Edgy baby clothes

Oshkosh bibbers are, like, so passe. Oh, you can still find pint-size overalls or pastel baby dresses, but you can also buy your baby trendy black onesies, K-Fed-style beaters, skull beanies and tiny T-shirts that don't mince words.

Among them: onesies that proclaim your offspring a "Playground Pimp"; long-sleeved tees that promise "Someday, I'll get trashed at prom"; and T-shirts that trumpet your newborn's admiration for Charles Bukowski, the alcoholic counterculture writer, which includes a picture of him drinking from a flask.

When Terra Carmichael's 2-year-old twins wear their shirts that spell out the promise that "Someday I'll egg a house," they stop traffic.

"People love them," the San Francisco mom said. "People stop them in the streets and talk to us about them. I think there's something funny about a little person wearing an expression that they're obviously too young to articulate. We are expressing ourselves through them."

Carmichael launched her baby-wear Web boutique, FlyingPeas.com, last fall after she couldn't find clothes sassy enough to suit her sense of style. Now Carmichael sells a full line of soft cotton baby clothes, including several shirts she calls edgy. Carmichael does a brisk business in "Trashed at prom" and "Chick Magnet" tees and lullaby versions of Metallica CDs.

The edgier shirts are usually purchased as baby-shower gifts, she said, but there's been a definite shift in infant fashion, too.

"They're definitely dressing sassier and sassier," she said. "People who are buying these products don't want their kids to wear the same Gap shirt. They want to be different."

Question is -- where do you draw the line between edgy and over the top?

"I'm not going to be selling a shirt with a pot leaf on it anytime soon," Carmichael said.

Many outfits are made by WryBaby, whose customers include Nordstrom and other upscale stores. Some of the slogans are edgy, others merely amusing -- "I eat paste" or "Teeny Republican."

But the shirts elicit mixed emotions.

El Cerrito, Calif., mom Cotrane Penn says parents get sick of duckies, trucks and dinosaurs after a while, but she finds some of these slogan-riddled clothes obnoxious.

"I don't think that you should put any statement on your child's chest ... that you would not actually want them to say if they could talk," Penn said.

Her young son has a black onesie that says "Dude" and has the male symbol on it.

"I thought that was cute," Penn said. "It answered the question of his gender and managed to be cool rather than corny. I do like the idea of the basic black T-shirt for babies because it's a major departure from the norm."

Some of those departures are larger than others -- an "I'm Your Twisted L'il Sister" from MetalBabies.com, a "bootysuit" from Urban Smalls that tells the world "I Party Naked," or the baby wear "with an adult sensibility" from BabyWit.com.

The last includes flaming bedsheets, the Bukowski-and-flask shirt and tiny T-shirts that read, "He thinks he's my daddy" and "My mama drinks because I cry." One shirt has a marijuana leaf and many feature political commentary the White House would find deeply unflattering.

Many of the shirts are purchased as amusing shower gifts, but the site's customer feedback page also includes parent-submitted photographs of 120 or so babies -- 17 of them wearing "I know more than the president."

Some slogan T-shirts can be amusing, said Chelsea O'Hara, who runs Three Wishes gift shop in Alameda, Calif., but she keeps a close eye on what they say.

"Trashed at prom"?

"No, I wouldn't order that one," she said. "I do draw the line. I know my customers."

Ellen Peterson, a Lafayette, Calif., parent who heads the Acalanes Alcohol and Drug Task Force, says she hopes the shirts are gag gifts, not actual baby wear.

"It's another example of appealing to low levels of decency to make a buck," Peterson said. "Putting a baby into a 'Pimp' or 'My mama drinks because I make her cry' T-shirt is just uncouth -- and stupid. It says more about the parents than they might suspect."

Meanwhile, the market continues to expand. New companies spring up daily, offering "Gangsta" onesies and shirts that blare "Fo'shizzle."

So, is there a market for baby bling, grillz or diaper pants that ride low on the hips, too?

"I wouldn't rule it out," Carmichael said.

Online resources for edgy baby wear:

www.babywit.com--clothes and gifts for the entire family, even the dog. Sample messages: Future activist; Funky little dude.

www.metalbabies.com -- T-shirts, onesies, sweatshirts, all for babies and toddlers, and with designs taken from heavy-metal bands. Sample messages: Future Rock Star! Daddy's little metal head.

www.wrybaby.com -- T-shirts, onesies, caps, bibs and gifts, for babies and toddlers. Sample messages: I eat dirt! You wake me, you take me.

www.flyingpeas.com--Clothing, diaper bags, gifts and more. Sample message: My dad's a geek. Fo'shizzle.

Source: www.star-telegram.com