LIFESTYLE & FASHION 3 4 FAMI LY VALUE S 21 JUNE 2014


Great ways to stay active & have fun this summer


Everything from toys & hobbies to clothes & cool kit


1. Hobbies: Encourage your child to take up a hobby. Whether it’s painting or photography, cooking or gardening, collecting or jewellery making, it will help to spark your kids’ creativity and keep boredom at bay. Why not take your child to a Hobbycraft centre for ideas and inspiration? Many have art workshops and some are free. 2. Outdoor fun & fitness: Get your kids from under your feet and out into the sunshine. Fishing for crabs is a winner and to get them into hiking buying a compass may encourage them to start map reading. Scooters can also help encourage kids to accompany parents for a walk, while a trampoline can provide great exercise. Looking for something a little safer and quieter for little ones? Water pistols, sand pits and climbing frames will keep them amused. 3. Beach fashion: Packing for a beach break? Jelly or reef shoes are essential items, but for teenagers, pool slides are on trend this summer. Trying to get your child to wear a hat and sunglasses on a summer beach break can be a chore, but let them select their own and you could win the battle. For girls, suggest a straw trilby and diamante sunglasses, while young boys typically love camouflage shorts and caps. Select swimwear with UPF 50-plus protection and floating swimsuits to aid children new to the water. For girls, there are plenty of options with frills, flowers, stripes and animal prints. 4. Board games: Rainy day? Get the entire family around the table playing a game together. Bestsellers include Te Chase and Te Cube, along with classics such as snakes and ladders, Monopoly, Pictionary and Scrabble. Want to teach your child a game of skill and strategy? Splash out on a quality


chess or backgammon set, which will last a lifetime. 5. Top toys: All kids love the chance to create a picture or model — be it an animal, robot or spaceship. Whether it’s a traditional puzzle, construction kit or transformer toy, buy a present that will challenge a child to develop new skills, solve problems and spark their imagination. Barbie, Lalaloopsy and Monster High are the collectable figures that will make the girls smile. As for the boys, think Nerf weaponry, Trashies and transformer toys such as V-Tech Swtich and Go Dino. 6. Tablets: Regain control of your iPad by buying your child an android tablet. More robust and resilient to the odd fall or spillage, they’re typically much cheaper and come with inbuilt parental controls. Wi-fi enabled most are also equipped with pre-loaded games, videos, e-books, microphones, cameras, HD video playback and a range of apps to keep kids quiet for hours. Leapfrog Leappad and Vtech Innotab are two of the best.


Family Values recommends: • iCandy - The Raspberry: Te Raspberry is iCandy’s new state-of-the-art lightweight compact fold stroller. Hopping on and off buses, from cafes to cabs, up curbs and through the London Underground, with its agile chassis, ease of fold and innovative, spacious storage capsule, the quick and easy pushchair is the smart choice for urban adventures with your newborn or toddler. Built to perfection, the innovative tyres with four-wheel independent suspension, ensures smooth strolling no matter the surface or bumps in the road. Te chassis comes in two colours, a matt black or natural brushed aluminium with the iCandy logo lasered into the frame. Te Raspberry hood is available in seven fresh colours. www.icandyworld.com • 5-a-day TV: Te ultimate fun fitness resource for primary schools. It provides online access


iCandy


to fully demonstrated five-minute exercise routines and language learning resources designed specifically for projection onto classroom whiteboards. Tere’s no teacher preparation required. Simply watch, join in, have fun, get fit and learn! www.5-a-day.tv • Diono: Te award-winning Diono Monterey 2 High Back Booster, £120, is the ultimate Group 2/3 High Back Booster, designed to fit from 4-12 years old. Loved by parents and children alike, Te Monterey2 features unique all-round protection, with EPS foam throughout the seat


and the arm rests. Overprotective in all the right ways, it’s the only booster seat to have extra-deep metal-reinforced wings for side impact protection and a structured seat base for strength. www.uk.diono.com • Purr: A specialist in poured resin and polished concrete floors. Based in London, the team has been working, developing and refining its products over the past 25 years. Purr offers beautiful contemporary alternative flooring solutions for your residential, commercial, or retail projects. www.puurfloors.com


Booming Britain is top of the class for ‘mini-me’ children’s fashion


Fashion capital London is the most prominent city when it comes to distinct style, and it seems as though parents’ desire for children to be styled in only the highest designer brands has rocketed. Tere are many different views regarding this


growing craze, but it’s important to acknowledge the moral enigma surrounding the fashion industry’s new direction. Looking at the growth of the childrenswear


market, it’s apparent that kids’ clothing has become more diverse as major labels — such as Stella McCartney, Dsquared2, Little Marc Jacobs and Dolce & Gabbana, whose adult and kidswear SS14 line was almost the exactly the same — continue to branch out from well-established adult fashion brands. Tese children’s lines can all be purchased from the world’s leading luxury kidswear company Childsplay Clothing.


Independent brands like


Monnalisa and Miss Grant are also represented. Traditionally, kids’ fashion tends to be cute, fun


and colourful, but as the scope for ‘mini me’ styles is created, it isn’t uncommon to see children dressed up in expensive outfits that depict adult trends. Childsplay Clothing stocks an amazing range of designer labels, marketed towards a wide audience, from those who want to embrace this fashion-forward surge to those who still want their kids to look like kids.


A mind of their own Ten, of course, you need children to model the


clothes. Using children in editorial photographs and for commercial branding in the fashion industry will always remain questionable, although psychological research has shown that kids


themselves have strong brand recognition along side their individual identity, so they have a mind of their own when it comes to style. It requires a keen eye to understand what the little ones want.


Te finer things in life In the UK alone, the childrenswear market is


approximately worth £6 billion, and this figure is estimated to rapidly grow. So what has caused this growth? Social factors, such as media coverage and the increasing demand for luxury childrenswear from wealthier parents, are mostly responsible. Celebrity parents who are always in the public eye, such as Te Beckhams, whose son Romeo modelled in Burberry’s Spring/Summer 2013 advertising campaign, and of course, mini-fashion prodigy North West whose mother Kim Kardashian often posts photographs of her little daughter’s enviable wardrobe on Instagram has had a huge influence on the rest of the world. Fabric is a key factor, too. People are willing to


spend more on high-quality items that are soft against the skin. Tis, plus the fact that childrenswear


“Childsplay Clothing’s clientele doesn’t mind spending extra on exclusive items and acquainting their children with the finer things in life”


is not as temperamental as high fashion, makes the sector a success commercially. Childsplay Clothing’s clientele doesn’t mind


spending a little extra on exclusive and limited edition items, especially when they know they aren’t going to see everyone else wearing similar designs, and the company thrives on the need to acquaint children with the finer things of life early on. Consequently, this has created a strong platform for the childrenswear market, which will continue to see growth because parents now often believe that the clothes their children wear reflects on them and their own sense of fashion.


Enjoy 10% OFF your first order using the code “GUARDIAN”.


T: 020 8514 5007 www.childsplayclothing.co.uk


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