Vicky Pepys finds some fairy tale florals

May 5 2008 by The Journal

SPRING has sprung and big and little girls alike are finding lots of florals to choose from this season. “How nice to see little girls looking like little girls,” says more than one mum… with so many florals within womenswear, it’s inevitable that the influence would filter down to children’s ranges.

No little girl is typical in what they want to wear. Your own personal fashion and style tastes are strongly imprinted in the choice of clothes you buy for your children and, of course, younger ones won’t question what they’re wearing… but at some stage they will voice an opinion! Most mums of girls agree that there’s often a ‘pink’ phase influenced by ‘girly’ toys, bedtime fairy stories, stationary and TV, so there’s a veering towards the fluffy kittens and puppy imagery, the pretty princess trimmings and ribbons in the hair.

Little sisters copy big sister tastes to the shoelace or have diametrically opposing views. There’s often a dressing up phase of wanting to wear what the grown-ups wear and florals have always been in there somewhere.

At some point, it just stops and a tomboy often emerges, only to return to ‘girly’ a few years later. We know of more than one little girl in jeans and a hoodie who currently hankers for a full ball gown with underskirts “just like on the telly”. We have to nurture the different phases and go with the flow while it happens. But who doesn’t find these flowery numbers cute? They’ve got hanger appeal and are as cute as they’ve ever been. For those on the tomboy turn, they team well with leggings and denim and boots. Very stylish and very grown up however little girl-ish they might think.