Articles
DOUG CAMILLI
The Gazette
Just what the world needs: Tico Torres, drummer of the the band Bon Jovi, has teamed up with a fashion designer name Cinzia Spalletti to market a new line of infant wear called Rock Star Baby. The clothes are in black, red, and gray, mostly. Torres will appear in the magazine ads, along with Jon Bon Jovi and Steve Van Zandt.
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E-mail: [email protected]
By EVELYN NUSSENBAUM
NEW YORK TIMES 2000
"Rock a bye, baby" is about to take on a whole new meaning.
Starting next month, rocker Jon Bon Jovi will star in a magazine campaign for a new, music-themed line of baby clothing.
Bon Jovi is sitting in for his drummer, Tico Torres, who is backing the new Rock-A-Baby line.
The black and white ads, which show Bon Jovi holding a Rock-A-Baby-clad infant, will debut in the trade magazine Children's Business.
Torres and his designer, Cinzia Spalletti, are hoping to get the clothing in stores for fall 2001.
"Everything we do will have a musical theme," said Spalletti.
"Our idea is to create something completely different from anything in the market."
Designs include ants playing musical instruments, broken eggs with musical notes coming out, and penguins listening to headphones.
They'll appear on cargo pants, drawstring pants and baby leather biker jackets.
"We're making fun things that you would ?
wear on tour," said Spalletti.
There will also be T-shirts and cotton and cashmere onesie bodysuits.
Torres and Spalletti are also hoping to create little musical patches for clothing that play lullabies when they are pressed.
They're also going for colors that they believe will appeal to aging and aspiring rockers.
Gray, black, bright yellow and pea-green will take the place of the usual pastel baby palette.
Spalletti says the line will launch with newborn-to-24-month items and expand from there.
She calls the line "moderately-priced."
Cotton bodysuits will retail for about $16; a cashmere onesie might sell for $80 or $90.
And buyers might get a new take on Bon Jovi's musical talents.
Spalletti said they are considering selling a CD along with the clothing: "something upbeat of lullabies, maybe with Tico playing."
Torres was on tour with Bon Jovi and unavailable for comment, but Spalletti said he "gives a lot of input. He is very creative and very present with the designs."
It is the first foray into the apparel business for Torres, but Spalletti is a veteran. She launhed the Halston baby line.
TOT COURTURE
Bent on bringing rock and roll flair to the nursery, Bon Jovi drummer Tico
Torres launches a clothing line for babies.
As the drummer for Bon Jovi since 1983, Tico Torres has seen his share of
babes, but nothing like the kind that turned up at a recent photo shoot.
"They were crawling all over me," he says, "pulling my hair, biting each
other, throwing up. It was great."
The unruly bunch was there to model for rockstarbaby infant wear and
accessories, a line launched this spring by Torres, 48, and designer
Cinzia Spalletti, 41. No pink booties, No blue buntings. Instead the
label, which is sold at FAO Schwarz and Henri Bendel, features such
untraditional duds as black cotton rompers ($18) and gray nylon cargo
pants ($28.50). "They're using baby-friendly materials translatted into a
hip New York look," says Sharone Glaser, owner of Manhattan's trendy
Z'Baby Co. stores. Even Jon Bon Jovi is a fan. "They're pretty cool
clothes," says the singer. "I love the little work boots."
Born into a family of Cuban immigrant seamtresses, Torres had an epiphany
at a 1999 party attended by music-industry people and their kids. The
guests "were dressed in black, and their babies were in baby colors," he
says. "I thought, 'Wouldn't it be nice if the kids could dress like the
rest of the family?" A few days later he called Spalletti, whom he had met
through a friend, and asked her to be his partner (Torres invested $1
million and created the line's color schemes).
As the label takes off (about $1 million in sales) the Manhattan-based
Torres - who married his third wife, model Maria Alejandra Marquez, 25, in
September - envisions dressing rock star babies of his own. Meanwhile
he'll follow the lead of his new fan base. "I believe," he says, "in
taking baby steps".
Jim Macnie
02/04/2002
Tico Torres - Bon Jovi drummer, painter and fashion plate - was looking at baby clothes. And he didn�t like what he was seeing.
�Babies weren�t wearing anything hip,� he explained. �All that light blue and pink? God. Most parents dress cool and I figured they want to dress their babies cool because every kid is like a star.�
With that, Torres decided to start a clothing line now deemed Rock Star Baby. Drastic reaction? Not really. Torres came from a family of Cuban seamstresses, and the entire clan used to collaborate on the outfits he sported in his early Bon Jovi days.
�All the stuff you saw me wearing on stage or on album covers from the last 20 years was made by me and my family,� he revealed. �When you start out you can�t afford designers, so you make your own clothes. We used to cut our patterns, pick out materials and then go for it. My wildest phase was in the �70s and the early �80s. I wore orange platform shoes - and played drums with them, too!�
To assist him in his mission to introduce the toddler set to the world of chic, Torres collaborated with former Halston designer Cinzia Spalletti. Being a drummer, Torres did not beat around the bush. It was tap, tap, tap, let's get things done.
�It was �Man, I love the way you make these things. But the name�s wrong. The color�s wrong. The attitude�s wrong,�� he chuckles. �I said, �Let�s go with something that�s universal - music. Let�s introduce black, grays, khaki, green, a lot of colors that are not the norm for babies.�
�Cinzia been doing this for 20 years, and she's great at it, so she pretty much has a free hand on everything about the designs. Of course, she runs stuff by me and I�ll yea or nay it. When I suggested using black, for instance, I heard silence on the phone and thought she hung up on me!�
In fact, the pair developed a line of comfortable, baby-safe clothing decorated with musical characters that Torres admits would look as good on parents as they do on the rug rats themselves.
�We have gray and black leathers,� Torres explains. �We have vests that say �Rock Star Baby World Tour.� We got shirts with tattoos on them. People look at them and go, �Where can I get this for adults?�
�But we make baby bags for adults. My drum tech�s a bruiser, a big tough guy who�s tattooed head to toe. He came to me, pleading, �Can I get one of your bags?� He had been carrying this blue thing with cute little animals on it and thought, �It�s just not me.� We�ve got bags in canvas and very fine nylon, which you can throw your computer in. When the baby�s grown up, you have yourself a bag. But you�re not ordained to look like you�re carrying a baby bag.�
Roadies aren�t the only one who want some of Torres� duds. His celebrity chums have also come calling.
�I�ve been sending stuff to a lot of people in the industry,� he said. �Michael Douglas� kid has them. Jon (Bon Jovi) was doing Ally McBeal so we sent Calista Flockhart some stuff. Cindy Crawford has a Madonna leather outfit for her kid. Bono and Larry Mullen from U2 sent back notes saying they�re freaking out, they love this stuff. It�s cool. Getting the letters back from everybody is like an immediate gratification.�
�If anything I want to change the face of babies and what they wear,� Torres explains. He's quite mindful of ancient baby pictures that find him sporting a sailor suit. �So they can turn around and go, �I was a cool-looking baby.� For me, if you can start with little babies and work on up, you�re doing okay.�
Visit Rock Star Baby online: http://www.rockstarbaby.com/
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