OUR BELIEFS & PRACTICES
We are family. Everything we do at Little Moony comes from the heart first, at least that has been our goal from the beginning. As we are writing this document, we are very much aware that it is a work-in-progress, one that continuously evolves as our Little Moony evolves as a business and as we grow as individuals. Nonetheless, being a small family business means we have the freedom to do things differently. We do not subscribe towards the mantra of turbo capitalism, where the focus is solely on numbers, where quality is compromised by cost savings, and the ultimate goals are profit, growth, and the ‘bottom line’. We do not believe that these practices are sustainable. Not for us. Not for our children. And not for our planet. Being responsible citizens and conscious consumers ourselves in our personal lives, our focus is geared towards choosing better, choosing less. And certainly in the Little Moony world, that means well-designed, high-quality, timeless pieces that are the result of us consciously eschewing anything resembling "fast". We embrace and practice SLOW FASHION.
THE WAY WE MAKE CLOTHING: SLOW FASHION
All of our Little Moonies are designed by myself in New York, and hand-crafted by my mother and her small team in Los Angeles. Out of hundreds of fabrics, we choose a few that fit our criteria in terms of quality, design and softness. We work with domestic fabric companies that are independent and family owned, and we seek out organic fabrics whenever possible. We sell our Little Moonies only in our store and on our website, which allows us to opt for better and higher quality fabrics. We carefully plan each new style and only buy limited quantities of fabrics, thereby limiting the limiting the number of Little Moonies available.
All of our pieces are available year round, which means they are essentially "seasonless". Our best sellers become our essentials that are available to our clients, as permitted by the amount of fabrics we have. From the very beginning, we opted out of the traditional fashion cycles. We firmly do not believe it necessary to constantly make 4-6 collections every year, certainly not in the baby and children's world. Of course newness is wonderful, but the fashion industry has been widely known for churning out way too much clothes, at mind boggling speed, all of which have exceeded the rate of mindful consumption. This ultimately leads to waste of energy and resources. As a small business, our slow approach is our way of trying to do our part.
HAND-CRAFTED VS. MANUFACTURED
All our Little Moonies are “hand-made” or “hand-crafted” by my mother, meaning all the necessary steps to create a piece are done by her hands. She makes the patterns based on my designs, and she cuts and grades them. She sews all pieces either with a sewing machine or, when needed, by hand, and she applies all finishing touches and details by hand. During this process, she often applies her own expertise and makes suggestions of how to improve on the design, which makes each Little Moony truly unique.
In the fashion wholesale manufacturing world, this is simply impossible to execute. Here, each garment is produced in an ‘assembly line’ kind of way. The factory receives a ‘tech pack’ from the brand’s design & production team, which specifically lists all the ‘ingredients’ of the garment, and then the pieces are being manufactured by many different people, each of them doing only a few steps of the process, and they do the same thing over and over again. The idea behind this is that specialization leads to efficiency and better performance levels, which can be measured and maximized. Factories operating this way often work under immense time and cost pressure.
DESIGNING – SEASONLESS STYLES
As adults, we chose pieces that fit us perfectly. With children, this is an impossible undertaking due to them constantly growing out of things. When I design our Little Moonies, I am driven by the challenge of “How can I make this piece last longer so parents get more out of it? How can I extend the lifetime use of the garment?” Hence, most of our Little Moonies are a bit looser, wider, and more comfortably tailored. Most of my dresses last up to a year, depending on the child’s growth. They start as dresses, become tunics over time, and are finally worn as shirts. Our super comfy harem pants and our baggy onesies have an added inch of length so they can grow with the child.
Selling our Little Moonies direct to you also allows us to create sesonless designs and frees us from the dynamics of the wholesale industry that always demands new collections for each Spring, Summer, Fall and Holiday season, which often leads to overproduction, waste and excess inventory.
By listening directly to you – our customers - instead, day after day, we learn how to improve our designs, how to plan better, how to be better at what we are doing, which is bringing happiness to you and your loved ones.
ECO-CONSCIOUSNESS. FAIR PRACTICES.
When my mom and I started Little Moony, we wanted to create fun, comfortable, hand-crafted childrens’ clothes, and we wanted to do it in an eco-friendly, eco-conscious way. Our goal is to – one day - be 100% sustainable. We know that is a tall order, but we do work towards that goal every day, making small adjustments, one step at a time. Everything counts. In small amounts.
When we made the first Little Moony styles, we had approximately 50% of our pieces made from organic and sustainable fabrics. We are currently at about 75%, and every day we are getting a little bit closer to our goal.
Our secondary line ‘Miny Me’, which is based on our original, New York-centric, illustrations, was originally made from regular cotton. In 2021, we were finally able to switch to 100% organic Pima cotton for all ‘Miny Mes’. We committed upfront to larger quantities of cotton yardage, guaranteeing our partner the project and thereby eliminating the risk for them to take on. All of our Miny Mes are made by a small family business based in Lima, Peru.
NEARLY ZERO-WASTE
My mom and I aim to use every inch of the fabric in our pieces. It starts with laying out the patterns before cutting the fabric to minimize waste. We use small, left-over patches for trims, pockets, or accents. My mom also uses them for hair bows, berrets or head bands. We always actively look for ways to reduce waste.
OUR STORE & PACKAGING
When we built our store, it was important to us to minimize the impact on the environment. We were able to reuse about 99% of the lumber from our previous market location. The center display as well as the counter are made from those shelves and boards. For the wooden racks and shelves, we used materials from a local lumber shop.
We have begun to work with our suppliers and partners to limit the amount of plastic packaging, and to reduce overall amount of packaging materials and fillers. While we are only one small children’s store, and our impact on larger companies might be somewhat limited, we believe that through continuous effforts we will raise awareness for these issues, and ultimately impact change.
We also fully embrace the New York ban on plastic bags that started March 1st, 2020. At Little Moony, we have used recycled paper bags, each of them stamped by hand individually, since our opening day.
CHOOSING THE BRANDS WE CARRY CAREFULLY
We ask a lot of ourselves, and when choosing the brands we carry in our store, we are guided by the same principles. We are seeking out brands that are rooted in eco-friendly and sustainable practices, toys made from reclaimed wood using non-toxic paint, accessories that are made by local designers, and brands where we know the artisans, designers and founders.