Babesta Beat S/S18

What do you consider West Coast style? West Coast style is very diverse, depending on what part of the coast you’re on. We lived in Washington state for a very long year and a half and the style there is very utilitarian and practical, for the ever-changing weather patterns. They wear lots of outdoor apparel and active wear because everyone is outdoors all the time. The weather doesn’t stop them— it’s pretty impressive really—we once saw couple out for a casual jog in the snow. In Southern California where we grew up and still reside, the style is more of an anything goes mentality. We have mild weather here and our summer to winter wardrobe doesn’t change much. We love tee shirts and good denim, we dress them up and down. Sneakers and sandals outnumber any other type of footwear in our closets. We really embrace it all, surf and skate apparel, street wear, bohemian, rock n roll, punk and grunge, even preppy. I’d say the only thing we don’t do well here is winter apparel. We are known to wear beanies year-round and wool coats when it’s 60 degrees out because we know that we have maybe a one-month window to wear them in and even that isn’t guaranteed. Do your kids get involved in the business at all? Yes! Our two daughters, ages 5 and 7 years, have grown up in and around the business and are involved when they want to be. They love to let us know what their favorite pieces are each season and which ones they need in their own closets. And of course, we joke with them a lot that they need to learn the business, so they can run it for us someday—which would be amazing—but I think we’d really love to see them make their own dreams happen. Tell us about SS18! (We love it!) Spring Summer 2018 is our “Tropicool” collection and the name really speaks for itself. This collection is loaded with tropical vibes from fruity button-down shirts and hats to printed terry loop rompers and vintage inspired tourist tees. When we finished designing the collection we knew we had to have our friend Stephanie Matthew shoot it for us in Hawaii—it was a match made in heaven. Kids’ fashion has fewer rules, and we definitely live vicariously through our designs. A lot of times we will design something and then say we need it in our size, and our customers have been known to say the same. We’ve released a few designs in adult sizes over the years, but we never wanted it to take away from our main focus, and what we feel we do better, which is kids’ apparel. We did add tween girls sizing in 2017 and it has been well received. We may size up for boys too if the interest grows, but for now we feel like we’ve found our niche in sizing. What do you love about kids’ fashion? Have you thought of sizing up to adult?

What’s your personal style? Picture Tiny Whales in its mid-30’s and that’s our style. A bit more mature, but still cool and casual. We live in tee shirts, denim and Vans slip ons 99% of the time. What’s the coolest thing you’ve done as a family? The coolest thing we did as a family last year was our summer road trip. We took two and a half weeks off to drive up the West Coast and back. We have family and friends all along the coast of California, Oregon and Washington that we visited along the way. Our girls are road warriors, which made the long hours driving a breeze. Seeing your kids experience new things for the first time is so inspiring—it helps keep you young at heart. Thanks to suggestions on social media and from locals we knew, we managed to play, eat, sleep and get around like locals everywhere we visited. I think that’s the best way to experience a new place.

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