It took a mom to make clothes that swing from pudge ball to string bean

Lorraine Kitsos knows kids, and their many idiosyncrasies, including the way some wee ones let you know they’ve outgrown the waistband of their pants. “Have you ever been in a room when a kid starts taking their clothes off because they’re just so bothered by their restrictions that they want to be naked?” says Kitsos, who recently sat down at a downtown café to talk about her children’s-clothing line, Redfish Kids. “Sometimes it’s okay, but sometimes it’s, like, in the middle of a party and everyone’s awkwardly looking around like, ‘Is someone going to put clothes back on the kid?’” Which is why flexibility is of the utmost importance when it comes to designing her bold urban pieces. One of the best examples of this is her Fisherman Pants (about $40), wide-legged jeans with a D-ring belt that adapts to growing girth.

There’s also the Swing Dress (about $50), a cotton babydoll that can be worn separately or over a long-sleeve shirt and pants. The straps tie on top of the shoulder so they can be fitted accordingly, and the skirt bells out so there’s plenty of leg and belly room. (Not surprisingly, both designs were modelled after Kitsos’s maternity-wear staples.)

“Kids change and their bodies change so dramatically,” says the mother of two. “One minute, they’re little pudge balls and then they go on to the string-bean stage. They just grow all over the place, especially little, little guys—they can chub up in a week. That’s why I try to make things that are adaptable and comfortable.”

In addition to making clothes that don’t restrict expanding waistlines, Kitsos is also mindful of not

confining the sexes to stereotypical garb. All of her long-sleeve T-shirts ($30 to $34) have a unisex feel to them, and that’s no accident. “It seems like all you ever see is boys in Spider-Man clothes and girls in princess clothes, and that freaks me out,” she says. “It actually hurts a little bit when I see it because I love it when my son says, ‘Look at that beautiful flower; isn’t that colour amazing?’ or when my daughter drives her toy trucks all over the house. I just think all children should be free to go beyond their gender.”

So in lieu of clichéd pink pastels and superhero symbols, a lot of Kitsos’s tops are decorated with images of sock monkeys, psychedelic lions, and peace signs. She also manages to incorporate a lot of Asian sophistication into her designs. It’s not unusual for her to incorporate sushi, geisha sandals, and dragons into her work, something that seems to appeal to as many parents as it does kids.

“People are always saying, ‘Would you make that for me?’” says Kitsos, who sells her line through her Web site ( www.redfishkidsclothing.com ) and several Lower Mainland stores including Fine Finds (1014 Mainland Street). But her plans don’t run to adult clothes anytime soon. “I don’t really want to take that on because it would just be a whole other thing and I’m really having some good fortune just doing what I’m doing now.”