Clothes-Minded
Fed up with traditional outfits, one mom takes baby clothes to a whole new level.
What: A line of one-piece
baby clothing designed to look like multipiece outfits
Who: Jennifer Hughes of Liloebe
LLC
Where: Traverse City,
Michigan
When: Started in January
2002
Jennifer Hughes and her friends always loved the look of the
cute baby clothes they received at baby showers. But when it came
time to put the layers on-the shorts, the shirt and the
overshirt-it hit home to Hughes, 36, how inconvenient the baby
separates were. "I had tons of these outfits that were
completely impractical," she explains.
Hughes wondered why no one had thought of designing one-piece
outfits for babies and toddlers that just looked like they
were made up of two or three pieces. After all, a one-piece outfit
would be much easier to get on and off, and it wouldn't bunch
up as the baby moved.
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After the birth of her second daughter, Hughes started seriously
researching what it would take to launch her line of baby clothes.
After coming up with the corporate name, Liloebe LLC (a combination
of her daughters' names, Lili and Phoebe), Hughes initially
focused on securing big corporate accounts. However, "They
wouldn't touch me with a 10-foot pole," she explains,
because her operation was so new. So Hughes went to Plan B and
embraced the boutique market, which fell head-over-heels in love
with her stylish, affordably priced (around $20 retail)
creations.
The most difficult part of her marketing, says Hughes, has been
explaining the product to customers. Because the outfits in her
Stylease line look like they're made up of separate pieces,
potential buyers have to actually touch her products to understand
why they're so special. Now Hughes is mounting a grass-roots
consumer marketing campaign. "That's the kind of
word-of-mouth that's going to grow this product," she
says. With 2003 sales projected into the six figures, word is
definitely getting out.
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