L E i T M O T i F
for the precious & precocious
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One book at a time

10/16/2014

 
My parents moved from Korea to Canada before I was born and then to California when I was about four years old. We moved a lot so we couldn’t have many belongings. I remember asking my mom to tell me the story over and over again about how she once moved all our family’s things in my sister’s stroller before I was born. Needless to say, when I ask her about the few things that we took with us from place to place, books were not among them. 

In graduate school, many of my colleagues swapped stories about how introverted they have always been, how they stayed inside and read all of Jane Austen’s books when they were only ten, or all the nights they didn’t sleep - reading books under the covers with a flashlight. When they told these stories, I always thought to myself that their parents must have had a great collection of books for them to have discovered such mature authors at such a young age. 

Unlike many of my friends, I did not grow up loving books. I held a deep fascination and awe for books - sometimes so much so that I was too intimidated to pick them up, let alone read them. The word “classics” made me feel small, insignificant, and anxious. I know some people with such a clear vision or talent that they are able to find their passion regardless of how they grew up, but I was not one of those people. I was a late bloomer. I didn’t find books, or rather, books didn’t find me until I was seventeen years old and my English teacher assigned us the short stories of Ernest Hemingway.

When I started to develop a real relationship to literature, I felt as if I was unraveling - in a good way. I was finding out all these things about myself that I didn’t know were there. So many of the questions I was asking inside me my whole life were finally being answered - I have never felt any religious awakening in my life, but this was the closest thing to it.  

When I started to envision Leitmotif, I wasn’t sure if making clothes would make me happy. I had spent the last decade of my life working toward becoming a professor and I loved teaching - I wasn’t sure how this new future would look or feel like for me if it didn’t include literature. 

While we are trying to make a powerful statement in the children’s fashion world with our art and literature inspired tees and unisex pieces, I really wanted to find a way to use my knowledge and love of literature to help our local communities through Leitmotif. As a small business, I wanted to try to make an impact. I asked myself, what would I do if I really wanted to help another person? What do I have to offer?

I love to give my favorite books as gifts. I garner a lot of pleasure from gifting books to friends and family that might be the one book that will change their relationship to themselves the way Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms did for me. When I started to think about the logic of donating books, I thought to myself, I bet the quality of the books that get donated are not great and not always relevant to the families that receive them (this was later confirmed by people that organize book drives and donations). I think part of the reason that I didn’t love reading is that I didn’t see myself reflected in any of the books I read (Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Ramona, Madeleine…although I did love me some Mrs. Piggle Wiggle). As I grew older of course, I found my soul mates regardless of what the writers or characters looked like, but when I was little, I was all too aware that I did not exist in the literary world.

Having read a wide range of authors in graduate school, I feel pretty confident that I will be able to curate book donations to really speak to the families that would receive them. I am so excited to donate the books that took me so long to find. Books by Ralph Ellison, Knut Hamsun, Salman Rushdie, Virginia Woolf, Manuel Puig, Nikolai Gogol, Nella Larsen, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Octavia Butler, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Ernest Hemingway…

As I read with my daughter, I am grateful that we live in a time where there are children’s books that resonate with our worldview, that feel much more progressive than the books I read when I was young because they offer alternatives to re-used plots and imagines new faces on the heroes and heroines of our generation. I am grateful for books with animal characters that speak metaphorically about differences, and do not make my daughter feel like she isn’t included in the literary imagination because faces like hers are not often depicted in American picture books. 

When I think about the books I will donate, I feel that all my training and reading has come to some good. I am grateful that my critical lens can be useful outside of the classroom so I can gift books to people who need them. If I can potentially help a person find answers to the questions most profound to them, I will feel I have done something good in the world.
 

Back to the beach

10/5/2014

 
When I was sixteen, I moved to Norway for one year as an exchange student. On the first day of school, I noticed that everyone carried the same leather backpack. Not wanting to stand out with my black and grey JanSport, I asked my host sister to take me to the bookstore so I could buy one of my own. It was one of the first things I did to try to fit in as a newcomer in the very small town of Rjukan. I still have the backpack and the last time I went to Norway, I bought one for my daughter to have when she grows up (it was very difficult to find one). I was saddened to see that the leather backpack has become something of a relic of the past. Nowadays most Norwegian kids wear backpacks adorned with superheroes or television characters much like children in the US - the kind of backpacks that we throw away after one year.  

Now I live in San Francisco and it’s so strange for me to see Norwegian made leather backpacks on passerbys in the Mission. At first, I thought that they were copies, but I’ve seen so many of them with the Bergans tag on them so I know they are like mine, the ones from my youth. Seeing these again after all these years made me think.

As my own daughter started school, I noticed there were hardly any well-made bags available for children. I realized that like a lot of children’s clothing, schoolbags are made to be disposable - to last exactly one school year, at most. Back to school shopping is all about in with the new and out with the old. That is what consumer culture cultivates, but why? While we may not have as much of a choice in frequently updating our gadgets, we do have a choice to buy products that will last as long as we want them to.

So I decided I would try to make a great schoolbag for children - the kind that would bring back good memories for them when they grew up, one they would be proud to still carry around, and happy to pass on to their little ones. Even though my knowledge of bags was quite limited, I was excited about living in a city with so many amazing bag designers for adults. I approached several of them but ultimately, my first choice was Alite designs. I personally own their original bike to the beach bag and I love it. It’s such a simple, genius design, it feels good to wear, it’s affordable, and it is so well-made that it comes with a lifetime guarantee. People love the bike to the beach bag so much that Alite cannot make them fast enough to keep them in stock. The timing was great since I approached them when they were also toying with the idea of making a smaller version for women who wanted a slightly more compact backpack. 

After settling on the right measurements, we were thrilled that the bag could easily work for both children and adults. I asked my daughter to try out the prototype over one weekend and Alite had one of their employees take the bag on a hiking trip; by Sunday, they both loved the bag so much they didn’t want to give it up. And thus, the mini bike to the beach bag was born! Our first limited edition in cobalt blue is a Leitmotif exclusive and is available on our online shop. 

As a new designer and business owner, I do a lot of research and work hard to make quality products that will last for generations. I do not believe in making disposable products for children. Given the opportunity, children are fully capable of having respect for and taking care of their possessions, and appreciating the quality of a well-made item. We just need to do more to provide them with these kinds of opportunities. 

I know that we missed the back to school frenzy, but we think that the timing of this launch couldn’t be any better than if we planned it. San Francisco is experiencing a major heatwave as of late. Thousands of SF locals went swimming at the beach today so we thought it would be fun to offer all our customers a promotional code that will last as long as these high temperatures.* As long as SF continues to have beach weather, you will receive 10% off your very own mini bike to the beach bag. Whether you’re biking, driving, bussing it, or walking to the beach, this beautiful little bag will fit all your beach essentials. Promo code: heatwave

So please check out our bag and shirts and our latest revisions to our return policy! We think you’re going to love all of our goods but if for any reason you change your mind, you can send it back to us for a full refund within seven days of delivery. Read more specifics about our return policy on our about page.


*Our promo code will be valid until there is one full day that the temperature stays below 70 degrees fahrenheit in San Francisco. According to my trusty weather widget on my iPhone, we predict this will be Thursday.
 

Hello from Leitmotif!

10/1/2014

 
We are so excited to finally share our brand, our vision, and our products with you on our online shop! We are a family business based in San Francisco and as a welcome to our journal and our site, we would love to share our story with you.

When our daughter was born five years ago, we were surprised at how difficult it was to find clothing for her that we loved. I often wondered: where can I find children’s clothing with modern silhouettes, good quality fabrics & construction, neutral colors, and non-commercial graphics? Why are so many of the clothes for girls pink or floral or adorned with princess-like images? Why aren’t there more kids lines that are unisex? Why does so much of our daughter’s clothing look worn out or lose its shape after less than six months of wear? In terms of design and marketing, I was also confused to see that children’s clothing in the US was so focused on perpetuating gender stereotypes. I have always felt that one of the most wonderful things about children is their androgynous beauty. Why not celebrate their epicene traits rather than try to overpower them?

Leitmotif was created so that my daughter and other children like her would have choices in what they wear. All of our tees can be worn by boys and girls alike – our team of artists have done an amazing job with their illustrations and all of our graphics were chosen because they have the potential to pique the intellectual curiosity of the child and the adults around them. We wanted to create a line that inspired others to be more aware, to share their love of literature and expression, to appreciate art, and to cherish the wonder of a precocious child. Our tees are made with the softest organic cotton and we are confident that you will not find another children’s tee with the same quality of feel, fit, or design. 

In our lookbook section, you will find our first line of basics that will debut as a holiday capsule collection: four of our original designs will be available on our online shop in December. The collection will consist of a unisex overall (in black and grey), a lounge set made up of two basics – a peasant blouse and a harem pant - and our fitted cotton shorts which are the perfect companion to a dress. For interested early birds, these items will be available for presale until November 1. For more information on presale instructions, please visit the lookbook page or contact us with any questions.

We are often asked if our collection will be available in stores. The short answer is yes, but on a very limited basis. If you are a retailer and are interested in carrying our line, we would love to hear from you.

We are passionate about supporting small businesses and we love the idea of a customer being able to walk into their favorite store and discover our line – to touch and feel our fabrics and see the quality of our construction - but one of the reasons why our prices are competitive (given the high costs of small batch production and premium quality fabric) is that we prioritize direct sales.

Finally, we are very proud to be able to make a positive impact on our community. With every purchase made on our website, we will use 10% of our profits to help local families in need to fill their home libraries with great books. I pride myself on finding gently used titles at book sales and independent used bookstores. I am a former teacher and hold a PhD in twentieth-century American literature - all the books we donate are titles that I have read myself and loved. We sincerely hope that as Leitmotif grows, so will the impact we are able to have on our community. We love the idea of creating community by sharing our love of reading with other families. We plan to write more on how our book donations work and share some of our favorite books with you so stay tuned!

Thank you so much for visiting our online shop and for supporting Leitmotif. Our journal is updated on Sunday mornings, so please check back for exclusive information on upcoming collections, our featured books, and more. We always love to hear from you so please send us your feedback, questions, and comments to hello@leitmotif-shop.com!

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