The Danforth East Arts Fair is this weekend! Yes, this weekend. I know you don’t want to think about Christmas, but you will be so happy if you bring along your list and do some of your shopping right here while you’re still without your winter coat. While you’re there, check out Little Ra’s for the little ones in your life.
Many a parent has dreamed of kids’ clothing that’s well-priced, but still tough enough to withstand disintegrating popsicles, tempting mud puddles and, that most formidable foe of all children’s clothing, growing kids. So, too, did mother of two Heather Tormey. A lifelong sewer, she spotted a void in the kids’ clothing market, and started her line Little Ra’s after her daughter was born.
Her aim? To make stylish, logo-free duds that aren’t worn by every kid on the playground. Tormey, a loyal Danforth East-er, uses non-traditional fabrics while staying kid friendly.
Her designs can be worn in different ways as kids grow — a long dress becomes a shorter dress becomes a shirt, for example. (A friend’s 18-month-old and Tormey’s three-year-old recently wore the same dress); many are reversible for maximum style (and spill) mileage. Her kids serve as informal quality control — the clothes get “laundered and run through the park to death,” Tormey says.
Little Ra’s, which sells to buyers across North America on Etsy, creates primarily girls’ clothing, but is expanding into boys’ wear, including star-emblazoned capes and tees for budding superheroes and casual pants. (The name, for those not up on their mythology, comes from a being with a different kind of superpower — Ra, the Egyptian god of the sun — and invokes children’s sun-like place in her family).
Look for some of Little Ra’s fall offerings at the Danforth East Arts Fair, including a tweedy plaid cotton coat with an exuberant, fuschia printed lining, cozy, dark-hued pinafores and her perennially popular kimono-style wrap top. Then head for the swing sets: “Little Ra’s,” says Tormey, is for kids “who like to play in dirt, and look good doing it.”
Check out Tormey’s clothing at her Etsy store; her wares, which range in price from $20 to $30, will be for sale at the Danforth East Arts Fair in East Lynn Park on Sept. 18 & 19, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.deca-arts.ca
