Gearhead Mom

Monday, October 08, 2007

Catalog Love

Posted by Missy W. @ 1:39 PM

As we get Sy into bed each night she’s allowed to pick out a few books from her shelf for us to read to her. It’s a sad state of consumer affairs in my house when the “book” she goes for the most is actually the Mini Boden catalog. I must have been browsing through it one day as she was playing in her room. It ended up in her bookshelf and it has remained there ever since, part of the permanent collection. She sidles up to her bookshelf and grabs the yellow, dog-eared little booklet and says that she’ll read the “catayog” to her lovies and I can sit on the floor and watch (nice of her to give me such a great seating assignment, eh?).

She generally starts with the boys section, pointing out the images on the shirts, naming the colors or looking for something with stripes. This “holey cow” shirt is currently her favorite. When she finally turns to the girl’s side of the catalog, it cracks her up that she has to flip it over to see the girls’ faces right side up. We discuss which items she likes best and I throw in the occasional comment about how my clothes don’t cost a fraction of what these do. She ignores me and moves on, seeking out the inevitable butterfly shirt. Oooh, sparkly!

I complain about the price, but I really do love just about everything in this catalog. The children’s line has been around since 1996 and gets more inventive as the seasons pass. I got my girl some sassy pink and brown striped sweatpants last year that lasted her almost twelve months. They are thick, don’t fade much and can take many a fall on the knee. I think that the sizes run big, so error on the side of caution. I like that the t-shirts for the smaller kids have buttons on the side so that their big ol’ heads don’t get stuck.

I also like the fresh attitude of the clothes; nothing is too precious, nor is it too grown-up. It’s well made, fun and functional. Just what kid’s clothing should be. Although I have the same complaint for the boy’s line that I do for most boy’s lines: the colors are generally safe, muddy and oft-boring (red, navy, khaki, blah blah blah). The boy’s clothes often have images of dogs, skulls, sharks, and all the stereotypical “boy” stuff. What if your boy doesn’t like skulls or sharks? Why can’t a boy’s shirt have some flowers on it? And for that matter, why can’t girl’s tees have sharks and skateboards instead of butterflies and flowers? That being said, I did get Sy a cool girl’s tee with a guitar on it from the spring collection. Of course, come to think of it, the guitar had flowers all over it. Ah well, baby steps. It’s too bad more companies don’t channel Zutano’s zest for color and liveliness in a unisex approach. I’m glad to see that Zutano has a collection that now goes up to six years old. Ah, I digress. This is a minor complaint because I think Boden does a far better job making imaginative kid’s clothing than many other big box stores out there.

Snapshot:
• Mini Boden makes distinctive, well-made clothes for babies, kids and adults.
• The price-point is higher, but the clothes last a long time.
• The sizes run on the larger side, so size cautiously. Or throw caution to the wind and take advantage of their easy return policy.

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