Unhappy with the options for baby wear when pregnant with her second child, Giselle Santana took matters into her own hands.
Despite being able to sew only “a little bit,” the Honolulu mom started her first business, Naturally Young at Heart, in 2015, creating outfits for newborns and toddlers. That attracted the attention of Honolulu artist Ashlee Fujimoto, who liked what she saw in Santana’s creations and asked to collaborate with her.
“And then we worked so well together that we wanted to form our own business together,” Fujimoto said. “I like the ‘cute’ aesthetic, so it works perfectly for baby stuff.”
Santana and Fujimoto, both 31, launched Honolulu Baby Co. in November with a lineup of made-in-Hawaii rompers, T-shirts, leggings, shorts, toys and blankets featuring tropical fruits and kid-friendly characters such as Pablo Pineapple, Sam Musubi and Sid Shave Ice. A second collection, set for release in 2017, hinges on the success of a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign that ends this week.
“We wanted to be able to have something for people to see what we are all about,” Santana said of the products currently available on Honolulu Baby Co.’s website. “If you feel the material, it’s really soft. It’s all organic fabric (and) we choose organic because we know babies like to explore the world with their mouths.”
Because of the fledgling nature of the business, customers typically must wait six to eight weeks to get their online orders. Santana said the $15,000 Kickstarter campaign, which concludes Tuesday, will allow the pair to create enough inventory to speed up the process.
“People were fine with waiting that amount of time, but I couldn’t do it anymore,” Santana said. “We didn’t want to start our company in debt, so we thought a good solution would be to run a Kickstarter to pay for new material, elastic and labels, business cards, packaging materials and to pay our manufacturer and screen printer.”
Customers who don’t want to wait for fundraiser perks to arrive in the mail can visit Honolulu Baby Co. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the Mele Kalikimaka Marketplace at Blaisdell Exhibition Hall and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 18 at Pineapple Patio, 2038 S. King St. Santana and Fujimoto will have remaining current stock on hand for purchase and can assist backers with making Kickstarter pledges as well.