KidStyleFile

Today’s post written by Miki

Today’s coverage of Playtime Paris 2009 is all about footwear, with two French brands and one from the US to bring to your attention.

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Bensimon

The Bensimon collection of tennis shoes is effortlessly chic, extraordinarily comfortable and indubitably French. Created by Serge Bensimon in 1984, each season’s collection reflects Bensimon’s influences with one of his most recent being inspired entirely by Paris, his home city.

Available in several different styles including lace up, elastic slip-on and ballerina, Bensimon shoes are washable and easy to wear.

There are currently no online stockists of Bensimon in Australia, but bricks & mortar store Arida in Sydney is a good place to start looking. Bensimon shoes are distributed throughout Australia by Studio Imports.

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Pom d’Api

Around since 1870, and under their current name since 1973, Pom d’Api shoes are of a very high quality and are well designed for lively, active children. They have been carefully created by Pom d’Api’s inhouse children’s shoe specialists to be the best possible support for growing children’s feet, but more than this, the shoes are attractive and unique to look at.

The collection includes shoes varying from those suitable for school, to decorative sandals to funky winter boots. A large selection of styles, fabrics and colours makes the Pom d’Api shoe collection irresistible.

The main Australian stockist of Pom d’Api is The Kids Room.

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Polliwalks

The US label Polliwalks was created with the idea that children’s shoes should offer fun as much as support, and should be ‘friends’ that the children will be happy to take with them everywhere they go.  Head designer and brand creator Joel Rusnak was formerly a shoe designer and a toy designer, and the two elements have been combined in the Polliwalks products.

Each style is inspired by a different animal, with penguins, dinosaurs, frogs, ladybirds and fish all represented, among others.  The two new special editions include a fish whose lips change colour in the sun, and a firefly whose tail lights up.  The shoes are all made of an easy-clean soft foam, carefully molded to support growing feet. The soles of all shoes have individual footprints which children delight in.

Polliwalks are difficult to find in Australia, but can be purchased from these overseas websites.

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Please check individual sites for shipping details.

Today’s post written by Miki

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More goodies today from the recent Playtime Paris 2009 childrenswear trade show in the form of Coq en Pâte éditions – www.coqenpate.com.

French-based Coq en Pâte éditions is a young company with a strong social conscience: their conviction is that it is not necessary to destroy in order to produce, and that it is possible to create, manufacture and commercialise products while respecting human beings and their environment.

All cottons used by the company are organic, farmed and produced to the SKAL/Sustainable Textile Certification standard. Leathers are almost always recycled, and fair trade principles are adhered to, making this brand a safe bet for consumers who are concerned about ethical purchasing.

Teaming up each season with new and up-and-coming designers gives each Coq en Pâte collection a fresh and distinctive look. Current collections have been designed by graphic stylist Virginie Aracil and designer/illustrator Tinou le Joly Sénoville.  Aracil’s collection of cotton and canvas bags and t-shirts are inspired by walking in St-Germain des Près, and are urban and playful, while le Joly Sénoville’s ‘petit retro’ range is sweeter and strongly print-based.

Each collection from Coq en Pâte éditions features tees, a variety of bags, pencil cases, and interiors products. The animal-print tees and masks in the image below are part of an upcoming Christmas gifting range, due for release near the end of 2009.

KSF readers in Brisbane can source Coq en Pâte products from the bricks-and-mortar Queensland Art Gallery shop. Otherwise a good selection of their products is available at Paris-based Little Fashion Gallery who deliver worldwide.

Today’s post written by Miki

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The display by iconic French toy and interiors brand Moulin Roty was one of my highlights at the Playtime Paris childrenswear trade show last month.

Packed to bursting with the brand’s exquisite traditional ‘Memoire d’Enfant’ toys (memories of childhood) and showcasing a fantastical range of modern interior and playtime products, the stand was truly a wonderland to explore.

Although certainly not new to the children’s market, even in Australia – after all, Moulin Roty has been producing toys for over thirty-five years – this was the first time I had seen many of the Moulin Roty products in the flesh, and I found the quality and attention to detail remarkable. The packaging for each product has been carefully produced and designed too, making the brand’s products extremely giftable.

All Moulin Roty products are designed in France, and the company itself is a co-operative with all employees having equal shares and an equal say in the company’s direction. Their philosophy is based on social responsibility, and with many quirky ways of showing this; my favourite is the ‘lost comforter’ service, where a replacement to a lost Moulin Roty comforter is dispatched by urgent courier to distraught children (and parents!).

New to the Moulin Roty range is their ‘Le Jardin‘ collection of junior-sized gardening tools and accessories.  All of top quality, made from traditional materials and with the signature Moulin Roty vintage feel to them, they are solid, practical toys which will last indefinitely, even with rough use.

In Australia, Moulin Roty is distributed by Play Imports to a wide range of stores in each state and territory. Online, head to Send a Toy – www.sendatoy.com.au – who carry a compact selection of Moulin Roty products.

Please check individual websites for shipping details.

Today’s post written by Miki

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Earlier this month I spent two days in Paris at the Playtime childrenswear trade show.

Apart from my high-school French causing the occasional language barrier, it was a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable two days during which time I discovered a feast of new and – to me, at least – undiscovered European brands.

I was constantly humbled by the hospitality and generosity of the European designers and agents exhibiting at the show; they were only too happy to spend time working through the language difficulties to explain to me the design inspiration and manufacture processes that made their brands unique.

Over the next little while I’ll be sharing some of my favourites with you, so stand by to see some fabulous collections of interiors, footwear, clothing and much, much more.