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Sweet Style at Strasberg

Branson Landing's children's boutique has special-occasion items sure to inspire the word "cute".

Photo Edward Biamonte

THE STORE: Strasburg Children, 317 Branson Landing Blvd. Branson, 417-335-4250, strasburgchildren.com (Mon.–Sat., 10 a.m.–9 p.m., Sun., 10 a.m.–7 p.m.)

ATMOSPHERE: Strasburg Children is located underneath the Hilton Promenade near the very center of Branson Landing. From the moment you walk in the door, you can see that it radiates cuteness. There’s pink. There’s baby blue. There’s lace. There are booties. If it’s cute, you can find it here in the high-ceilinged store with dark cherry-colored wood walls. It’s an 8-year-old future-fashionista’s dream come true.

KEY PEOPLE: Strasburg Children is a national company that has been making kids’ duds since 1987. It has 100 stores, and the headquarters are in Lenexa, Kansas. Locally, the store is managed by Jacqui Parkhill. Assistant Manager Rebecca Denney showed me around the day I visited.

WHAT YOU’LL FIND: The clothing at Strasburg Children is of a quality unlike what you could buy in many other kids clothing stores by a huge margin. These are heirloom pieces, meant to be handed down from sibling to sibling and parent to child for generations. They specialize mostly in special-occasion clothing—things parents would want their kids to wear for portraits, holidays, First Communions and Baptisms.

The baptism gowns are particularly darling. They have matching bonnets, cross-embroidered pillows, baby shoes and even accessories such as an antique-looking metal pacifier clip ($17.99). The long baptism gowns with matching bonnets run for an average price of about $140 and are intended to be passed down.

Denney told me that all the embroidery and smocking on the clothing at Strasberg Children is done by hand, and all the clothes have French seams (that means they are finished on the inside, so they hold up better and aren’t ever itchy to the kids). Many dresses are lined and sold with a built-in slip. The attention to quality is apparent in everything I picked up.

The clothes are sold up to size 14 for girls and size 8 for boys, and many items are coordinated along all gender and size lines (making it easy to dress the entire family for a portrait). One pale blue seersucker dress for older girls ($79.99) coordinated with a similar pale blue seersucker dress for younger girls that had more ruffles ($76.99). There were even pale blue seersucker short-alls for a little boy with an embroidered elephant on the smock ($64.99).
On the other side of the store, a precious little boys’ black suit ($99.99) was paired with a sharp little green and blue tie ($24.99).

If you have a little girl who is caught up in the American Doll craze, she’ll be happy here. Strasberg Children sells similar dolls whose clothing matches the girls’ clothes sold in the store. There was also a small selection of gift items, such as a plush giraffe ($9.99), a soft knit baby blanket ($49.99) and a matching set of rain boots, slicker and umbrella with bright pink, orange and white polka dots ($29.99, $39.99 and $16.99).

417 VERDICT: If those prices seem high, then you think like me. But the quality is apparent, and if you have the money to invest in the heirloom pieces, you will probably find it reasonable. Plus, there are clearance racks that take some of the sting off. A sweet and casual green and yellow plaid summer dress with a built-in slip was on sale from $82.99 to $69.98.