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Babiekins Magazine

A Trendsetting Magazine & Online Community For The Trendsetting Child + Parent

Featurekins // MINIMODE

By Gina Munsey, Senior Editor Leave a Comment

Featurekins // MiniMode

A few days ago, Chalk NYC designer Colleen Crivello and InStyle Magazine’s Marketing Director Maria Benetos launched MINIMODE, a brand-new collaborative project for stylish moms. We asked these two incredibly inspirational women to share more about the new site, share their top-five style must-haves, and more.

Maria and Colleen, can you tell our readers a little more about the editorial­-based shopping experience you’ve created?
MINIMODE is a style site for women whose love of fashion did not change once they became moms. All of our content goes back to product and shopping — for kids, babies and new and expectant moms. Or you can skip the content altogether and just shop.

MINIMODE has been a project long in the making. What has been the main inspiration — more than anything else ­­–  prompting you to launch?
The main inspiration was a personal need for it. As moms who both have full-time careers we do most of our shopping for our kids and ourselves online, but felt it was overwhelming sifting through everything that is out there in the children’s market. We wanted something very curated but that would also be fun to visit, so we came up with mini-mode.com. The goal is to inspire women with our trend stories and profiles on stylish and successful moms while giving them a joyful shopping experience.

Maria, what are some ways your background as the Marketing Director for InStyle Magazine has prepared you for this foray into the children’s fashion world?
I’ve always in worked in fashion – apart from InStyle I’ve also been at Harper’s Bazaar, Teen Vogue, Allure and Interview among other fashion media brands. And I’ve always been in marketing, so launching MINIMODE combined the two things I love: being within the world of style but still being about to utilize my business and marketing skills.

Featurekins // MiniMode

Colleen, you design children’s clothing for Chalk NYC. How did you and Maria meet? Can you tell us how the decision to collaborate came about?
Maria and I met through a mutual friend who has girls the same age as ours. We were all new moms so we’d plan these fun nights out and on one of those nights while having a group dinner at SohoHouse, Maria mentioned that she always wanted to start a kid’s shopping site. She asked for my advice since I had recently launched Chalk NYC and before we knew it, the idea evolved into mini-mode and we became business partners. It was really organic.

It now feels like we’ve known each other forever because we spend more time with each other than we do with our husbands! We complement each other perfectly from a business point of view and as friends.

You both clearly are chic mamas. How did each of your style perspectives evolve ­­– if at all –­­ once you became mothers?
The thing is, it didn’t! And I think that was part of the impetus of MINIMODE. We still dressed the same and felt the same, and we saw that all our other chic mommy friends were the in the same boat. But there was not a kid’s shopping site that spoke to us as women who also happen to have kids.

Featurekins // MiniMode
What are your top five summer style and/or beauty essentials for moms?

  1. A BIKINI //Eres is definitely a go-to and Solid & Striped is another brand we love.
  2. A cool pair of SUNNIES // Mirrored is super-chic for this summer). I just bought the gold-mirrored Linda Farrow glassesand Victoria Beckham also makes great ones in different colors — her blue ones are my list. Plus, you’ll be able to match your MINI with our new Sons + Daughters kids’ sunglasses collaboration featuring gold and silver mirrored lenses!
  3. Don’t scrimp on SUNSCREEN // It’s SO important!  La Roche Posay’s Anthelios is a life-saver during summer.
  4. A CAFTAN//  Twois a smaller brand based in New York that makes the most beautiful tunics and caftans using handwoven textiles and saris from India.
  5. A killer pair of SANDALS // We love sandal styles which look hot yet are still comfy. Isabel Marant’s Justy studded sandals are on our Want List.

In your prediction, what’s one of the next big style trends for littles?
Clothes that take inspiration from grown-up trends. We do a regular feature on MINIMODE called “From the Runway” where we highlight a runway trend and curate current kids’ product around it. Right now we have one highlighting the “Prima Ballerina” trend that was huge during Spring/Summer 2015 Fashion Week, featuring beautiful and adorable dancer-off-duty looks for kids. You’ll see more brands like Boy+Girl and Chalk NYC which design kid’s clothes that are cool and not so precious.

Featurekins // MiniModeWhat can our readers expect from MINIMODE throughout this upcoming summer season?
More interviews with inspiring and chic moms along with their curated picks, more fab summer products and a very exciting collaboration we are launching toward the end of the summer for back to school! We update our content daily so there is always something fresh to experience and buy.

Filed Under: Fashion Tagged With: #babiekinsmag, Babiekins, Babiekins Magazine, Fashion, instyle, kids fashion, kids fashion magazine, kids magazine, MiniMode, top magazine Posted By: Gina Munsey, Senior Editor

About Gina Munsey, Senior Editor

Gina is a Mexico-born, Eastern Europe-raised writer who finds herself in historic Franklin, Tennessee. A blogger for 16+ years, trendspotter, and influencer, Gina serves as Senior Editor of Babiekins Magazine and also lends her voice to numerous publications. As a published interior stylist and author, she definitely owns more rugs than jeans and shoes combined. You can find Gina on Instagram @oaxacaborn.

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Copyright © 2021 · Babiekins Magazine | A Trendsetting Kids' Fashion Magazine and Online Community for Parents and Children Alike · Since the Southern California birth of Babiekins in 2010, the magazine has grown from into an internationally-recognized print publication with a global circulation and now a thriving online community. We are more than a kids’ fashion magazine. We search everywhere for inspiration, and go beyond trends to bring you fashion, style, decor, design, books, DIY, parties, and playthings. Our readers look to us to keep up with the best and most up-to-date concepts in the children’s market worldwide. We have an eye for quirk. We’re high-fashion, but we value whimsy over tradition. Playful childhood is more important to us than making kids into copycat adults. We believe life is beautiful, life is valuable, and life changes when you see it through the eyes of a child. We seek to transcend skin color, language and zip codes and bring out the real, wild, magical creativity inherent in every child. And behind Babiekins is an optimistic team of mothers-turned-editors, working from home, often with our own little babiekins climbing on, under and around the desks. We want to encourage you, and challenge you to see something different — something special — in yourself and in this world we all share. Welcome to Babiekins!

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