Today’s post written by Angela
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Today, I’d like to introduce you to Kathryn Hetherington from the delightful baby and kids clothing label, TikiBoo Kids – www.tikiboo.com.au.
Kathryn’s sense of style incorporates impeccable tailoring with bold colours and rich, lively prints and appliques, that is sophisticated, fun, and blissfully original. Kathryn sells her label through stockists nationally and also through her beautiful online store, All You Need – www.allyouneed.com.au (don’t miss their sale, on now!)
Kathryn lives in Brisbane, Queensland Australia, with her husband, Craig and their 3 year old daughter, Alexandra.
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What is your professional background?
Prior to having my baby I worked in IT product marketing. The best thing about that? It’s where I met my husband!
Tell us a little about your label “TikiBoo Kids”
When Alexandra was little I searched high and low for unique clothing for her that no-one else had. Enter my Mum, Christine, who has been designing and creating everything from babies booties to wedding gowns for more than 40 year. She created the most fabulous pieces for Alexandra – our little ‘TikiBoo’ – just like she made for me when I was a child, and when she retired, our long held dream of creating our own childrens designer fashion label became a reality.
We design and manufacture quality, age appropriate children’s clothing which expresses our philosophy that “kids should always be kids”. Catering for children aged between 2-6+ years, we use high quality 100% cotton fabric, contemporary colours and simple classic tailoring to create a collection that is stylish yet practical. Our collection offers a refreshingly simple, contemporary and high quality alternative for the modern and active child.
What is your favourite part about designing and what’s the hardest part?
I love selecting fabrics and matching them together, sitting on the floor surrounded by yardage, wondering whether to match or to contrast and trying to anticipate what my customers will love. Often they will love colour combinations I wasn’t too excited about and avoid those I adored.
The hardest part would have to be trying to juggle being a stay at home mum with running a business. A cranky child who isn’t getting enough attention will borrow my tape measure to tease the cat or scatter pins all over the floor. It does mean a lot of late nights working while she sleeps.
What are your top 3 best-selling pieces?
1. Our Samba dresses have been incredibly popular this summer, they’re perfect for the heat and are an incredibly versatile style, transitioning through sizes and seasons. They were designed for summer but look fabulous over leggings or jeans with a long sleeved top underneath.
2. Twirl skirts are a perennial favourite, little girls adore them. They are perfect for dancing and prancing all year long.
3. The new personalised Kindy bags – they are the perfect size for kindy nap sheets or library books and we appliqué the name of the child on the front. Kids seem to adore having special little personal things, we’ve had great feedback from happy little girls and boys!
If you could see your clothing on any child in the world who would it be?
Sasha Obama is utterly adorable and fits into our age group. Did you see her give Daddy the thumbs up after his inaugural speech? She is going to be a fashion icon, that’s for certain. I also have a soft spot for Violet Affleck, Jennifer Garner’s little girl. Jennifer is a few months older than me, and Violet is a few months older than Alexandra, so I followed her pregnancy throughout mine.
What or who are the biggest influences on your designs?
Like most Mummy-designers, my daughter is my main influence. I always trial our little girl designs on her, if they meet her approval then they get the green light! Watching her play with her friends also gives a lot of inspiration, every child is so different and individual that often one of her little friends will inspire a design.
Living in Brisbane heavily influences my designs, both in style and colour. We have such a relaxed lifestyle, having clothes that are comfortable and easy to wear is important. The vivid hues found even in our suburban streets – Poinciana, Jacaranda (below) and Bouganvillia flowers, the equipment at our local playgrounds, all play their roles in our designs.
For our upcoming winter designs, I had to sit in the airconditioning and read a lot of books, magazines and northern hemisphere blogs to get inspiration!
Here’s a secret…we have an exciting trip to France coming up, so expect to see a lot of little Parisian touches next summer!
What is your favorite childhood memory?
I grew up in Auckland, so have many memories of playing at Manly beach where we spent all our holidays. Childhood back then was so carefree, we could go off exploring for hours and our parents just knew we would be safe, as long as we were home before sunset.
My childhood is also full of memories of mum sewing. Being “accidentally” poked with pins while she tried to get a hem absolutely perfect. Going to school wearing beautiful creations and being jealous of the girls with $2 nylon shorts – the horrible fire hazard type – while the mothers of the other girls were begging my mum to make dresses for their girls.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
I’d love to see TikiBoo Kids grow into a recognized brand both here and overseas. A little boutique store would be fabulous too, hopefully growing to one in each state.
Once my daughter starts school I am seriously considering formally studying fashion design…Project Runway? I also have a hankering to buy a big old rambling Queenslander house and travel more.
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