I have always been a collector of vintage, first out of high school necessity, later out of habit and the love of a treasure hunt. After having my daughter a few years ago I began to look out for children’s clothes. Not just great vintage tee shirts but dresses made of feed sacks, pillowcases and bedspreads. Jumpers with rickrack and threadbare cotton shifts. Not only did I find these inspiring for their beauty, but for their ingenuity, and that they retained a history. Many were clothes that had started as something else; a parent’s shirt, or had grown with the child; jeans with fabric added on the hem, as she grows taller.

We had an idea of doing a collection inspired by these American clothes. Clothes that are just as beautiful when worn by the third child as by the first. Beautiful dresses meant to be played in – that look as good freshly ironed as rumpled. They are based on the tradition of making clothes at home, out of something that has already been used and has a history.

These are the clothes that I would have worn the summer my family spent driving across the country in our red van, camping or sleeping in the back. My favorite dress was actually a nightgown  and I slept in it, swam in it, hiked in it. We drove from New York City to Maine and then across to Los Angeles stopping at what seemed like every Art Museum, Car Museum, National Park, and Southern Mansion. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s house was one of the highlights, along with waking up in my grandmother’s house after my father had driven all night.

My hope is that our grandchildren might come across these clothes in an attic or thrift store one day and be as inspired as I have been. They may still hold traces of the fun that was had.

Wear these climbing rocks at the beaches in Maine, at Coney Island, Far Rockaway, Boca Grande, Key West, Laguna and La Jolla. Made in America, these are dresses for walking in New York City or along the Mississippi River. Exploring the Everglades, hiking in the Adirondacks, visiting the farms of Missouri, driving to the Grand Canyon, sleeping under the stars at Yosemite, collecting leaves in Vermont. We hope that in these dresses our children will explore with abandon, soak up the sun, and be wild and free. Don’t wear shoes unless the asphalt is too hot!

Let us know what you think!

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