Frontsies Backsies

You know the deal beause we all did it as kids.  You let your best friend in front of you in the long line at school or at a ride at the fair and they reciprocate the "favor" by letting you go in front of them.

Well, here we mean something entirely diferent.  It's when you have a shirt that has a pattern on the front and a different pattern on the back.  Its a creative look because it shows that the designer was not just making this shirt to get by which they could have done with the front pattern but wanted it to be especially cute and in most cases they succeed.  Mom's and Dad's love 'em because they add a special touch to what otherwise may have been just a cute T, cuz now its a cute too plus the "don't look now but WHAM!  GOTCHYA, Bet you didnt see THAT coming!

:-)

Here are a few boys and girls looks that cute on their own but throw in the back of the shirt and you got that "WHAM, DONT LOOK NOW" look!

Well Start with the GianFranco Ferre Shirt that we worked in the last few days.  The front is sedate.  The back, WOW! Factor 7!

GianFranco Ferre Kids T-Shirt

Or for a little softer change from front to back with a definite cuteness factor is this Paul Smith Junior T-Shirt (hard to digitally depict in orange as is red, so see the pic o the site for better and more accurate color)

Paul Smith Junior Paper Dog T-Shirt

which has the paper model dog folded in the front but with the unfolded tabbed in the back.  Definitely cute!  WOW! Factor 4 

For the Girls here are two examples, first being the Lili Gaufrette Ludeul Bow Top which looks meh in the front but with the three bows in the back is quite adorable.  Even so the WOW Factor gets a 5 as its a cute but quiet top.

Lili Gaufrette Ludeul Bow Top

Finally for a simply adorable look on the theme of Frontsies-Backsies you can't beat Little Marc Jacobs who usually does something like the Miss Marc Kirsten Sweat Dress below. 

Miss Marc Sweat Dress Front

With the Back Here.  Simply Adorable for a WOW! FACTOR 9

How do I know that Moms and Dad's love em?  Cause that's the last piece!

Fashion Faceoff 2 - It's Color War!

We will assume for the sake of this post that you like a little bit of color in your life and even those that dont like color for themselves probably like to see it on their kids.  (and if you don't like color or you don't have kids then we will just wonder what you might be doing here ;-)  )

That being said, how do YOU like your color?

Do you like it orderly like the Gianfranco Ferre T-Shirt on the left (And before you go wondering where the color is on the GFF Shirt, check out the second pic for the back of the shirt.  How you like me now ;-) ??)  Or like the Cavalli Devil's on the right which has that splash of paint mixed into the shirt embraced by the bright orange frame?

Gianfranco Ferre to the left,  Cavalli Devils to the right

The GFF Shirt back side.  Next to the Cavalli on the right

And if you really arent into the color that much and even the bold stripes of the GFF shirt is more than you can handle then how about the tye die colors of the Lacoste Kids Shirt, Wildly popular this season and loads less than the premius designer stuff (But thats NOT why we put three shirts to the one in the pic ;-)  )

So which do YOU prefer?

Let us know and vote!

Diesel's Use of Denim

Lets face it.  Depite the johhny come lately's no one does denim quite like Diesel (and the Diesel Kids Line as well) . From the Denim's to the Chambrays to the Blends of Denim and Jersey which I love when they do, denim is Diesel's specialty.

Below are some of the stronger pieces from the Spring 2012 Diesel Kids denims that Tuesday's Carried this season.  One of them (the one on the right of the first photo)  was actually used by Willow Smith, the daughter of Actor Will Smith in a photo Shoot done in fact for Diesel.

And the blends of cloth and denim (not that Denim is not a cloth but you know what I mean ;-) )

From the first photo you have Willow Smith's Photo shoot seen here (note the TuesdaysChild.com Credit!): 

Oh... on a final note I am gonna have to say that I prefer the photo above to Willow's new look (and not just the glasses)! :-)

The Matching Faux Pas - Avoid It!

Matching is not rocket science, but it does need a little bit of thought to say the least.  I like to tell people to go with your feelings and that one needs to get a visual when in doubt.  Basically line up the items and get a feel for what the items might look like together.  You dont want to get a look like this

which is "interesting" in a PJ but you probably shouldnt be caught dead in public in.  Come to think of it maybe skip them even at home.  As comedian Kathleen Madigan says, dont sleep in weird PJ's when you are in earthquake areas.  Last think you want to be thinking when the ground shakes and there is fear of the building collapsing is if you want to be seen outside in those!

In that theme, you want to avoid something like this:

Instead find a color in the item you are starting with, in this case a Quiksilver kids  and work with that color to get a little contrast. In this example I took the wide stripe in the pant and paired it with the coordinating color as so giving it a fresh Spring/Summer look:

And if its the shirt you were trying to match up then try something like this beige/tan Quiksilver Kids short which takes the earthtones of the short (green, beige and off white) and adds the tan to it:

Of course you can use a universal matching color like black which works with almost everything and pair it together with the tan short for a strong contrast like this:

In general, hold it up to the sounding board of your own mind and if it looks something like this 

you know its probably not a good idea.

Mix and Match

Often a designer will create one piece and design a second completing piece around it so that in essence the entire look is one company.  This makes it easy for both the buyer and the end user i.e. the customer to lock into one look of a particular designer which is what most designers want to see.

In fact when we see a piece that is a color that might be hard to match for example some shades of blue (perriwinkle) or green (teal for example) which are incredibly hard to match with other blues and greens (hint:  They don't match) we are often forced to skip over them despite how sharp or cute the item might be.

That being said, you arent always forced to keep to one brand if thats your preference.  In order to make sure that the items you like work together try and keep to a shade or color that you find in the item you have picked and work around that.

For example, take this Little Marc Jacobs Lassie Skirt. 

 If you look closely (click on the picture) you see the colors that abound in this skirt.  Its got the orange/pink and the traces of fuscia in the cloud formation of the skirt and although the designer probably wants to see something like this Little Marc Jacobs "Lonnie"

T-Shirt accompanying it for a look like this:

However if you are comfortable going a little outside the norm you can pair with other like toned items such as this:

which picks up the Pink from the Little Miss Marc "Lemon" T-Shirt 

getting a little more pink (but boring)  with this Splendid Top:

Or if you are really daring give a splash of the Bold with either of these two Burberry T-Shirts:

Both of these looks are a little strong on the top but definitely work.

Gianfranco Ferre, I've loved you from afar

With the economy being what it was we minimized travel this past season and that meant we tried doing as much as we could from afar.  The Italian trip didnt happen in the winter (for the Spring 2012 Season) and we tried to do as much as we could via correspondence.

Fortunately in this day and age of the world wide web and digital photography that is not as difficult as it may have been in the past.  We emailed our suppliers and within a few days we had pictures in our email box to choose from.

So on a blustery Winter night in 2011 (unlike the balmy Winter the east coast has had this year) we all sat down and selected our Gianfranco Ferre and Laura Biagiotti for the spring 2012 collection.

And here is some of what we came up with (see the balance of the collection thus far, online):

 

and the Back

Do The Right Thing with Galliano

Having incredible talent and being a nice person doesn't always go together as was illustrated in 2011 with the John Galliano fiasco where he got drunk and said some disgusting things that got him quickly fired from Dior and even his namesake brand, the John Galliano brand which is owned by Dior.

But as Dior did the right thing by firing Galliano we felt that it would be the wrong thing to penalize Dior who owned the brand if we were to skip it for more than the initial season that the scandal broke.

And we are glad we didnt because its cute, fresh and hip at the same time.  The design is by Dior and the production is by Diesel.  Cant go wrong with that combination!

Here are some of the newest arrivals from the Spring 2012 Galliano Collection with more to come:

So Simple Yet So Nice

Armani Junior continues to impress us season after season.  No great deviations for classic.  No wild swings from the normal.  Yes they continue to put out nice and wearable with just enough touch of different, season after season.

Here are a couple of items that are already in store and available on the site, with more to come.

It doesnt get much cuter than this:

And as usual a great gift set: