Pure Colour Baby | 837 Norwest Road in Kingston | purecolourbaby.ca
If you’re shopping for kids’ clothes, you know how frustrating it can be. Kids grow so quickly! How much wear will they get out of that cute new outfit you’ve had your eye on? Well, if you buy that outfit at Pure Colour Baby, the answer is “a few years!”
Pure Colour Baby specializes in hand-made “grow with me” clothing for kids, designed by Lindsay Down, and manufactured in her Kingston studio.
Lindsay creates kids’ clothes in five sizes, covering newborns to age 8. She discovered the need for adaptable clothing when she had her son and saw how quickly he grew out of his clothes. All Pure Colour Baby outfits leave room to grow. The pants have stretchy waistbands and adjustable cuffs. Baby dresses are designed to evolve into toddler tunics. Even the hats have an adjustable knot at the top and a foldable brim, allowing them to be worn year after year.
Lindsay’s designs are built to last in other ways, too. She is very particular about the fabrics she uses: they must be durable, breathable, and washable. All Pure Colour Baby clothes are pre-shrunk, so parents won’t have any unpleasant surprises after the item undergoes the first of many washes. Lindsay goes the extra step in sourcing sustainable fabrics, certified organic, with non-toxic inks and dyes. It’s not just her own customers she’s looking out for. Textile manufacturing can be extremely polluting, generating both air and water pollution. Lindsay doesn’t want her creations to add to the global problem.
“There are chemicals found in many fabrics used for children’s clothes,” she explains, some to make them fire-retardant. But those chemicals can absorb into skin, and babies’ skin is particularly sensitive. Lindsay works closely with her manufacturers, purchasing only certified organic, ethically made fabrics.
Lindsay’s face lights up as she describes her recent collaboration with local artist Christine Jamieson of Found and Lost Art. Christine worked with Lindsay to create four bright new prints, each featuring different animals: llamas, foxes, narwhals, and sloths. Although the process of creating custom fabrics was a lot of work, Lindsay took great satisfaction in the level of control she had in adding subtle touches to each design. “All the colours flow,” she says with satisfaction, her background in interior design showing. “For instance, the detail in the narwhal print picks up some of the accents from the llama print.”
A manufacturer in Germany printed the limited run of these fun animal fabrics for her autumn-winter 20/21 collection, which features rompers, tunics, pants, hats, and bibs. They can be found on the store’s website, on its Etsy site, and in person at the studio/retail store at 837 Norwest Road in Kingston.
