Little Fashionistas

Denise Silva-Navoian owns Polka Dot Panda. After giving up her career as a property manager after her second child, she started sewing and selling her creations online. After two years she decided to open her own store selling her own creations along designer brands.

What are some trends in kids fashion?
For spring and summer, the trend is bright colors. I’m seeing lots of yellows and oranges and comfortable clothing that can take you from school to some sort of occasion – comfortable yet dressy. I wanted to have a lot of day-to-day wear alongside custom designer clothing lines. I see that the fashion is very similar to adult fashion, I think there is more of a comfort level with children’s fashion. But as far as the colors, cuts and overall styles they are very similar.

Any advice on keeping your kids out of t-shirts with pop culture icons on them?
I would say save these looks for a special occasion. For example, I specialize in customizing birthday shirts where they might want their name on it, age and picture of their favorite animal or icon. These looks can be fun and are great for celebrating special days.

What’s the story behind the store’s name?
When I was deciding on a name I wanted something original, visual and appealing to children. Once you have children you sort of become inspired by their whole world. We actually have a mascot of a panda with polka dots (pink and blue) all over him.

What’s a fun spring look?
For girls I’m seeing a lot of florals and animal patterns such as black and white stripes. One of my favorite lines is Tea Collection – each season they travel to a different part of the world to get inspiration. This year they got their inspiration from Africa so there are lots of animal patterns.

For boys it’s the same thing but with nautical-hemed clothing. Lots of tourists come in and want to bring a gift home that tells the story of Narragansett. We have navy blue pullovers that are trimmed with white, some are plain and others have an anchor on the chest. We pair that with khakis or khakis cargo shorts and water shoes or leather sandals.

What’s a fun accessory to integrate into a kid’s wardrobe?
For girls, it’s jewelry and hair accessories. For boys, ties and hats. Hats are huge, it is hard to accessorize little boys but if you put a little hat on him it really pulls the look together.

Any advice for toning down the crazy fashion ideas kids have?
My opinion is that less is more. You want the child to feel comfortable and fashionable all the time. There isn’t a need for sequin on everything. We stay away from iron-on t-shirts and mass produced commercialized clothing. We keep it specialty at a reasonable price.

What one thing are you totally obsessed with right now?
Right now I’m obsessed with hair accessories, beaded necklaces and shoes. I like being able to dress something up with accessories. We offer custom hair bands by local designers who will customize the hair creation to match the dress. It’s sort of the whole idea behind the store. We want to be able to customize the look to fit any occasion.