Wheat Canada: clothes for cool kids

Whenever I’m writing a “best-of” piece for Canadian Family, I work hard to (a) report on things that I’ve actually tested pretty thoroughly and (b) find interesting stuff that may be new to most readers. I love discovering new brands and bringing them to your screen.

So I was pretty stoked this summer when I heard about Wheat Canada, a Danish brand of kids’ clothing distributed out of Alberta. Stay tuned all the way to the end for a slideshow where we mixed and matched only a few pieces to get several different looks.

THE GOOD

The clothes are easy to wear, easy to launder (though some do need to hang dry), look great and aren’t over-the-top expensive (we’re talking $12-40 for a shirt at full price).

I also have to commend Wheat for its fabulous fit. Miss Q, who’s only 3.5, is finding herself these days wearing size 5 from most of the “high street” labels (like GAP Kids and Tommy Hilfiger) and she fits nicely into Wheat’s size 4 (with room to grow). I did, however, order size 8 for most of The K Man’s clothes and they proved to fit long and lean, giving us an opportunity to just roll up hems and sleeves to get at least a year (maybe two) of wear out of it all.

I love that the boys’ stuff is just fresh and cool, and the girls’ stuff – while feminine – isn’t all pink-sparkle-girly-frilly-ish.

It’s super simple to mix and match nearly everything in the line from season to season. We paired floral-patterned harem leggings with a striped dress because the colour tones fit so nicely with each other, while one pair of boys’ pants went with every shirt, sweater and jacket combo we could muster. In the end, that means big style without a big budget.

When Wheat goes on sale, oh BOY!, snap it up. I mean, leggings for $6, Ts for $7 and dresses for $10? You can’t even buy stuff at Old Navy or Osh Kosh at those prices unless they’re on sale, and (I assure you), the quality and washability of Wheat over brands like those is incomparable.

I’ve washed every item in this mini-collection at least a dozen times, if not more, over the past month and everything – every last thing – looks and feels like it did when it first arrived. That’s impressive.

THE GAFFE

Like I mentioned above, some of the girls’ clothing tags demand that I hang or (egad!) line-dry the garments, but all of the boys’ stuff can go in the dryer. Thank the heavens. I understand that when you have Lycra in the fabric mix, the dryer shortens its life, but – oh my gosh – I can’t tell you how much I dislike it when children’s clothing can’t all get tossed in the dryer. Heck, I wish all of my stuff could get tossed in the dryer, too!

THE GEARS

4.5/5

THE SLIDESHOW