The first size is the one people buy too much of. A newborn is in it for a few weeks, and the rest of it stays folded in a drawer with the tags still on. Everything below follows from that one fact.
A European tag doesn't say newborn, it says a number
Open a box from a Dutch or Danish label and the tag reads 50, 56, 62, 68 or 74. That number is the child's height in centimeters. It's not the length of the garment and it's not a style code. A tag that reads 56 was cut for a baby who measures about 56 centimeters, close to 22 inches.
American sizing hands you an age instead, and an age is only a guess about height. Babies grow on their own schedule and ignore that guess constantly. If you want the whole mapping in one place, the size guide puts the European numbers next to the sizes you already use, and there's a longer piece on why European brands size by height.
At the small end our shelves run 0 month, 0 to 3 months, 3 to 6, 6 to 9 and 9 to 12, then 12 to 18 and 18 to 24 months.
Count by your washing machine, not by a checklist
There's no correct number of bodysuits. There's only your laundry habit. Pick the interval you'll keep, two days or four days, then buy enough of the everyday pieces to cover that interval with one spare day on top.
A parent who runs a load every second day needs a fraction of what a parent who washes on Sundays needs, and no list on the internet knows which one you're. The spare day is the part people cut. Keep it. The day you run out is always the day something goes wrong at two in the morning.
The five things that get worn
Bodysuits. The base layer, worn alone in a warm room and under everything else in a cold one. This is where the quantity goes, not into outfits. Ours sit on the newborn shelf.
Long sleeve tops. The piece that carries a baby through a normal apartment in a normal month, with or without a layer over it. The long sleeve newborn shelf is exactly that and nothing else.
Soft bottoms. Elastic waist, no hardware pressing on a belly. Joggers and pull on pants beat anything with a fixed waistband at this age.
One knit that opens at the front. A cardigan comes off in an overheated car without anyone pulling anything over a head.
A hat and socks. Small, cheap, and they vanish. Buy them in twos.
None of that's a gift item. It's the load bearing part of a baby wardrobe, and it's what runs out on a Tuesday. Everything else is a nice extra bought after you know how your week goes.
Openings matter more than prints
You're dressing a person who can't help you, often with one hand. Look at how a piece opens before you look at what's printed on it. Shoulder snaps, an envelope neck, a full button front, a wide leg opening. A tight neckline dragged over a small face is the reason a beautiful shirt gets worn once and then quietly retired.
What the fabric will ask of you
Most of what we carry for babies is cotton, and cotton is the easy one. Our cotton listings say to machine wash cold on a gentle cycle and tumble dry low. Cotton with a little elastane in it, the stretchy leggings and joggers, says something else: machine wash cold on a gentle cycle, don't tumble dry, reshape while damp. Heat is what kills the stretch. Wool and merino say hand wash cold, don't wring, lay flat to dry.
Nearly every listing here carries its own Fabric and care block, and the label sewn into the piece is the final word. Where a label doesn't spell out a full fiber breakdown, we say so on the page instead of inventing one.
Buy for the month the size will land in
A size is a date. If a baby is in 3 to 6 months in September, then the 9 to 12 month pieces are winter clothes, and a linen romper in that size is a purchase for a season that arrives after the child has grown past it. Work backwards from the calendar, not from the shelf. Our newborn fall shelf is grouped that way on purpose.
Sizes here come in ones and twos
One thing to know before you fill a cart. This stock came in as a single European buy, and most sizes are here in one or two pieces. There's no second shipment of the same run. What the size selector shows is what's sitting on the shelf in Brooklyn, so we don't put a countdown on a page and we don't tell anyone to hurry. If the size is showing, it's here.
Shipping inside the United States is free. Orders placed before 2 pm Eastern on a business day are packed the same day, by hand, in Brooklyn. You've 30 days to send something back unworn and with its tags.
Still stuck between two sizes
Take the larger one. European cuts run slim and a baby only gets longer. If you want to be sure, send us the height and the piece you're looking at, and we'll put a tape measure on the actual garment before you order. The rest of the range up to 24 months sits on the baby shelf.