Labels to watch: ‘Happy brands’ - children’s clothing for adults

Children’s clothing is not only cute but often also funny, comfortable and puts the wearer in a good mood. No wonder then that the question arises ‘Why isn’t this available in adult sizes too?’ If you have had enough of drab adult clothes in the usual grey, black and blue tones, the three ‘happy brands’ that FashionUnited is featuring below will be for you. Added bonus: the clothes are available in all sizes so that the whole family can sport the same look.

Chio Mi

Chio Mi is a German premium lifestyle brand with colourful statement sweatshirts in a mini-me look for the whole family. The sweatshirts are embroidered with special motifs in a 3D technique or sequins and designed to spread joy while being comfortable to wear.

Co-founder Julia Wallner is a handbag design and production specialist who helped premium and luxury brands design and produce best-selling handbag and accessories collections for many years; most recently during a nine-year stint as head designer for Liebeskind in Berlin before starting her own label.

Wallner designed the first colourful sweatshirts as gifts for the children of friends while on a business trip in Italy. “I wanted cool Christmas presents for my friends' children. So I bought patches and plain sweatshirts that I sewed the patches onto,” remembers Wallner. The presents were a hit with the children, soon also with adults so that the design specialist knew she was onto something.

The distribution model is as unique as the shirts: People buy the items when they are in a good mood, which is often on vacation. Hence, Chio Mi products are available at hotel gift shops at popular vacation spots such as Ibiza in Spain, at the Bavarian resort town Tegernsee but also in pop-up shops, for example in Berlin or other big cities in Germany that have a large tourist population.

“Brick and mortar stores work better for us because people can see and feel the quality,” says Wallner. Thus, more stores are planned in Ibiza and other European vacation spots in the future. A second collection is also in the works.

Tura Turi

Tura Turi is a Mumbai-based, women-led brand that specialises in clothing made from natural and sustainable materials for children and adults. “Cotton is at the center of all our clothing and we ensure to source and use only the top quality, sustainable kind. The buttons of our kurtas [tunics, ed.] are made out of coconut shell and we use paper and cloth packaging extensively. As much as possible, we try to keep our products as fuss-free and as environmentally friendly as possible,” explains co-founder Priyanka Bhattacharya Dutt in an email to FashionUnited.

Most importantly, the brand understands children’s (and adults’) needs - festive wear, for example, can be scratchy and uncomfortable. Not at Tura Turi: “A regular brand might sell you a great-looking lehenga for Diwali, but your daughter will never wear it because the zari work [embroidery with gold or silver thread, ed.] is scratchy. A mom-led brand like Tura Turi will know exactly what a child likes or wears in terms of collars, sleeves, fabric, etc. Our brand is about clothes that not just look great, but feel great,” adds Bhattacharya Dutt. This makes the brand popular with mothers of children within the 0-6 year age group, the brand’s biggest group of buyers.

The brand is also very proud of its Indian heritage, which shines through in the original prints that focus on Indian art and folklore. “Every print we create tries to tell a story. We take inspiration from well known and not so well known Indian folk art, in an attempt to make it more accessible to children,” states Bhattacharya Dutt. Each print is designed from scratch in-house, making it unique, which gives the brand an advantage in an otherwise quite saturated market.

Jurassic Apparel

With the tag line “Discover the wild side of fashion,” Jurassic Apparel has dedicated itself to a very specific theme: dinosaurs. They come in all patterns, shapes and sizes at the Colorado-based company, and most importantly, the clothes are available for all ages and shipped worldwide.

Families can coordinate their outfits and pick something from the Dadasaurus or Mamasauras collections and find matching clothes for their children or babies. The range includes swimwear and shoes, also accessories like tote bags, backpacks and purses. The brands works with artists to release new designs every month.

“I really just want to emphasise that we are here for dinosaur lovers. We love hearing feedback that we can incorporate into our products. Our goal is to create products that meet every dinosaur fans needs, wants and interests,” says Jurassic Apparel team member John Honochick.