Bubble Girl’s clothes, from cute, colourful shorts and jumpsuits to luxurious, full-length gowns will make most (if not all) little girls and their mothers go gaga. Its eponymous boutique is, indeed, packed with all things beautiful for little darlings, and among its eclectic mix of merchandise, there is something for everyone.
Bubble Girl’s tagline, as written on its Instagram, is “kids fashion with a touch of designer”. Located at the high-end Plaza Indonesia mall, Bubble Girl boutique, which offers ready-to-wear pieces, couture clothing and custom-made apparel, is Aladdin’s cave for children. Its shelves are filled with lovely clothes in all shapes and sizes, made for 1-year-old to 14-year-old girls.
Shorts, pants, jumpsuits, blouses, jackets, casual dresses, glamorous full-length gowns, and even cheongsam as well as kaftans are among the goods on display; your little darlings will be spoilt for choice. Moreover, colourful hair accessories are available too.
An Indonesian children’s clothing brand that has its own eponymous boutique and carries its own label only is a rarity here – when Bubble Girl was launched in October 2004, the clothes were sold at Metro and Sogo department stores only.
Currently, besides at its own boutique, Bubble Girl merchandise is also available at Seibu, Debenhams, Central and Metro department stores. And as the business grows, launching its eponymous online shop is also in the pipeline.
The brand is the brainchild of Sebastian Gunawan and his wife-cum-creative partner, Cristina Panarese; their daughter inspired them to create beautiful dresses when she was a little girl. This designer couple is famous for their impeccably tailored goods and have a real knack for designing luxurious gorgeous apparel. Just like their adults clothes, their children’s pieces, naturally, combine beautiful materials with superb craftsmanship as well.
Sebastian’s niece, Rosalindynata Gunawan, replaced his position as head designer of Bubble Girl in February 2013. Like her uncle, creating beautiful items is also Rosalindynata’s forte; and it does not hurt that her educational background is directly related to her work: she studied fashion design at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. While she was still a student there, she honed her skills by working as a pattern maker at two Australian fashion labels, namely Obus and LIFEwithBIRD.
As said by Rosalindynata, Bubble Girl offers children’s apparel that has a designer’s cut and designer’s look at affordable prices. While Bubble Girl’s casual clothing line offers all things cute, its luxurious dresses in the Gold and Flower by Bubble Girl lines are the couture apparel that make this label stand out among other locally made kids’ clothing brands.
Many of the gowns in the Gold line are meticulously adorned with Swarovski crystals that surely give those dresses a touch of glamour; meanwhile, Flower by Bubble Girl offers custom-made apparel for flower girls, thus the little girls will surely look as lovely as the brides.
As for prices, when I visited the boutique last month, the most expensive goods were two gorgeous dresses from the Gold line, which cost Rp 5,400,000 each.
Made-to-order items usually cost between Rp 1,500,000 and Rp 10,000,000 – meanwhile, ready-to-wear casual clothes are mainly priced between Rp 300,000 and Rp 800,000.
This label targets clientele who are willing to pay premium prices for quality materials and superb craftsmanship – the quality materials which they use and the laborious process in making the clothes surely determine the prices of their finished goods. There are dresses that take hours of manual labour, as sequins, crystals, beads and fabric flower appliques are done by hand.
The clothing is made of various textiles, including cotton, silk, taffeta, chiffon, organdy, tweed as well as Indonesian fabrics, namely batik and tenun. One of the most beautiful items on offer is actually a gorgeous pink dress, which is made of exquisite tenun (Indonesian traditional hand-woven textile) – the silver threads in subtle hues have a soft shimmer that give the pink tenun textile a touch of glamour without being gaudy. Indeed, there is something for everyone, whether you look for clothes made of traditional fabrics or modern textiles.
Moreover, there is good news for health-conscious parents: Bubble Girl merchandise has been certified by Indonesian National Standard (Standard Nasional Indonesia, abbreviated SNI). Actually, SNI is mandatory for kids’ apparel and toys sold in Indonesia – however, in reality, not all of children’s clothes and toys marketed here bear the SNI certification mark, particularly the cheaper products.
When buyers see that SNI certification mark on merchandise, they can be assured that it has undergone extensive testing and has met all applicable safety requirements (including flammability test standards) and quality standards, and it also means that it is free of potentially harmful chemicals.
Bubble Girl is open to collaborate with other fashion labels; for instance, a capsule collection will be come out of a collaborative project between Bubble Girl and a fashion label called Run Thing to celebrate Ied Mubarak 2017.
Bubble Girl launches four collections yearly, namely Spring/Summer, Chinese New Year, Ied Mubarak and Christmas collections. Additionally, in between those collections, this brand also launches a few items (say, 1 or 3 clothes) to celebrate special events, such as in conjunction with Easter.
When it comes to the latest in fashion trends for kids, Rosalindynata said, pop culture and movies are big influences – children generally want to dress like Katy Perry, Selena Gomez and other celebrities as well as the characters that they see in their favourite movies, including Disney’s fairy tales.
Rosalindynata adds that whimsical dresses, which pay homage to fairy tales, are in vogue. Thus, a glamorous Cinderella-esque blue ball gown that bears a price tag of Rp 3,199,000, is among the goods on offer at her boutique. (Little girls who want to dress like Belle in the “Beauty and The Beast” movie, may order a made-to-measure dress which resembles Belle’s famous yellow gown, as this label also offers bespoke clothes).
All in all, Bubble Girl is the boutique to go to when you want to splurge on your little ones; they will definitely have a wide variety of options to choose from, from stylish cute jumpsuits to head-turning, luxurious gowns (warning: it features countless beautiful items, which makes it very hard to choose just one or a few).
Photos courtesy of BUBBLE GIRL
