• A roundup of 10 children’s trends I believe in now (and in years to come) •
A few weeks back I posted a small list of some current trends in children’s fashion that I personally believe in, on Enfants Terribles Mag’s blog. Having the title as their Trend Editor, a bi-annual trend report seemed to make sense. But the truth is, that I much prefer to talk about further-reaching trends and ways we can make the children’s consumer market into a more thoughtful, longer living and more sustainable one. And still be able to buy new things and have kids who look adorable of course.
1. Conscious-minded production
Consciously produced clothes are becoming a more and more sought after thing on the children’s consumer market at the moment. From one-woman brands where all clothes are handmade by the owner herself to smaller companies that choose to focus on a transparent and conscious way of manufacturing where quality and good work conditions counts more than quantity and low prices. These products go hand in hand with my favorite trend at the moment, shopping for fewer items, but constructed in a better quality.
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2. Handmade toys
Toys made by hand have more soul, feel nicer and are much more healthy to play with than plastic toys made in a huge factory somewhere in China. It always makes me happy to see how more and more parents choose to buy handmade toys for their kids, and how one of our local toy stores has shelves full of the most beautiful handmade items. My girls have both, and even though they play a lot with both the mass-produced plastic toys and the handmade stuff, I know for sure that it’s the handmade or homemade things they’ll keep and pass down to their kids. Check out hashtags like #handmadetoys or #handmadedolls on instagram or do a quick search on Etsy.com to see how many beautiful handmade toys are available.
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3. Messy hair
Mostly because we have a lot of this in our house, but also because messy hair looks really cute on most children (and makes for a really good top-knot).
This long-lasting, good looking and naturally produced material seems to be everywhere these days. With it’s raw surface and cool feel to it, linen has always been one of my favorite textiles and the fact that it’s now really popular amongst a lot of my favorite children’s’ brands makes me pretty excited.
When I had my first child almost seven years ago, every little girl growing up in Scandinavia would be wearing purple and brown from top to toe. Luckily that has now changed, and I’m in love with the combination of cognac, mustard and grey tones mixed with dusty pastels like pink, mint and a grayish blue pinstripe that we see from a lot of brands these days. In my head these are colors that will still look good in 2 or 3 years and can easily be combined with more vibrant colors, should you want to.
This trend seems to go hand in hand with some of the trends mentioned above, and then again not. Because even though this shape of dresses is very popular amongst the smaller brands, who hold on to conscious manufacturing and who love to work with linen, the boxy or loosely fitted dress shape is actually inspired by Japanese and Korean children’s fashion, and have been using this exact shape for years in both women’s and girls’ clothing. Now that it’s here, I hope it will never go out of style because it looks so much more flattering on a tiny girls body than a tight dress.
Another one of my favorites simply because it has been a fashion faux pas for so many years and still is if we are talking adults’ fashion. But how cute are a pair of knee-high socks in open leather sandals? My children are both big spokesmen for the socks-in-children’s-sandals trend, and this is how they leave the house almost every morning at this time a year. They get to take their socks of later in the day if the weather gets too warm and I get to avoid buying another pair of in-between-seasons shoes.
Pinafores, play suites or overalls. I’m in love with any kind of bib front design and luckily for me it was popular amongst children’s designers when my girls were small and still is.
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9. Handmade or homemade knits
If there’s one thing I really would love to be able to do, it would be to knit my own children’s clothes. I just never seem to get the hang of it (and believe I have tried!). Instagram is booming with small shops selling the most beautiful knitting patterns, and for us, who can’t do it ourselves, luckily there are a few brands or even private knitters who produce the most beautiful, hand knitted ready-to-wear items.
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10. Liberty of London
I have never been a big fan of print. With the exception of almost anything that Liberty of London produces that is. The old English textile house never goes out of style and every season they do an amazing job supplying a huge number of children’s fashion brands with new and classic prints that will be adored and worn in years to come.
