Fashion statements
Del. woman creates expressive clothes for babies and moms

Posted Monday, December 11, 2006

Tonjia Coverdale couldn't remember a time when she didn't try to be fashionable. The 28-year-old grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the shadow of one of the world's fashion capitals. She regularly wore skirts and heels to her job teaching management information systems at Delaware State University.

But when her baby, Benjamin, arrived last year, he put a bit of a crimp in her style. Unwilling to submit to a wardrobe of oversized T-shirts and sneakers, Coverdale took action. She launched her own online fashion company, Divas N Babes (www.divasnbabes.com), from the town house she shares with her son and husband Gregory, a financial adviser, on Wilmington's Riverfront.

"It's like an identity struggle when you become a mom, and I wanted to bridge that gap," says Coverdale, who is working toward her doctorate in business administration at Morgan State University in Baltimore. "I really believe you can maintain your sense of style even when you are a mom."

The idea to market her own line of feminine, flattering T-shirts came to her a few months ago when she switched jobs from assistant professor to full-time mom.

"People would say to me, 'When are you going back to work?' One day I screamed, 'I am at work.' "

Then she thought, why don't I put that on a T-shirt? Suddenly, it occurred to her she could broadcast all those things a new mom wants to tell the world on T-shirts, which cost between $20 and $30.

For those irritated by a fussy baby: "Yes. My baby's loud. No. We're not moving."

For breast-feeding moms: "Drinks on Me."

And for moms who forgo strollers to practice Coverdale's beloved art of wearing their babies wrapped around them in a sling, "Divas always wear their most valuable accessory."

With her inspiration in place, Coverdale put her academic background in information systems and e-commerce businesses to work.

An online parenting community connected her with graphic artist Mike Poirier of New Brunswick, Canada, who illustrates the T-shirt slogans. A cousin who works in the fashion industry in New York City showed her how to find T-shirt and fabric suppliers. Word of mouth led her to local seamstress Natasha Segal-Hanby of Cozy Home Alterations in Brandywine Hundred, who puts togetherCoverdale's designs for the reversible baby-wearing ring slings and Asian-inspired mei tais (carriers that can be worn like a backpack or in the front).

"I discovered baby-wearing when I was pregnant," says Coverdale. "It keeps them close so they are happy, secure. It creates a strong bond."

She says she felt her son benefited from it even more because he was born six weeks premature.

The ring slings and mei tais come in silks and brocades in bold black and white, rich turquoises and golden brown shades and range in price from $90 to $170.

"I think she does have a good eye," says Segal-Hanby of Coverdale's fabric choices.

Divas N Babes' onesies and T-shirts for babies (size 6 months to 2T) sell for about $15 and bear their own pointed messages -- "Been there, broke that" and for admiring strangers too willing to touch a new baby: "Are your hands clean?"

The Web site includes a blog that Coverdale convinced her mommy friends to write for.

"The great thing about Tonjia is she can see what her friends can do best," says friend Jinni Butz of Fairfax. She writes for the Divas N Babes blog when she's not too busy with her 1-year-old son, Nathaniel.

Since launching her business, Coverdale has landed a spot for her products off-line in Trimesters Boutique in Ambler, Pa. And she hopes to have them in more stores soon.

"Moms have been e-mailing me and thanking me for coming up with the concept," says Coverdale. "To know other people feel that way is just awesome."

FYI

Divas N Babes

(877) 655-3482 or info@divasnbabes.com or go to www.divasnbabes.com.

This article first appeared in Signature Brandywine, a magazine published by The News Journal.