My daughter is now 11 years old, and while I barely remember anything about her infancy — I couldn’t tell you, say, when she lost her first tooth, etc. — I remember her Barefoot Dreams CozyChic Cardigan. And not because it’s cute and I’m a clothing designer (though it is, and I am). It’s because raising a baby is hard, so when you find those things that get you through it, you tend to remember them.
I picked one of these cardigans up on a whim. I’d gone out for a stroll a bit unprepared (likely only with a clean diaper shoved in my jacket pocket), so when the weather turned, I dodged into a baby shop in Soho called Giggle (now closed) and bought it.
I ended up putting her in it almost every day for the next year and a half. It was, I found quickly, sturdy and utilitarian (far more than the name, Barefoot Dreams CozyChic, expresses). And though it is made of a polyester microfiber, and though I am usually grossed out by polyester and microfiber fabrics, it actually has a very natural hand feel. Besides that, it’s just very soft, cozy, and highly, highly absorbent. This last bit is key because it means the sweater sort of doubles as a handkerchief — you can use it to wipe all the drool and snot that flows endlessly from a baby’s face. And it’s very, very easy to care for — you can just throw it in the wash. It also lasts — it’s stretchy enough to get you through a few growth cycles. My daughter wore it from when she was 6 months all the way to when she turned 2 and finally grew out of it. (Let’s just say it got far more use than the beautiful Bonpoint cashmere onesie that was gifted to me at my baby shower.)
Because of all this, it’s become my go-to gift for new parents. I’ve given it to several of my friends when they had babies around the same time — Sophia Coppola and her production designer Anne, plus Vicki Farrell, who is Amy Sedaris’s costume designer. They all loved it. And I got it more recently for my brother and sister-in-law when their second child was born. They used it so often, and it stayed so completely intact, that it was recently passed down to their third.
And this newborn set comes with a cardigan, pants, beanie and three pairs of socks.
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