Peek a Boo ... & Lou

Boo & Lou, a new brand of baby clothing and accessories, is the brain-child of Mary Warnest and Jane Cox, two sisters originally from Adelaide, which is where the brand name was unwittingly created when they were only knee-high. In an “aw shucks, ain’t that sweet” moment, their fun-loving grandfather dubbed Jane Ginny-Boo and Mary Mimmy-Lou.

Thanks to grandpa the monikers stuck like gum to the bottom of their shoes!

As it happens, Boo & Loo carries more than a nod to their grandfather’s generation and is very much a reflection of Jane and Mary’s childhood, inspired by the kinds of clothing and colours their parents dressed them in. It’s a range quite distinct from a prevalent trend in children’s clothing that has been outright ‘street’ and heavily into black-and-whites. “People are now moving away from that,” says Warnest. “They want colour, they want children to look like children again.”

Their rompers are indeed reminiscent of vintage one-piece swimsuits, their musical rattlers hint at classic Australian comic-book illustration (think Ginger Meggs!), while their bibs, bootees, headbands and bracelet teethers tend to echo 1950s glamour. And of course there’s the colour, splashes of primary colours against white, black or blues, striped or polka dot, and plenty of pastels that bring a fresh retro twist to Boo & Lou’s whole range of organic cotton clothing and user-friendly accessories.

For Boo & Lou, casting back to styles from times gone but not forgotten is part and parcel of an aspirational trend that’s happening in Australia. “Baby showers seem to be all the rage at the moment, and can be as elaborate as a wedding,” explains Warnest. “I believe people like the Kardashians are such a strong cultural reference point for the mass middle-market in Australia, so there is definitely a mindset with women who justify spending on their children when they wouldn’t spend on themselves.”

Boo & Lou is making itself part of that trend and the sisters have both the nous and experience to do it. Combined they have over 50 years experience in design, manufacture and import of homewares, clothing, jewellery and textiles. Both worked for Christopher Vine Design—Cox was once married to Vine, and Warnest was the company’s sales director. When Vine and Cox split, so too did the sisters, each taking related but separate paths. Warnest went on to work for some of the largest home furnishing businesses in Australia, places like Bed, Bath and Table and Freedom Furniture, as well as for the New Zealand-based company Robert Mark; while Cox went on to open Beltari, two stores in Hampton and Beaumauris specialising in jewellery, clothing and fashion accessories.

That ain’t all folks! Fashion and design has been a big part of Warnest’s and Cox’s family history. Peeking into their backgrounds reveals that their mother, Wendy, worked for the Adelaide-based clothing designers George Cross and Harry Watt, of the famed Harry Who label.

But designing and manufacturing children’s wear hardly registered on their radars until very recently. The seed for Boo & Lou was planted when Cox went in search of an art smock as a gift for her granddaughter. She went to five different places and couldn’t find one that was not the standard, army reserve-type issue. Cox then rang her sister and said, “All they had was an ugly plastic one that a child wouldn’t want to wear. What does tell you about the market?”

Warnest and Cox had already taken a first step in the direction of children’s clothing in 2015, having imported a range from Bali called Kids Au-go-go for the Beltari stores. But it was the experience of searching for the art smock that ultimately convinced the sisters that they should create their own brand. And then, as they started to develop products—such as the silicon teether rings or the activity smocks—more and more they came across people who would say, “It’s impossible to buy a great bib,” or “I don’t know why I can’t find musical rattles anymore.”

As a fledgling Australian label, Boo & Loo is responding to this shift in attitude that revolves around letting children be children, and creating a cohesive collection of clothing and accessories that is not only suitable for playing in, but that children will want to wear!