Togs for Tots

Susan Edelman wasn’t pleased with what she saw when she began shopping for clothes for her newborn son last year. But instead of just grumbling, Edelman designed her own clothes for children and turned it into a business.
“I realized all the kids’ clothing were kind of boring,” said Edelman, 35. “Kids’ clothes are so typical, with fire trucks for boys and flowers for girls being the norm. This fact, coupled with my love for gardening, inspired me to create a totally new concept in unisex kids’ clothing.”
The Santa Monica-based entrepreneur started farmerJONES Kidwear, which designs and sells a line of children’s rompers and T-shirts featuring bright colors and pictures of vegetables, animals, and insects.
“It was basically a kind of brainstorm,” she said. “It just came to me.”

Sold at Local Stores
The clothes are sold through some local stores, including the Oohs and Oz children’s store in the Sunset Park area of Santa Monica; Take Note, a stationary and gift shop on Main Street in Venice; Hopscotch Kids, a new children’s store on Main Street in
anta Monica; and Earth Angels, a baby/toddler boutique in the Riviera Village section of Redondo Beach.
They were also included in the summer catalog of The Right Start, which features children’s products, and Edelman recently received an order from the employee stores on The Walt Disney Co. lot in Burbank.

 

“People love them,” said Allen Lewis, co-owner of Take Note. “They think it’s a neat concept -- so different, unique and cute.”There’s even a line of matching T-shirts for adults.
“They are adorable, and good quality,” said Alice Middleton, co-owner of Oohs and Oz.
Emie Keyte-Hunt, owner of Hopscotch Kids, said, “we’ve had a great response” to the clothes from customers.
The animals, she said, seem to be more popular among her customers than the vegetables. “Everybody loves the cow.”

Gift show paid off
Edelman started the business in earnest about a year ago and shipped her first orders in January.
The company got an extra boost when Edelman took a booth at the California Gift Show in Los Angeles in July. Although skeptical about the move at first, Edelman -- who has sold about 2,500 items -- picked up some important new accounts.

“My daughter went to the gift show and came back excited,” Middleton said. That led to orders from Oohs and Oz. Edelman also won the Earth Angels and Disney business because of the gift show.
“We try to find things that are new and different,” said Judy Wildeman, owner of Earth Angels. “They caught my eye at the gift show.”
Edelman already had a gift basket business called Floral Impact, with clients such as The Grammy Awards and SunAmerica Inc., when she started farmerJONES and named it after her son Jones, who was born in March 1996.
Her line of children’s clothes is aimed at youngsters up to five years

old. Prices range from $15 to $28.

Retailers like the fact that each item is packaged in a box.
“They are packaged really cute,” Wildeman said. “They come in a little brown box with the logo on the front. It’s good for gift giving.”

Designed in SM
The clothes are designed in Santa Monica and manufactured at the B&H Co. silk-screen operation in Gardena. The rompers and T-shirts are 100 percent cotton.
Edelman, who had experience in promotional marketing before forming her own business, has been savvy about marketing. She includes the farmerJONES phone number on the tag sewn into each garment, and her business has its own World Wide Web site on the
ternet.
Because Edelman already had experience running a business, launching the new venture wasn’t too daunting, she said.
“I think the hard part is the idea,” she said. “Once you’ve got the idea, it sort of flows.”
She started the business with a $5,000 load from her mother-in-law. Edelman’s husband, Paul, is an artist and computer programmer.
Edelman’s strategy for getting publicity was very straightforward: she went to a newsstand, got the numbers of various publications and called them. She received coverage in several magazines as a result.
Her advice to other would-be entrepreneurs: “Tell everybody what you do.”
But is has been challenging building a business while raising a small child. Jones comes to work with her almost every day.
And the clothing business isn’t profitable yet.
“I need that big break,” Edelman said. “I always feel like it’s not going to work, but then I say, ‘Go for it.’”