Hasta La Gadget!

Inquirer.net: SURE, baby shoes are cute. But the truth is, babies aren’t supposed to wear shoes until they’ve learned how to walk.

Rianna Roces-Trinidad and Sheryll Ang-Tiong, the mom-entrepreneurs behind Proud Mama, discovered this fact online. “We’re very proactive moms. We spend a lot of time on the Internet, reading articles. One of the things we learned online is that you shouldn’t be putting shoes on very young children because it restricts the growth of their feet. It’s easier for them to learn to walk when they can feel the ground. When you have very small children, you have the Cinderella syndrome. You put their shoes on yet they fall off anyway. Their feet aren’t built for shoes,” says Rianna.

Rianna and Sheryll, both moms of baby girls, needed something better. After all they had three daughters who they love to dress up.

They came up with the perfect product — Funky Feet, baby socks that look like shoes. They designed the socks together, taking inspiration from actual shoes that they like, shoes they bought for their kids and shoes they wish they can buy for their kids.

They have five designs: Little Miss Mary Janes, Fashionista Flats, Super Sneakers, Li’l Loafers, Retro Ruffles and Bows On My Toe. Each design comes in five colors, to match your baby’s different outfits. “The colors that we chose are the colors that our kids wear most often. They really complete the whole outfit,” Sheryll said.

Rianna and Sheryll are selling online, through their Multiply site. Rianna said, “We were surprised at the activity on Multiply. It’s a very alive community. It’s so active.” Proud Mama receives orders from as far as Hong Kong, Brunei, Malaysia and even Germany. They also have resellers in Jakarta and Central Java in Indonesia and Singapore.

Baby socks for proud mamas [Inquirer.net]

Branding, the media contents company behind the ultra-popular fashion website girlswalker.com and the influential Tokyo Girls Collection, has decided to add vending machines to its growing empire—a first for both the IT and fashion industries. Girlswalker.com branded vending machines will soon start appearing at train stations, universities, amusement parks etc around the country, reaching a goal of 3,000 by mid this year.

The vending machines will carry mineral water, ice teas (and other girl and young women-friendly products) plus original products created in collaboration with popular fashion brands or in honor of girlswalker.com promotional campaigns. With this move, Branding hopes not only to raise their presence but also to build on their thus far successful framework of communication and retail cross business enterprise.

Branding also recently announced that this season’s Tokyo Girls Collection will team up with copycat event the Shibuya Girls Collection (organized by T-Garden) to offer a two-day joint ticket. The events will be held back to back over the March 7th to 8th weekend at the National Stadium in Harajuku.

While the TGC is moving towards a more up-market audience with the inclusion of select shops, the SGC remains true to its “gyaru” roots with a roster of purely Shibuya 109 brands. And 109-2 brands—as the SGC (despite the “girls” in the name) will also feature five menswear brands from 109’s big brother store.

We weren’t able to find anything online about these, but our recent trip to a Lawson convenience revealed these very cool Hello Kitty bottles. Aside from being rather ergonomic, the seemingly Gaultier-inspired sexy bottles are also sporting the latest in Kitty-chan fashion.

Of course, for 368 yen ($4), this is clearly water for cute-loving women over 30.