Michaela Garstin remembers a favourite outfit from her ‘90s childhood: a red crushed velvet dress handmade by her mother.
“I loved it so much,” says Garstin with a laugh, looking back at an iconic fashion trend from that decade.
Now a mom herself, Garstin has started a kids’ clothing line inspired by her daughter Avalon – with a style decidedly more vintage than en vogue.
“I knew exactly how I wanted to dress Avalon, but I couldn’t find what I was looking for. So we decided to make our own line of dresses and skirts,” says Garstin, who created Anne French Clothing with her mother Maureen Bowen.
The mother-daughter seamstress duo, along with their “silent partner” Ava, sew soft cotton and linen fabric into graceful garments at the family home in Lynn Valley.
Garstin said they chose cotton and linen materials, instead of synthetic fabrics, so the kids could feel more comfortable in the clothes.
The cotton print and plaid outfits may have an old-time esthetic but are designed for girls to run around on the trails, climb trees and play in the leaves, like a typical North Shore kid. Less prim and proper and more play.
Even the care instructions are low maintenance: just throw the clothes in the washing machine and dryer.
The name Anne French Clothing pays homage to Garstin’s great-grandmother, “a real character” and a “hardworking and sweet woman with a dry wit.”
Each outfit from the clothing line has been given an old-fashion name, like Lillian and Clementine, taken from an 1880 United States census list Garstin found online.
“I love that era of clothes, when a dress would be in family for years,” she says. “The pieces were well-worn, then mended and passed down to others.”
While Anne French’s spring collection saw bright and cheery colours, the fall line, which launches this weekend, will have more of a West Coast influence with a focus on natural and muted tones. Last season the “Vivienne” dress in duck egg plaid proved to be the most popular.
It seems Garstin has a budding fashionista on her hands, as two-year-old Ava has a tendency to gravitate towards certain clothes she sees in the store window. Mom Michaela is hoping Ava inherits the sewing gene.
While there has been some local interest in Anne French Clothing – they set up shop at the Shipyards Night Market and Ambleside Farmers’ Market this summer – it seems some Texas moms are keen on the clothes.
“Texas is hot, so they like the cotton material,” explains Garstin, who adds some of her Lone Star State customers like that the dresses offer a bit more modesty and cover the shoulders.
There’s a certain satisfaction Garstin says she gets knowing she makes her daughter’s clothes by hand.
“When I look at them, I’m really proud of what we have done so far,” she says. “These are timeless pieces of clothing you remember from your childhood.”
You can find Anne French Clothing at annefrenchclothing.com and at the Shipyards Christmas Market this winter.
