When shopping for your kids, you’ll often find that children’s jeans are identical to adult jeans but just smaller. Blu & Blue is an eco-friendly denim company that manufacturing flexible, butter soft, and durable jeans designed just for kids and able to withstand whatever shenanigans a child might engage in. From a family deeply entrenched in the clothing business and after a tenure at GAP and Estee Lauder, founder Aaina Jain set out to change how denim for children is manufactured and conceived. Every pair is made in house and in an eco-friendly manner with sustainability the highest priority ensuring that Blu & Blue delivers high quality and safest denim for today’s children.
AlleyWatch chatted with Jain about the company, its future plans, and the journey it has taken to get where it is now.
Tell us about Blu and Blue.
Blu & Blue is an eco-friendly and sustainable children’s denim clothing line made from premium fabrics sourced from renowned mills worldwide. The stylish and comfortable brand has over 300 unique styles for boys and girls ages 0-16 years old.
How is it different?
Unlike many brands, Blu & Blue comes from thirty-five years of experience in creating premium denim clothing for kids. Not your typical jean and jacket brand, Blu & Blue brings re-defined denim clothing for kids. The brand’s clothing line is contemporary, well made, elegant, versatile, and comfortable for active time play.
Apart from quality craftsmanship and elegant designs, Blu & Blue is a company that cares about their kids and their heritage. All Blu & Blue fabrics are free of lead, phthalates, and flame-retardants. To meet high standards of excellence – every step of the design and manufacturing process, from start-to-finish, is conducted in-house. Each Blu Product is thoughtfully designed, cut, stitched, ripped and repaired and washed at the company’s very own state-of-the-art sustainable and eco-friendly manufacturing and washing facility. Special Softeners and treatments are used to make the fabrics butter-soft for extra comfort and luxurious texture and look. The company also uses “saliva friendly” fabrics that are pre-washed for a safe and super soft garment.
What market are you attacking and how big is it?
The market is children’s fashion but more specifically – a quality conscious, fashion forward parent who values well designed, elegant, and sustainable clothing for their children.
What is the business model?
As one of the few vertically integrated independent companies, Blu & Blue has control of their manufacturing and wholesale levels, allowing the company to meet quality excellence. Blu & Blue’s ability to access premium fabrics from renowned mills world-wide along with our product design expertise, makes each Blu Product a well-designed, mindfully-made and contemporary product with quality you can feel.
What inspired the business?
I was born into a clothing business family in India, and always knew that I wanted to have my own line of work. Since an early age, I was exposed to fabrics, garment construction, and the detailed intricacies involved in creating a well-made garment. After dedicating several years in the world of corporate marketing for renowned companies such as Estee Lauder and GAP Inc., I was ready to start my own business. I was inspired to bring her heritage and expertise in premium denim clothing to customers, more so, after getting feedback from other mothers on their needs for contemporary, safe, and easy to care for clothing for their children. I remember very clearly being on a family trip to Italy where my father and I started talking about what we can offer to meet these needs in denim clothing, which is only limited to jeans and jackets. That was my Aha moment.
How does your company promote sustainability?
There is so much wastage in the clothing industry today. Mindfully made, Blu & Blue designs are cut and sewn with new technology and key attention to detail helping us to adapt innovative ways to avoid wastage. Blu & Blue has invested in sustainable resources, all water used in washing garments is heated by solar panels, and then recycled for later use. The facility has the capacity to process and treat 300,000 liters of chemical water per day. We also heat 75,000 liters of water everyday using our solar water heating plant. We care for our environment and have made effective policies to save trees and paper throughout the company.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
We have opened new doors in Germany, France, and Holland this year and are excited about expanding in the European market. We plan to grow on an International level.
What is the one piece of startup advice that you never got?
Of course it has its challenges, but it’s more fun that what I had heard from people. In the end, if your product is good, people see that value.
Why did you launch in New York?
New York is the fashion hub of the world. We are proud to be a denim line based in New York.
