Berlin's Trendiest Babies

When my friend Rachel* came to Berlin to visit, one of the sights she was most excited to see was a very trendy baby. I assume it was our friend Jane** who tipped her off to the possibility of seeing some of Berlin's tiniest hipsters. And I assume it was in the writeup of the Berlin neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg in Let's Go: Germany 2005***** that Jane learned about stylish babies. The introduction begins:

"Though largely overlooked during post-war reconstruction efforts, Prenzlberg (as locals call it) has been transformed in recent years from a heap of crumbling, graffiti-covered buildings into perhaps the hippest of Berlin's Bezirke******. Attracted by low rents, thousands of students and artists moved into the neighborhood after reunification; today, the streets are owned by well-dressed first graders and their hip young parents, and studded with cool but costly second-hand clothing stores. ..."

When I edited that paragraph, I took my researcher's word that the area was as hip as he had described it, and didn't put much effort into fact-checking the fashion sense of the resident first graders. But while a lot else has changed in Germany since my book was researched, making a lot of prices and opening hours out of date, it turns out that the claims in the Prenzlberg intro remain as valid as ever.

Like the students and artists of a decade ago, I was attracted to Prenzlberg by low rents; hip toddlers I could do with or without. But Jane and Rachel's excitement was contagious, and it has left me with the lingering symptom of giving all persons under the age of five a second glance. The babies themselves don't notice the scrutiny, of course, but many Prenzlberg parents may be a bit taken aback to see me study their children and then nod, satisfied, for no apparent reason.

So after a month or so of baby-watching, I can confidently present a list of the top five trendiest babies in Berlin:

5. Any baby with one of the following: tights with stripes of more than two colors; two articles of clothing with different patterns of stripes; hats with any sort of sparkly material; jewelry, not including baby ear piercings; head scarves, especially red ones with chinese characters on them.
4. Boy just old enough to walk, in "normal" clothes but sporting a serious mohawk (blond, not dyed any colors - that would have put him in first place for sure, though) and doing his best Saturday Night Fever pointing routine.
3. Any baby cool enough to rock the "Lounging on my stomach in my pram and facing forward so I can stare everybody down" look.
2. A 3-year-old girl in a ruffled denim skirt over peach and moss striped tights and calf-high moss green suede boots, with glitter on her face and her hair in a topnot.
1. An 8-month-old boy in a stroller, with fluffy, straight-up-sticking hair, wearing sneakers and a Texas orange track suit with white stripes down the sleeves and pants, despite the fact that clearly he cannot yet walk, let alone cross-train.



* (former editor of Let's Go: Ireland 2006 and therefore my former employee; also researcher for Let's Go: Costa Rica 2005)
** (former editor of Let's Go: Eastern Europe 2006, researcher for Let's Go: Eastern Europe 2005, and Jesse's*** roommate while he was still here)
*** (former editor of Let's Go: Vietnam 2005, Let's Go: Germany 2003; researcher for Let's Go: Germany 2002; Personnel Manager for Let's Go Series 2004; also Jeremy's**** college roommate - that's Jesse's blog that I link to on the right)
**** (former editor of Let's Go: USA 2004, Let's Go: Europe 2006, Let's Go: Western Europe 2006; researcher for Let's Go: New Zealand 2006; Personnel Manager for Let's Go Series 2005; I also link to his blog on the right; also, though you probably know this if you're reading this blog, my boyfriend)
***** (editor: me)
****** (Bezirk: German, "neighborhood")