It’s always a bit of a retail bummer when you find a design you love that’s unavailable in the right size or styling for the season. That’s why we love the customization offered by Makrista Baby.

Makrista features a lovely collection of whimsical, watercolor style designs that can be applied to a variety of 100% cotton clothing styles and accessories (0-36 months). Images can be screen-printed onto pebble or white garments, or placed against rich, hand-dyed colors via their cool new distressed patches (images are sewn on the chest; wording at the back neckline). During these troubled times, the “World Peace” graphic (shown on a short-sleeved romper; $30; click thumbnail to see detail) brings hope.

Just because tees are an inevitable part of the mommy wardrobe doesn’t mean you can’t hang onto your sassy style.

Tuni & G offers comfy clothing for babies, kids, and adults (including maternity); among their collection are separates that can be paired to create punchy Mommy & Me sets. Especially cool is the My Baby Rolls/My Mom Rocks set (piece prices range from $28-36). Available in various sizes, styles, and colors, the logos are constructed entirely of chic pressed stud embellishments. We also love that this style offers a “My Grandma Rocks” baby/kid onesie or tee to honor hip and stylish grandmas.

A reader recently wrote in with praise for Jinwood Shoes. Based out of British Columbia, this shoe company produces groovy, soft-soled infant shoes (available in 0-24 months) that have a skid resistant sole, Velcro styling for easy on and off, and come in a variety of cool retro stripe color combinations (shown, Green Stripe). Available for $25.95 at Simple Me Boutique.

UPDATE (3/5/07): In addition to standard free shipping on orders over $25, Simple Me would like to offer Boston Mamas readers 10% off orders over $50 using the code BOSTON.

In my dream world, I already would have mastered Korean plus all of the Romance languages. And although there's little time for the language lab these days, now it's possible to expand your cultural horizons while hanging with your babe.

Inspired by a desire to help parents and kids celebrate different languages and cultures, Il Cocco di Mamma carries a unique, worldly collection of apparel, books, and toys. Their super soft, super cool line of signature onesies ($22; 6-24 months) are printed with popular international sayings (shown; Ciao!). Elegant and colorful wooden foreign alphabet blocks are available in English, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Hebrew. And be sure to check out their nifty series of international books and CDs; if you've got Dr. Seuss down in English, now's your chance to learn it in another language.

Boys typically get the short end of the fashion stick compared to the myriad options for girls. But the tides are turning, and if you’re looking for style and attitude off the beaten path, check out the cool offerings of Pure Boy Clothes (infants to kids), Hey Peanut (infant and toddlers), and Red 21 Boys (infants to kids), all of which cater exclusively to boys.

Every now and then duplicates of Laurel’s play clothes make their way to our laundry (a classmate’s clothing, sent home accidentally from school), and I let out a collective sigh for the convenience and commonplaceness that the mass clothing market provides.

Achieving individuality is not a problem at Nixie Clothing, where designer Nicole Frobusch has created a line of mostly one-off, boho chic children’s clothing (ages 1-8) made from 100% recycled wools and vintage cottons. The butterfly dresses (wool with vintage scarf sleeves) and leg warmers (knits and lace) make for an especially unique presentation (shown).
Check out Nixie’s online store, which is currently running an end of season sale; and be sure to visit again once their vibrant, whimsical spring/summer line launches in March. Note: prices are in British pounds but the shopping cart operates through Paypal; alternatively, stateside, Craftsbury Kids offers a small collection of Nixie items.

Although $30 seems steep for a tiny tee, your babe no doubt will bring back lots of concert revenue in this born to rock baseball tee. I saw this tee on the super cute son of a friend of a friend; I think my little babe was swooning in his rocker presence!

Available at Babystyle, this tee is 50/50 cotton/poly and machine washable. Baby sizes are $28, kid sizes $30. A short-sleeved pink (with rhinestone lettering) version is available for rocker chicks.

Maybe I’m old fashioned (or still traumatized by memories of emerging out of the ocean with a bikini top wrapped around my neck as a 5 year old), but I’m just not comfortable suiting up my toddler in an itsy bitsy bikini. That said, I do think that two-pieces are great for diaper changing ease.

So imagine my delight when I came across the Land’s End Tugless Tankini. This bestselling suit is sporty and cute, offers 40 UPF protection, and has a tug-free fit to keep all the pieces in place.

This suit currently is on sale for $22.99 (toddler size; they also have little girl sizes). But, I actually got my babe a cute pink and orange version of the same suit (shown) for a mere $12 through the Overstock section of the Land’s End website.

As a new parent sometimes it’s hard to realize that the sun is in your babe’s eyes because you are walking around with your eyes half shut due to sleep deprivation. Solve this problem by defaulting to a pair of groovy JazO shades. The shatterproof polycarbonate lenses block out 100% of harmful UVA and UVB rays, and the soft, adjustable neoprene strap keeps the sunglasses in place and has a built in safety release. Infant sunglasses (0-3 year olds) include 2 bands (13 and 14 inches). Children sunglasses (4-8 years olds) include one 14-inch band with larger glasses.

Available for $8.99 at Amazon in infants' blue, purple, pink, and red and children's blue, purple, pink, red and flag pattern.