Half Dot Brooklyn

My husband likes wearing shirts and jackets with unique and interesting details. So it only makes sense that mini-him is clad in some equally nice apparel. In the process of doing so, we quickly discovered how pricey children’s clothes can be. “A rip-off!” Not really, if you know more about what really goes into making tiny little clothes …

Unless you are Carter’s or the Gap and have gazillions of factories in faraway countries who churn out your pieces for insanely low prices, it does cost a lot to make childrens’ clothing. It takes the same amount of work and effort to make a little shirt or dress as it does to make a big person (adult’s) one, and sewers have to be paid fairly for the amount of time and effort they put into making each garment. Fabric is also a pricey thing — it gets cheaper to buy fabric only as you buy a whole lot more, which isn’t realistically possible for a small boutique designer. The same applies to buttons, linings, and every other bit of material that goes into the garment. Children’s clothing designers (at least, the ones I’ve met!) do try really really hard to find the most affordable prices for the best quality materials, so parents can get their money’s worth for what they buy.

Now that I’ve seen what goes on “behind-the-scenes,” I’m pickier and more careful when I buy clothes for my son. I look at the way things are sewn — whether the stitches are neat, buttons are secure, what type of fabric is used, and I think about how much use and wear each little garment will get if we buy it. For certain things, it makes a lot more sense to buy the cheaper mass-produced things, but once in a while, when my husband and I want something different that our son will get to wear a lot and eventually pass down to another little boy, we treat ourselves to a nicer piece. And we do so willingly, knowing that the money we spend is supporting another growing designer.

… for reading this, cheering us on, and buying Half Dot for a little gal or guy this winter, enter HALFDOTTHKS at checkout and get 20% off your entire order!

Earlier this autumn, a week spent in Kyoto, Japan. Consumed some ridiculously delicious bento boxes, explored the city on foot, bus, and subway.

Wished we had Tomorrowland, Takeo Kikuchi, and Rabokigoshi Works here in New York City. Photographed some really picturesque temples. And had little son draw water from the wishing well that makes babies sleep through the night (it worked apparently). Hope to visit again soon, Kyoto.

In my little son’s wardrobe, besides his obvious rotation of Half Dot Brooklyn’s Felix and Fulton coats, are Amber Hagen hoodies (we own several because I just like them so much), a colorful selection of pants and tops from Miki House (I am such a fan!), and the ever-so-practical Carter’s onesies.

With the launch of the webshop and the mountain of orders to send out (hurray!), it’s been a busy couple of weeks here in the studio. Now that the excitement of being shiny and new is wearing off, it’s about continuing to market the fall/winter 09 collection and going full speed ahead with the spring/summer line.

I’ve learned that it isn’t hard to make one design you like, but to have that piece replicated in multiple colors and sizes for production is where the going gets tough. On the whole, producing my fall/winter 09 collection went relatively smoothy, save for the multiple times that important items were lost (or temporarily) missing in transit (alas, the brown truck people do make mistakes too.) Thankfully, things arrived where they should, though it meant numerous delays. So the one important thing I learned from producing the first season is that you always need more. Send the factory more fabric and notions than you calculate they’ll need (in fact, I’d say 5% more to be safe). More communication to make sure things are being made the way you want (I think I got lucky here, my project manager emailed me almost every day with updates). And much more time, to get the pieces made and to get them shipped to you.

I’m back at the beginning now, sewing my prototypes for the spring/summer. And soon we’ll be starting production again, and I think things will be easier this second time around. I just have to remember, we need more!

Our little starter coat made it into the final issue of Cookie magazine. A favorite read that we will miss!

We are so grateful for the amazing press coverage we’ve received on our webshop opening and fall/winter 09 debut! Thank you to all!

We’re open! Stop by the Half Dot webshop to see our little coats!

With production almost complete, the little coats are now awaiting the webshop debut just a few weeks from now. Here’s an update on what we’ve been up to:

I received my production samples a while ago through some amazing coordination with transcontinental and transatlantic mail (thank you to Art and Em). I’ve heard my share of horror stories with production in terms of mismatches lines, horrific sewing, missing pieces and such, so I when I opened up my package, I had a bunch of labels, safety pins and marking pens in front of me, ready to tag every place that needed to be corrected. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the only mistake was that the girls’ coat had an extra inner pocket. And really, there’s nothing wrong with having an extra pocket to stash a wad of shiny stickers or a small toy in!

We’re now working on some final product shots for the website. Flats, mannequin shots, model shots – I think they’re all equally important in showing the details of each coat. I do my share of shopping online and I really appreciate having more (rather than fewer) product pics to look over before I click and buy. So we’re taking that into account as we put together the images that will accompany each coat.

And we’re tweaking the logistics, trying to make the website easier to navigate, and have the checkout and payment process be as simple as possible. Stay tuned for a the Half Dot website makeover, coming very very soon!

We’ve been hard at work, the webshop is coming together quite nicely, and we are on schedule for our October 28th launch. Thank you to all of you who have written in to ask about it, and thank you for your support and patience!