Maybe the Santa Monica Whole Foods Lifestyle store--which, at 1,500sf is twice as big as the new NYC outpost at Columbus Center--filled all its extra space with guy stuff, who knows? But in the NYT, "Commander in Chief" actor Kyle Secor unknowingly demonstrated the only way a guy can get legitimately excited about the Whole Foods Lifestyle store: as a dad:
"I'm ecstatic," Mr. Secor said as he caressed a baby's onesie. The father of a 2-year-old, he said he is concerned about fire-retardant toxins in conventional children's clothing.There is exactly 10 square feet of space devoted to men's products--a sweater, some khakis, and some flannel shirts--in New York, the rest is girls girls girls.
And kids. Although it's not immediately obvious because they're sold under several brand names, clothing from one manufacturer, Green Babies, dominates the Whole Baby section. A lot of their designs involve decorating your kid as or with [presumably organic] food, which is what happens when you buy clothes at the grocery store.
There's organic Egyptian cotton baby clothes from Under The Nile--which I knew--and from Sckoon, which I didn't, and there were maybe half a dozen Sckoon cloth diapers, enough for a gift, maybe, but hardly enough to actually outfit many reusable nurseries. The diaper bags were a total chickfest, all recycled (of course) and ready to help you manage the whole purse/diaper bag dilemma all girls face.
Overall, Whole Foods/Whole Baby has done a decent job of selecting non-hideous clothes from among the largely style-free offerings of organic baby gear makers. It's odd--and I'm looking at the site for another Whole Foods supplier, Ecobaby, as I type this--how a company can be so innovative and out-of-the-box on its materials, production processes, even the wages of its workers, and yet so annoyingly mainstream/traditionalist with the all the cheesy animal prints in pink & blue. The vegetables who dyed for these clothes deserve better. [yes, I know. A homonym.]
Better Homes & Granola [nyt]
Previously: Whole Foods Lifestyle Store
Hi Greg--
It's actually Green Babies, which is manufactured by lovely mom & dad entrepreneurs. They run their business from their neighborhood in Westchester NY. The correct website address is www.greenbabies.com. The website you reference takes you to different company.
Best,
Isabel
[d'oh, thanks. I left my jacket with my notes in it in NYC... -ed.]
Yeah? So where were all the baby clothes the day we were eating our lunch at Whole Foods and Madeleine decided to have the most incredibly copious BM I've ever seen in my life, absolutely ruining the oh-so-cute little sailor outfit I'd just bought her the day before? I searched that store up and down and all around--nary a t-shirt to be had for love or money. Luckily, this Daddy Type always keeps a couple of high-fashion dish towels in his Bugaboo diaper bag...we wrapped her sarong-style with one and cape-style with another in order to get her home in something more than her birthday suit...
Well, it was the Monmouth County store...they must be a little behind the times, it being Joisey and all...