Dresses from the Stripes Boutique Mommy and Me Shop
I’m not ordinarily a “mommy-and-me” outfit-type person. I mean OK, my daughter and I have matching pom-pom shoes…but come on: when matching pom-pom shoes exist, buying and then wearing them (at the same time) is clearly non-optional.
So when my friend Elise told me she wanted us to model some of the mommy-and-me dresses she’d designed for her label, Stripes, my answer was “…Eh, I don’t know.”
Totally lying. I had a shoot scheduled within ten minutes.
Elise – who’s been one of my closest friends since the day I moved out here – and I have the oddest little friendship origin story, but it’s so very us, and I love it. When Kendrick, Indy and I were out here during the summer that I was pregnant with Goldie, we lived near this adorable little baby-and-kid clothing shop called Stripes. Every once in awhile I’d go in and buy a tiny onesie, or some hair clips (you know, for my newborn’s luscious locks), and I ended up taking my daughter’s very first photos in a leaf coronet-thing I bought there. I’m pretty sure I met Elise on these trips, but it wasn’t like we were making plans for drinks; I was just another customer at her shop.
Then my mom came to San Jose so she could be with me for Goldie’s birth, and went into Stripes and bought everything, and in the process also decided that Elise and I should clearly be best friends forever. My mother reminded me of this fact many, many times in the months leading up to our actual move (“You should call up that nice lady from the baby boutique!”), and I was all “mhmm mom, sounds great, I will definitely freak out the lovely local shopkeeper by calling her up out of the blue and announcing that we are going to be friends.” …Except then that’s kind of what I actually did.
See, I’d found this rental property online, but not knowing much about San Jose, I wasn’t sure whether it was in a nice area or not. I thought, “Hm, who do I know who can help me figure out where to live? …No one.
OH WAIT.
The nice lady from the baby boutique! (Thanks, mom.)
Elise remembered me vaguely (or was at least polite enough to pretend that she did), but not only did she take the time to get on the phone and explain all the different neighborhoods and subsections to me, she actually piled her two children into her car and did drive-by surveillance of the rental property I was considering for me. And then? She got out of the car and crept around the property while peering in the windows. You know, just to check.
A friend who’s willing to mayyyyyybe be arrested for trespassing just to help a girl out? That’s a keeper.
Photography by Kim Ebbets.
