By Restituta Ajeng Arjanti

Have you ever heard of Parental Advisory Baby Clothing? That’s the name of a store located in the flower city, Bandung. What’s unique about this store is that it sells all kinds of babies, especially t-shirts with sarcastic statements.

Monique Kocke opened the store at the end of 2006. Since she didn’t want her baby to wear the same clothes with everybody else’s kid, Monique tried to design unique baby clothes that fit her own taste.

“At that time I just gave birth and I didn’t want my baby to wear the same color and design as every other baby. Since even before I was married I hanged around a lot of music underground and indie communities, I thought, why don’t I try to make a baby product that fits the taste of their parents,” said Monique.

So she chose the name “Parental Advisory Baby Clothing”, or PABC, as the name of her brand. “I chose PABC since from the start I wanted to make a product concept that has a sarcastic and extreme design,” said Monique who was born in Bandung, October 13 1978.

Challenges

In the beginning Monique sold her PABC products to her friends from the indie music community. “I also distributed it among my friends outside of the music community that just gave birth. It was a guerilla strategy to see their response,” she said. “After seeing that the response was pretty good, I started to promote PABC through media advertisement especially ads in small stores.”

Monique admits that her biggest challenge at the start of promoting PABC products was facing public’s opinion that PABC design is not appropriate for the market. “So I had to personally give product knowledge to consumers,” Monique recalls. This is understandable since statements on PABC products are not common on children’s clothing. Fore example, a statement on one t-shirt is “Kill Sinetron-Kids Against Television” or “Where’s My Fuckin’ Milk”. These kinds of statements are usually used by adults.

Why did she choose to have these statements on t-shirts? When asked, Monique said, “My main purpose to put these statements on a t-shirt is mainly for awareness (so that parents will pay more attention to their children). Alhamdulillah, the designs sent the message quite effectively. “Where’s My Fuckin’ Milk”, for example, was probably effective to make sure that parents wouldn’t forget to give their babies’ milk.

Unique Products, Not Cute

Mother of Magia Calluella Chaszta Az-Zurra, 3 years old, has her own designer responsible for PABC products. “If I have an idea, I consult with the designer to make into a design. I give some direction during the process. That’s why PABC designs are mostly statements,” said Monique. Besides, she says, other than being simpler, designs usually hit the mark. Monique says she usually gets inspiration from everyday events that she goes through.

This English literature graduate from Padjajaran University says that PABC new designs come out every 3-4 months. “There are around 10-15 designs,” she says.

If you’re interested in PABC t-shirts they cost around Rp. 60,000 – Rp. 80,000. Other than her t-shirts, Monique also sells a variety of baby and child products, like diaper bags, baby carrier, sandals and shoes, kids’ bags – which are all far from cute.

“For non-t-shirt products, the prices are about Rp. 200,000,” added Monique. Monique’s income from her store is pretty good. “Each month we get between Rp. 25 million – Rp. 70 million, depending on the season.”

Besides having a sharp and sarcastic message, PABC other special feature is its choice of color that are mostly black. “But it’s made out of super soft full cotton material, so even if it’s black, it’s very comfortable for babies and children,” Monique explained.

PABC clothing doesn’t only provide regular t-shirts. “PABC also sells other models like toad shirts and button shirts,” Monique explained. Although most of its products are black, there are other color selections as well. “Like misty grey, brown, navy blue, red, white, and even baby blue and baby pink. But they all have the special PABC designs and they are all limited supply,” added Monique.

PABC is currently distributed exclusively in Bandung. This year, Monique plans to widen her distribution and reorganize PABC HR management. “To be honest, I’ve thought about opening stores in other cities or outside of Java, but there are so many factors to consider. But Alhamdulillah (Thanks to God), we do have other consumers from out of town, out of Java and even from overseas,” said Monique.

Image: clothingbaby.blogspot.com
   
Parental Advisory Baby Clothing
Jl. Sultan Tirtayasa No. 16 Bandung
P: 022 92403441
E: advisoryparental@yahoo.com