TiA CiBANi KIDS: One to Watch Winner - Fashion, Playtime New York

Tia Cibani Kids Aw17 collection ‘Wallflower’ is rich in colour and texture, diverse in materials and abundant in choice. All reasons why this NY based label was our One to Watch for fashion AW17 at Playtime NY. Tia Cibani is an experienced designer and this is her second foray into kidswear evident from the maturity of the collection. The label launched a couple of years a go and runs parallel to the Tia Cibani womenswear line. After speaking with Tia at Playtime NY it was evident how much she enjoys the children’s fashion industry and designing/producing fashion for kids. Bold, complex and with a hint of tribal ethnic roots, a beautiful collection from a talented lady. Let’s find out more from Tia.

Your background? Born in North Africa, raised in Canada and spent many years living and working in China, I feel like a “global soul.”

You believe good design should be…? I believe good design should be inventive, aesthetically pleasing, and most of all, functional.

Where do you find your inspiration? I often draw from my personal heritage and global exposure/experiences for inspiration. I love diversity and the clash of cultures, making for a current culture collage.

The Tia Cibani Kids line contains? How many refs per collection ? The TiA CiBANi KiDS line is a fully developed range, including outerwear, knits, jersey, woven day styles and special occasion wear. We also develop a very special range of accessories to compliment the clothing line. This includes headbands, necklaces, hats, scarves, braclets, hair clips… In our next season, we intend to introduce bags and pouches.

The collection is broad and ranges anywhere between 120-150 styles. This is partly due to having the Mommy range along with Baby.

Main materials? Textile research is one of the most inspiring part of developing a collection for me and therefore the materials are always interesting and well researched. The range is very eclectic. I do love natural fibers and often make those my base textiles. Cotton, wool, linen…But I love to experiment and we often throw in technical man-made fabric, a lame, a lace or embroidery…the list goes on.

In how many countries can you find Tia Cibani Kids ? The US, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Italy, Ukraine, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE.

The international stockist can be found on our e-commerce website at www.tiacibanikids.com

Countries of manufacturing ? We manufacture in China, working mostly with boutique manufacturers that are of high quality and integrity. Workers are very skilled and we ensure we work with people who understand the quality of our product and the pursuit of treating the collection as a piece of artwork.

Where would you like to take Tia Cibani Kids in the future? We value our retail partners and we will maintain growing our distribution throughout the world, focusing on the Asian markets. In the meantime, we would like to have our own shop to be able to express our vision in its entirety. We will start with pop-ups in the next few seasons and look forward to growing into long-term free-standing company stores.

Any news from when we last spoke ? We are expanding to include more baby and more gift items and accessories. We are developing a special baby travel kit for babies and parents on the go, to be unveiled for Spring/Summer 2018 collection. The kit is made from 100% organic cotton and contains a basic onesie, a pair of footed leggings, a burpie, a travel blanket, and a cap, all contained in a pouch in our signature tyvek polka-dots print that converts into a diaper changing pad. The sizes will be 3M, 6M, 9M and 12M. This kit will service families on the go. It’s baby loungewear lol.

What Trade Shows can we find Tia Cibani Kids this Summer ? Playtime Paris, Playtime New York, and NY Now.