Lauren Murphy and Celeste Bayer began their partnership over a box of wine, tossing ideas back and forth in their San Francisco apartment. Murphy knew she wanted her own business–any business–and Bayer had trained as a designer at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, so they decided to design and manufacture clothing for children, which they thought would be less cutthroat than designing for adults.
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They began in 1994 with very little capital, sewing in their apartment after their day jobs: Murphy worked as an office manager and Bayer for an established children’s clothing company. As their plans and materials expanded throughout the space, they paid extra rent while pressing their four other roommates into service as cutters. “But our ideas really came into focus in a bar,” says Bayer, “where we kept dreaming about the future. We had to escape our apartment once it was taken over by fabric and swatches and thread.”
In order to do that, they learned to combine their green aesthetic with more savvy marketing and distribution, and began selling to shops such as Cradles of Distinction, Wear Me Out, and the Red Balloon Co. Over time Bayer noticed they “did well in newer stores which are geared toward younger families. We also appeal to people in their late 20s, early 30s, who don’t have kids but are buying gifts for other people.” So they designed gift kits–three- and five-piece layette sets in a reusable basket. “We didn’t want to be on the racks stuck in with everyone else; we wanted something where stores would have to set up a display….And most larger cities have environmentally conscious stores–general stores where they have a little bit of everything. With the basket, we’re able to get into those stores and not just exclusively children’s stores.”
