When I moved down to Australia from living in Denmark, one thing I knew I would miss was being able to get some of that specific colorful, retro clothes for my little girl. It was a world that I recently had been introduced to by the birth of my daughter, and now I was kind of hooked on the great quality of all these Scandinavian brands like, Katvig, Småfolk, Ej Sikke Lej, Danefæ, Molo, Plastisock to just name a few. Well to my happy surprise there were more Swedish moms down under who was missing the same things. Two moms in particular, Helen Lindell Alexandersson and Anna Norelius was missing it so much that they realized they were onto a demand that needed to be filled. Thus was Baby Goes Retro born! Here is a look into their fabulous retro world...
Can you tell us a little about how Baby Goes Retro started? What is your inspiration, and how did you come up with the name?
We both just had our second baby and were talking about how many beautiful and funky retro clothes you can find in Scandinavia for kids and how hard it was to find anything similar here. We were also quite keen to have something to do while we were home raising our children that provided a bit of a challenge for the mind as well as setting ourselves up for when they would be old enough to go to school. We wanted a name that included the word baby and also that described that our clothes were different and one morning Anna just woke up and there it was; Baby goes Retro!
Choosing your brands for Baby Goes Retro must be one of the fun parts of owning a children's clothing shop. What are some of the things you look for when deciding what brands would suit BGR?
It has to fit in with our philosophy that children should be children as long as possible! We look for colourful happy clothes that has beautiful and playful patterns and prints that kids take to. We believe that girls only have to wear pink and boys blue so we love all sorts of colours for both genders. The quality is also very important. It has to last, as our clothes are meant to be played in! A lot of our brands use organic cotton which are a big plus in our selection process.
The retro look is something that is deeply rooted in Scandinavians consciousness. Most Scandinavian adults grew up wearing these bold, colourful clothes, and are now buying them for their children. Has it been difficult introducing the retro love over in Australia where the gender colours have mostly been dominated with pink and blue?
We're not going to lie and say it has been easy but right from the start we got some attention from a few children's magazine editors that really liked that we offered something different so that helped getting us off to a good start. A lot of our customers have some sort of connection to Scandinavia and are a familiar with some of the brands and the style of clothing but then we have those that discover us and just falls head over heels for the retro look. We have worked hard to share our ideas that it is ok for girls and boys to wear other colours than the more traditional and that they can be mixed up with other colours to make an interesting outfit.
You have recently also opened up a brick and mortar shop for Baby Goes Retro, so now you are also available in a store as well as online. What has been some of the challenges and rewards of coming so far as to being able to have both?
As our children have grown, so has our business! This has been perfect for us as now when all four of them are in school it has given us more time during the day to be able to commit to a shop front and the hours that come with that. As we are very established online thanks to our wonderful and loyal customers, we now have time to concentrate in getting the B&M shop off the ground. It has posed a new set of challenges to find our feet marketing to the local community compared to internet marketing. What we love with having a shop is that it is so much fun to meet our customers face to face and hear their thoughts and opinions.
Since Australia and Scandinavia is not sharing the same seasons (summer in Australia means winter in Scandinavia), how do you go about deciding what clothes you are going to pick to suit the Australian customers?
It isn’t always easy to offer the latest styles to our customers as especially the winters in Scandinavia is just so much colder and harsher than here. We do however try and choose the most appropriate styles for the seasons here and we also like to mix it up a bit as some customers like to buy ahead or are going on holidays etc.
Baby Goes Retro is a little bit of Scandinavia in Australia, what are some of your favorite Scandinavian things that you miss having, living in Australia?
Oh too much to mention here! Lollies and food comes to mind and luckily IKEA has a lot covered there but of course not the fresh food and the many lovely breads we have back in Sweden. We also really miss the wonderful long nights we get in the summer, nothing can really beat a Swedish summer!
A new season has just landed on the shelves at Baby Goes Retro, can you share your favorite picks from the spring & summer 2011 collections with us?
As the beach season is nearly upon us we really love the new Sandy Feet range. Not only are the bathers very funky and can be mixed and matched easily, new for this season is also beautiful beach kaftans for the girls. For babies you can’t go past the adorable animal print onesies and tees from Danish Ida T. For the boys a straw hat from Swedish label CTH Mini is a must this summer.
What is coming up next for Baby Goes Retro, any dreams on the horizon?
As we only just opened up our B&M store we would like to see it develop and over time become a well known destination on the Sunshine Coast for all things Scandinavian for the family and home. For our online side we will continue to serve (and surprise!) our customers with even more cool and fashionable labels...the sky is the limit!
Huge thanks to Helen and Anna from the wonderful Baby Goes Retro Team for the great look into their fabulous retro world.
Baby Goes Retro is offering Minor De:tales readers 15% off storewide for 1 week, so don't miss out on a great chance to stock up some unique colourful clothes! Simply use code: MD2011 when checking out. Happy shopping!!
VISIT: Baby Goes Retro
BABY GOES RETRO SHOP:
Shop 3, 129 Moolooaba Esp
Moolooaba, QLD 4557
Australia
