A HINT WHEN GIVING CLOTHES: COLOR MAKES KIDS HAPPY
Surely you can think of something more original than mini-prep for kids’ fashion gifts this Christmas. Children aren’t known for getting all excited over clothes under the Christmas tree anyway, so why make it duller by watching them open boxes full of teeny weeny oxford cloth button down shirts and itty bitty alligator crew sweaters that look like the ones next door, and down the street, and around the block?
Donna Wolyner can’t bear to see rack after rack of the same thing, so she opened her own store this fall – Smart-tee-Pants Designs, Inc., and livened up a corner of Brookline. Stepping into her place at Number 34, from the faded brick and macadam- dark cloud of Station street, is like going from the black and white to the technicolor segments of “The Wizard of Oz.”
Oh yeah, childhood, that’s right. Kids love color. Color makes kids happy. The place is color from top to bottom, thanks to Wolyner, who is an artist and was dying and painting and stitching kids’ longjohns and underwear as a Boston University student, before she bought the store.
Now she’s extended her talents to overalls, to which she has added polka dot ribbon trim, and raincoats, which she personalizes with a heart and a name over the chest, for $9.50 total. Where else can a six-month-size find taffeta bloomers? Or a grandmother find a newborn’s underwear set handpainted with her grandson’s name, in Hebrew? Or a boy find mini-bow ties in the wonderful fabrics dad has? Wolyner couldn’t find these in the market and so contracted to have them made herself, for $4.50.
And, to liven up the sweatshirts that girls love to wear, she dyed them lavendar and gold and fuchsia and removed the sleeves, puffed up the shoulders, and sewed them back on, updated. Wolyner’s trusty sewing machine and paint pot are always by her side, right near the cash register, so she can personalize clothes while she minds the store.
You can’t get through the holidays without an alligator? Wolyner presents them tongue in cheek. On sailor hats, she has painted the Izod reptilian symbol all across the brim, and on the oxford cloth button down shirts she has painted, not sewn, the alligator in the expected spot…and then she has dribbled the same green paint in little dots down the front tab and around the collar.
Chinese shoes in every color are packaged in Chinese food cartons in tissue paper matching the shoes; T-shirts and underwear and socks are packaged in popcorn containers. Her front display cases are filled with the kinds of stocking stuffers preteen girls go mad for: colored lip pins and earrings that are tiny Crayolas and barrettes that are vegetables. Pretty hair ribbon is sold by the yard.
Back along the Common, the venerable sheepskin specialists Antartex have some of their best garments in little sizes too, namely, warm sheepskin mittens in Sizes 1 through 7 for $10; sheepskin booties/slippers in infant and kid sizes for $20, and handknit sweaters from Scotland in pure, heavy wool for $30 to $60.