1:43p.m. 29th July 2008

| By Blythe Seinor

Anna Norelius with daughter Matilda who is a fan of the clothes marketed by her mum. Photo: Geoff Potter/ n21059

Little people can often be the toughest critics.

If they don’t like something, they generally say so.

So when I asked two-and-a-half-year-old Matilda Enright whether she was a fan of the European clothes her mum gave her to wear, it could have gone either way.

“Yes,” she answered shyly.

I was at Matilda’s house in Sunrise Beach to talk to her mum, Anna Norelius, about Baby Goes Retro – the web shop she operates with her friend, Helen Lindell.

Anna and Helen are both Swedish, and they both moved to Australia to be with their partners (who also happen to be brothers).

After spending time in Melbourne, the families relocated to the Sunshine Coast two years ago.

“When we moved up here we thought, what will we do when the kids are a little older?” Anna said.

“Do we start working or can we combine something? Since there’s a bit of a trend doing that.

“Helen had just been over to Sweden and I had just been over and we thought how different the clothes were over there.”

Retro clothing for children had taken off in a big way in Europe and the women thought there would be a niche market for those labels in Australia.

Anna and Helen researched extensively on the internet before they decided to go ahead with their idea to sell European retro children’s clothing online.

“We just put our heads down and did it all ourselves,” Anna said.

“We decided not to ask for help unless we were really stuck.”

The women decided to stock 100% cotton items, along with organic brands, and all in fun and bright patterns.

“Brown doesn’t have to be dull, it can be really cool,” Anna said.

“Yellow is a colour where people go ‘oh you don’t know what you’re having’, but there are great, bright yellows too.”

Helen is currently scouring a major fashion fair in Copenhagen to look for new brands to add to their list of stockists.

Baby Goes Retro also plans to stock children’s bedding in future.

To find out more about the business or to view the clothing labels and their prices, visit the web shop by logging on to www.babygoesretro.com.au.