An owner of a kids clothing boutique has hit back at “snowflake and touchy women” after they slammed a babygrow which says the wearer will get “a spray tan, false eyelashes and a lip filler like Mummy”. Victoria King, who runs Vicky’s Babywear and personalised items, is known for her tongue-in-cheek designs.
But she was met with backlash when she posted a photo on Facebook in February of the playful sleepsuit created for a customer. Victoria, from Norton, Cheshire, noticed it had more comments than usual, and was horrified when she noticed people describing the outfit as “well grim”.
The mum-of-one considered deleting the post but her friends reassured her that the items wouldn’t be “everyone’s cup of tea” and that she can design what she wants. Her loyal customers were quick to praise the design, which was for a 0-3 month baby girl, and since the incident she has been flooded with orders for similar babygrows.
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Victoria, 55, said: "At the minute people are just so touchy about everything, you can't say anything anymore - people just get offended. It's so strange, I just don't understand some of the comments.
"You don't go to Marks and Spencer, see two blouses, don't like one and go onto their website and say 'this one's disgusting'. I don't understand it, unfortunately that's the way it is.
"At the beginning it was bothering me that people were taking it so personally. I had people saying 'oh no I wouldn't put this on a baby, this is disgusting'.
"One woman wrote 'promoting this will stop me from buying anything from this site'. I looked at her profile, she looked like a single old woman.
"I blocked quite a few because I panicked at first and thought 'oh my god maybe I should take this off all together'. I rang some friends and they said 'it's not everybody's cup of tea but it's a business for personalised items so you can do whatever you like' so I kept it on.
"It's quite controversial but I've taken a lot of orders on the back of people jumping on this post."
Commenting on the post, one social media user wrote: "Way to bring your kid up to believe her appearance is the most important thing about her and she'll never be good enough." Another commented: "I don’t know what’s worse, the item itself or the fact there’s a market for it."
One wrote: "That is well grim and I’d defo not order from somewhere that promotes this [...] the thought of promoting babies growing up self conscious doesn’t sit right with me." But others were quick to see the fun side of the design.
A social media user wrote: "Love it, each to their own is what I say. If we were all the same what a boring world we would live in ... the world is full of Karens." Another shared a picture of a red alarm and the word 'snowflake'.
The mum has been in the industry for 10 years and uses non-toxic and washable fabric paint to create her quirky designs. Her other designs include the slogans “be honest, does my bum look big in this?” and “when I grow up I’d love a moustache just like nana. Can’t wait!”
Although she’s made £7 baby grows like this before, Victoria says it’s the first time people have found a problem with them.
Victoria added: "There's a lot of expensive stuff around at the minute, so I'm trying to do something that's like a cheap gift for the times that we're in. The babygrows and the bibs are my favourite to customise.
"It's really rewarding making one-of-a-kind outfits for whatever my customers want. Some are really cute and others - it doesn't mean anything to me but obviously to the customer it's something to them.
"I've put that one on many times before and it's not got that reaction. It's not put me off doing these quirky designs again.
"It's quite controversial but I've taken a lot of orders for them on the back of people jumping on this post. The good comments outweigh the bad, I'm over the moon with that and people putting orders in."
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