Beyond Pink: Amelia Baby & Girls Spring Line

 

The Amelia baby and girls spring clothing line is making us fall in love with pink all over again — yes, pink. If you have a toddler girl, you will know why this is such a surprise. Our little three-year-old can’t get enough of it — from Pinkalicious to Foofa to Barbie. And since the marketers at Disney, Mattel, and such realized about a decade ago that little girls like princesses, they have made pink synonymous with little girls — although in the new book “Cinderella Ate My Daughter” by Peggy Orenstein, the author writes about how as late as the 1930s, pink was actually a traditional baby boys’ color, while blue — a sign of tranquility — was the color girls’ nurseries were painted. Pink is only “girly” because of marketing, it turns out.

So now, anything we offer our little girl, she wants in pink: dresses, shoes, candy, toys, even breakfast! Having gone through this phase with our now eight-year-old girl, we’ve come to quietly hate that bright-pink shade. And I say quietly because we’ve learned not to openly protest since that just prolongs the phase.

The problem is clearly not with pink itself, but with the bright commercial pinks that all marketers know is immediately attractive. And it always works on our innocent little girls: As soon as they see that hot pink anything, they must have it. The problem is that after 30 seconds, the brightness becomes blinding. When I come home to my daughter, looking at all of her pink things collectively freaks me out. It’s like bringing a pink Times Square into your house, and you can’t complain, or the pink never leaves!

So at Estella, we deal with this problem democratically by offering pinks, but only ones we can live with.  This is why the baby and little girls spring line from Italian design company Amelia, designed by German-born dressmaker Katrin Arens, is such a welcome surprise. Not only can we live with these pinks, but they are soft, delicate, and soothing. The Amelia Seersucker Dress, above, is sophisticated, playful, and a joy to look at, just like our little girl.

Spring is looking good in PINK!