Per the Chinese calendar, the Year of the Rabbit commences this Sunday. Seems like a propitious time to be launching a new rabbit-themed girlswear shop, doesn’t it?
“I have always had this affinity for rabbits,” says Janine Manley, founder and proprietor of Little Rabbit Wears Boutique, which had its official opening in New Paltz last month. “I even have a rabbit tattoo. They’re supposed to be lucky. And my son was born in the Year of the Rabbit.”
It was actually the birth of her daughter in 2014 that inspired Manley to turn an “extended maternity leave” from her job as a French teacher at Miller Middle School in Kingston into a whole new career. A self-taught seamstress whose mother was half-French and half-English and whose father worked for an airline, Manley spent childhood summers in the south of France visiting her grandparents. Early in life, she developed a strong fashion sense and a “really specific aesthetic” that leans toward Boho chic and what she calls the “ingenue look.” But often, she says, “I couldn’t find what I wanted in stores.”
When her daughter came along, Manley realized that if she wanted to dress her the way she imagined, she was going to have to create the clothes herself. “I started handmaking hats and headbands because I was so thrilled to have a daughter,” she says. Soon she was selling them on Etsy under the handle La Petite Lapine. She began to expand her product line, attending trade shows to order preconstructed dresses that matched her tastes, and established her own website called Little Rabbit Wears.
She had found a successful market niche in girls’ clothing, to the point where “The business was getting too big for my basement. Also, I wanted to get out of my house. I was looking for another way to be creative.” So, in 2016, she opened her first brick-and-mortar shop, in the Cornell Street Studios Building in Kingston. Online orders continued to constitute the bulk of the business, however, as “The location wasn’t great for foot traffic” and had no windows. Also, the family had moved to New Paltz, so Manley decided, “After COVID, I wanted something closer to home, so I could be here more.”
And so it was that in 2022 she set about to find a small storefront in the Village of New Paltz with the potential to convey the vibe she was after: “I wanted it to look like a little girl’s room, and cozy, like a little rabbit warren.” A former record label office with a Church Street address and an entrance on Academy Street proved the perfect spot, after a little renovation and some off-white paint to brighten it up.
Manley’s collections of clothing and accessories for little girls – from toddler to age 10 – are mostly made to her design, and decidedly “girly.” You won’t find much here for practical use by tree-climbing tomboys, but it’s a wonderland for dress-up day. In general, this is the place to buy your girl dresses, many of them “fancy frocks.” The only jeans in stock feature sequins, and there are some rompers and leggings. There’s also an excellent selection of warm tights and knee-socks with whimsical appliqués.
Along one wall of the shop hangs an array of dresses that Manley describes as the “princess side,” primed for pirouetting in lace and tulle. While there’s not much of a market in New Paltz for these outfits, she says, she ships plenty of them to “customers in the South” for “those father/daughter dances, which seem super-weird to me.” She’s adamant, however, that even the laciest formal dresses “have to be lined with something comfortable. So many kids have sensory issues. The lace has to be not itchy.”
Locally, the fairylike frilly garb has a dedicated following for themed photo shoots, she says. “Child photography has skyrocketed, especially for different holidays. Anne Geddes used to be the only one who did that, but now there are several photographers around who specialize in it. People are buying dresses for one occasion.”
Manley curates her offerings with seasonal palettes – muted yellows and rust for autumn, for example. You can still find winter garb in the back of the store, leaning toward shades of red and off-white, all with a slight French accent. Up front, it’s the “season of pastels and pinks,” anticipating spring. “This is my season!” she says. With Easter coming, it’s also prime time for bunnies, of course, so prints spotlighting rabbits are much in evidence right now.
Accessories especially reflect Manley’s love for woodland creatures: mittens with fox faces, gloves with mouse faces, deer-antler headbands, bonnets and hoods with animal ears. “I was always looking to dress my kids as baby animals,” she says.
While New Paltz families are just beginning to discover the new store in their midst, Little Rabbit Wears Boutique is already an established destination for mother/daughter shopping sprees. Among the brand’s longtime fans are Highland resident Jennie Wilklow-Riley and her daughter Anna, who was born with a rare genetic disorder called harlequin ichthyosis. Manley’s clothing lines enable this spunky little girl, whose skin needs constant care, to feel pretty and comfortable at the same time.
Anna’s dramatic saga and winning smile have made her something of a celebrity on social media (www.facebook.com/hopeforanna), where Jennie raises funds to help other families with kids with skin disorders through her Harlequin Diva Foundation. Not coincidentally, there’s some crossover between Anna’s admirers and the moms who follow Little Rabbit Wears, as both Facebook feeds sometimes feature the little girl modeling an outfit from Manley’s latest collection.
“We’ve had 270,000 likes on our Facebook page, built up over time,” Manley notes. “I have friends from all over whom I’ve never met. I feel privileged that I get to do something silly like this for me.”
Little Rabbit Wears Boutique is located at 11 Church Street in New Paltz, with its front entrance on the south side of Academy Street. The shop’s current hours are from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. To view the product lines or place an online order, visit https://littlerabbitwears.com.
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