Babesta Beat S/S18

COOL CALIFORNIA MAKES A SPLASH WITH TINY WHALES. WE GOT TO DIVE IN WITH HUSBAND AND WIFE TEAM BRITTANY AND SHAUN WAGONER.

A trip to an aquarium and a pursuant encounter with a pod of Vaquitas inspired the name of this made-in LA, California cool brand. Co-founder (with her husband Shaun), Brittany Wagoner explains: “You have this new little human in your life. . . Somehow in a matter of moments they manage to flip your whole world upside down and change everything in a massive way, yet they are just this tiny little thing, tiny and massive all at the same time—a tiny whale.” Tiny Whales was born in 2008, when the Wagoners were newlyweds and yearned for a creative outlet. With a cute little nephew that they were determined to spoil, they set their sites on the kids’ market, determining (after some disappointing shopping expeditions) that there was room for something cooler. Shaun’s screen printing business and Brittany’s background in styling were perfect complements, and they set forth, soon joined by their own “tiny whales” in 2010 and 2012 respectively. Every season they deliver a collection of easy-breezy separates that kids (and their adults) will daydream about. We’ve been obsessed with the brand at Babesta and love to see how much they’ve grown over the years, from a few basic bodies to a full range of styles and fresh fabrics, all with West Coast surf & skate styling. We got to chat with Brittany about the latest collection, her inspirations and the importance of “local” season after season. How do you get inspired every season? That’s a tough question because we really do draw inspiration from a lot of places. We don’t really have a ritual or a place we go to be inspired; it just happens organically. Generally, we come up with a theme and a color palette first, then we spend months writing out ideas for graphics and clever sayings. In fact, we never really stop writing down different ideas. About 50% of what we brainstorm makes it to the collection and then the other half may never see the light of day. We love surf and skate culture so that always comes into play each season as does our own childhood nostalgia. What’s the importance of local to you? That theme comes up every season and you have a dedicated local line to boot! Local is not something Shaun and I grew up thinking about as kids in Orange County, California. Everything

was corporate, mass produced and made somewhere else our entire childhood. It wasn’t until we were older and these local events and platforms for artisans started to pop up that really made us rethink how we live and interact with our community. This was a major influence on how we chose to run our business. Thinking locally has helped us to connect more with those around us, and the families and entrepreneurs behind the businesses that we support. Every Tiny Whales tee is made in Los Angeles, CA. Our fabrics are milled in LA, cut and sewn in LA, garment dyed in LA and screen printed in LA. We work with 7 different family-run business who help to make Tiny Whales happen. We know the owners, and when we stop in for business we always end up talking about our families. Doing things this way isn’t the easiest or most cost effective but it’s a choice that we feel good about and the end product is always something that we and our factories are all really proud of. item ourselves in the wee hours of the night and our entire inventory fit in a couple of 20-gallon containers in our home office. We used our savings to fund it all and we called it a hobby. It was a very modest first couple of years but eventually Tiny Whales began to grow, and with that came many new products, but we’ve always stayed true to our core which is graphic tees. In 2013 we took a big leap and went into production on a tee shirt just for us, made from scratch in Los Angeles. After that we knew the sky was the limit and we set a goal to add a new body style each season. First a tee shirt, and a onesie, then a raglan and a tank top, one new body style after the next. In 2018 we will be offering over 24 different apparel products, from tee shirts to denim jackets, dresses, rompers, knit beanies and dad hats. Spring/Summer 2018 is a 121 piece collection and Fall/Winter 2018 will offer over 150 pieces. Where do you make the tees? What’s the production process like? How has the line evolved over the years? Tiny Whales 2018 is so different from Tiny Whales 2008. In ’08 we were limited to products from a couple of LA-based apparel blanks companies, which consisted of a tee shirt, a onesie, a zipper hoodie and a beanie in their chosen color palettes. We were hand printing every single

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