon of raucous outdoor fun. And even though they can feel a bit like a uniform in winter, the wonderful thing about jeans is that they are so darn versatile. They can be for slopping around the house, or getting good and dirty outside or even making a high fashion statement.

And if you do it right then your little sledding monsters can look stylish as well. But remember, we're after comfort and style, not K-Fed.

To illustrate my point you can start with the basics from somewhere like H&M Kids. In Australia Cotton On Kids is a good equivalent, they produce all the latest styles cheap as chips for the kids to run, in, sled in and in not such a long time from now, grow out of.

But jeans can also make a statement if you want to have fun with them. Check out these pimped up Levi's with acid wash that looks like something from The Wedding Singer. Warning: these are only for people 14 and under. If you're conceivably old enough to have worn acid wash jeans on the first trip around the fashion merry go round then they are not for you. They are also not for taking your child to lunch with grandma in, or meetings with prospective schools etc etc. These are the birthday party and disco material.

Finally, we have the classy jeans. The investment piece, if you will. There are no trends or tricks with these. They're just nicely cut and finished with no embellishment. You know you can bring your little man out to dinner wearing these ones from Stella McCartney and, if he does not drop spaghetti sauce on them, he will look just like one of Brangelina's brood. 

If you're lucky and your kids don't grow too fast they may last a couple of years before you need to invest in a new pair...

Next week... Some Danish Christmas cheer!

Take care,
Claire

Tight fit

Snow snow snow, we have had a lot of it here in Copenhagen this week. In fact as I write it is -3 degrees celsius and big fat flakes are falling outside, it is 3pm and almost dark.

Needless to say the best course of action when faced with such frostiness is to stay tucked up in bed. This way you can have the sensation of living inside a snow dome without actually having to deal with the snow. The grand secret of snow being that whilst it makes everything look very soft and pristine white, it is extremely cold.

Alas, sometimes leaving the warm confines of the apartment cannot be avoided. Going outside these days involves several layers of clothing, beginning with thermal underwear and ending with a fluffy hat. How to make oneself look respectable in such a gettup is almost beyond my powers. Simple jeans and boots are the best solution. But there are only so many days that you can wear jeans before you begin to crave a little femininity in the form of a skirt (and also jeans do start to smell weird after a while, I mean, you have to wash them at some point right?).

Luckily some genius person invented tights for occasions such as these. After days or weeks of jeans there can be nothing more glorious than slipping into a pair of thick woolen tights (or two for extra thermal layers) and getting all girled up in a nice skirt. 

Sadly, unless you have the legs of a baby giraffe you have probably not ventured into the realms of the boldly coloured tights featured so heavily in the last few seasons. But you need not discount them completely, because they do look fabulous on little girls...in fact  there is also nothing cuter than little girls in skirts and tights.

This winter there has been an explosion of adorably colourful ruffle skirts and cute smock dresses colour blocked with bold tights. Ribbing has been popular (as seen in these efforts from Wheat). 

If you want something a bit more fun Petite Bateau make polka dots look more stylish than you would have thought possible. 

If there was ever a less harmful way to live vicariously through your daughter it is surely with a colourful selection of tights, what girl doesn't want bright (insert favourite colour here) legs? 

Wanna swap legs?

After all, unless a herd of baby giraffes wanting to trade legs comes along, the rest of us aren't going to be able to pull them off quite so easily any time soon. 

Wish as we might.

Take care, 

Claire.

Couture for Kids - worth the cost?

This weekend just passed my brilliant boyfriend organised a surprise trip from Copenhagen to Berlin. After five hours of hurtling along the German autobahn at 160km/ph, a confusing encounter with a Burger King employee called Boheme and almost making schnitzel of ourselves and an unfortunate deer, we finally arrived in one of the hippest districts of the former GDR, Friedrichshain.

Berlin has one of the youngest and most dynamic populations in all of Europe. The relatively low rent and the city's reputation as an arts and culture hub keep new inhabitants streaming in constantly, whilst the old ones grow up, get responsible and move to Munich or some such. 

Dolce & Gabbana

So it is perhaps counter intuitive that über cool Friedrichshain would also count amongst the most fertile places in Europe. The birth rate in this small area of Berlin is the highest in Europe due to the extremely high proportion of the population that is young and female (not because Berliners are more loving than everyone else).

At a local market the next morning we observed all sorts of kinder running around in the fresh autumn air. And Berlin struck me as a place where a dilemma faced by parents all over the world is being played out, highlighted by the historical contrasts of East and West. That is between an older GDR attitude based on local producers, hand me down clothes and crafty cool and a newer, flashier style more reminiscent of Parisian fashion shows. Basically, how much money is it worth splashing on the kids' wardrobe to get them in some labels?

Gucci

 All parents want to do the best for their kids and make sure they are warm, comfortable and stylishly equipped to meet the world. As they get older, obviously a child's own perceptions of chic will start to play a role in the selection of clothes as well. 

At the markets we encountered lots of local producers making good quality kids clothing. Not just knick nacks like scarves and mittens, but dresses, pants and shirts. All were beautifully sewn or recovered elsewhere and lovingly repaired or updated. Certainly there was something about these clothes (perhaps a lack of sleekness?) which suggested that they were not designed by Chloe. And yet if we consider how fast children grow and how hard they wear their clothes – does the significantly lower price tag justify the loss of the couture factor?

Galliano

A few blocks away from the market we stopped for breakfast at a trendy little cafe and whilst waiting on my muesli I flicked though a copy of German childrens' fashion mag, Luna. Unfortunately this page is only in German, but it is easy enough to navigate the different fashion features by picture.  Luna features some of the best childrens' fashion from top designers around the world. I oogled the designs of Ralph Lauren, Gucci and D & G worn by models toddling down the runway.

Il Gufo

Roberto Cavalli

There can be no doubt that the children looked gorgeous and the quality of design and fabrics is evident. But, like the inhabitants of the GDR suddenly faced with packed supermarket shelves of imported goods after the fall of the wall, I started to wonder if it was all just a bit too much. 

My question is, do kids really belong in designer duds? Maybe a nice party dress and a shiny new pair of shoes are all they need to keep them happy, at least until they hit the teen years. 

Perhaps we should be looking for inspiration in these designs rather than an actual purchase. What do you think? Are designer childrens' clothes worth the investment?

Claire.