Loverpants has an aunt who is lovely and sends us clothing items for Baby Girl from Korea. I am especially grateful for these items, not only because our now 18 month-old is a peanut and fits more readily into the Korean clothes (go figure, since she is Korean), but because the ensembles are novelty items in other ways, too. Item the First arrived some months ago. It has been hanging in the closet until I figure out its purpose.

For starters, doesn't it look like a straightjacket?

And what of the 2 pockets? Is one for the latchkey kid's carabiner? And the second for her lunch money? Is that how they roll at 18 months in Korea?

I also have to wonder about the text on the shirt.

If you look closely, it refers to "Fashtons using Basic fabrics...." Fashtons? Is that a cleverly elided hybrid for tons of Fascists? Because that doesn't seem quite appropos for children's apparel.

Now the second shirt is very cute. The curious thing is that the tag is on the outside, but I suppose children don't like tags rustling their skin.

The irony for me, though, is that it is social custom among Koreans to "fix" the appearance of friends and acquaintances. This includes a certain vigilance about tucking in people's tags. Presentation is everything in Korean culture, so if someone pulls a tiny string off of you - like it was the biggest bother to them, like they couldn't concentrate on what you were saying because of that pesky thread on your scarf - you should be complimented. So I don't know if this pajama set is just forcing the compliment, but Baby Girl is a fan of it so far. The front of the shirt says "Let's Go Happy Travel." Nothing too ridiculous. Happy Trails would probably make more sense, but at least it's better than this broken English e-mail found on the straightjacket pocket: