Monthly kid's wear department introduces its favourite shop

 

I Dream Elephants

London based friends Kelly and Beatrix started their online boutique 'I Dream Elephants' to provide kids and babies with stylish and affordable outfits. They also have two mascots, the little trunked animals Emma and Edgar. And a good feel for fashion-forward brands.

1 When did you open your online shop?
We went online in June of 2010.

2 Why did you choose to open a shop for children’s wear?
Kelly: I had been working for Petit Bateau at the time, really enjoying working in    children’s wear. It was a dream of mine to open my own shop with funky, cool, unique clothes for kids. Not having kids at the time, I wanted to make it easy for young professionals to buy unique gifts for their friends that were having kids. Beatrix, who had a child already, wanted to offer something different too. So Beatrix and I started talking about the idea at our weekly coffee mornings. At first it was just a little dream about how we could open our own store, and then we turned the dream into a reality.

3 And why did you call it “I Dream Elephants”?
We had played around with names for a while. We wanted something unique, a name that people wouldn’t forget when they heard it. I had a bag with two felt elephants and a heart between the elephants and though it was just so cute, so I mentioned “I heart Elephants”, but then we decided on I Dream Elephants. And we came to find out: When you dream about an elephant it symbolizes power, strength, faithfulness and intellect; it also means: Express yourself! We thought this was perfect; we want our little ladies and lads to express themselves through our clothes. Let their little personalities shine.

4 How would you describe your concept?
We buy our collections by thinking of outfits. We want to show our customers how to put pieces together from different designers. You don’t have to dress your child with pieces just from one designer. Have fun with it, play around, let the little ones play around! So we put together amazing outfits each season to inspire our customer. 

5 Which labels do you present?
Bobo Choses, Imps & Elfs, Mini Rodini, Rockefella, Christina Rohde, Finger in the Nose, Fub, Troizenfants, American Outfitters, Littl by Lilit, Milk on the Rocks, Scotch and Soda, and Trommpo - just to name few. We add new designers every season.

6 You always have an 'outfit of the week'. You chooses it and how?
We choose the outfit together. We select the ‘outfit of the week’ by how we are feeling at the time. While representing our full collection properly, we want to show a nice selection for the little ladies, little lads, and the babies.

7 What is the most important trend for this spring/summer season?
It’s all about fun colours and prints. Spring/summer should be fun and bright and we went for a very bright collection. Very jungle/safari inspired. 

8 And what's your favorite item at the moment?
Kelly: My favourite is the Bobo Waves Culottes, maybe because I am having a little girl in May and I want her to wear them. They are just so amazing paired with the Leon Tee.
Beatrix: Scotch Shrunk’s old rose shirt. We just sold one to a little boy from Japan - such an amazing look.

9 Do you have a bestseller?
Bobo Choses and Mini Rodini are our bestsellers. And we know why: their collections are just so much fun to wear!

10 What are 'I Dream Elephants' plans for the future?
We want to keep expanding our collection. We are adding Ash Kids Shoes in the fall. We hope to have a physical shop one day. But for the moment we are all about building our brand.