Three sisters from Pender Harbour will soon showcase their new line of baby clothes to the stars at an event tied to this year's Primetime Emmy Awards.
Melanie Ewen, Teresa Vader and Dina Girard will take part in the pre-Emmy Boom Boom Room event put on by Jayneoni Moore on Sept. 16 and 17. Moore is renowned for throwing the biggest baby events in Hollywood.
"We get to showcase our clothing to the stars, to the A-list moms and dads of Hollywood. People like Denise Richards, Courtney Cox, some big celebrities have come through these events," Girard said.
And selling to the stars isn't the only reason to take part in the Boom Boom Room event.
"There's also higher end boutiques and sales reps who come and view the products so we're hoping to get some good contacts, some good advertising out of it," Vader said.
The unique baby clothing line, dubbed Peekinz Baby, features a special "diaper check pocket" developed by the trio. The pocket enables parents to see if a diaper needs changing without having to unbutton or unzip onesies and rompers.
Girard came up with the idea while at a Strong Start program for tots in Pender Harbour in the fall of 2009.
"There were tons of babies running around, and you didn't know which one did their business. Moms were tackling screaming kids and trying to get under their onesies to check. It was just kind of a moment. I thought, why do they make these things so difficult, yet we all put them on?" Girard said.
She called her sisters with the idea that day and they all decided to work together to make the idea a reality, although none of them had any sewing experience.
"We were just driven by an idea. We took it out there and just asked our friends what they thought, and they all said 'yeah, absolutely, genius, you're going to be on Oprah.' All the comebacks were like that, so we thought we had to try it at least," Girard said.
In the spring of 2010 the sisters took their product to a market in Nanaimo to see if people who didn't know them also thought their idea was worth pursuing.
"It was great. We had lots of good feedback, so that kind of drove us to go a little bit further and make some more designs," Girard said.
Once the design was perfected, the trio started sending out samples to bloggers who wrote rave reviews about Peekinz Baby. They used social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter to get their brand recognized by the masses.
The social media advertising paid off with an invite to the Boom Boom Room event.
"One of her [Moore's] assistants scopes out the new and the best on-line, what they think the celebrities would like, and that's how they must have found us. When we did receive the invite, there was a lot of screaming," Girard said.
While the sisters are excited about the upcoming chance to showcase Peekinz Baby to the stars, they have already had some celebrity samplers.
In July they participated in the Hollywood Baby Breakfast Club, also an initiative of Moore's.
"Through that we had our stuff sent to some pretty big celebrities. Ivanka Trump was one. Denise Richards and Matthew McConaughey also got one," Girard said.
If you want to pick up a Peekinz Baby design before the celebrities snatch them all up, you can visit Peggy Sue's in Gibsons or Fresh from the Coast in Sechelt. Both stores carry the inventive baby wear.
You can also visit the sisters' website at www.peekinz.com or call their toll free number at 1-855-883-9818.
