Sweetheart · OshKosh Pink Heart-Pocket Baby Overalls, 1990s
Pink cotton drill · heart-shaped bib pocket · metal overall buttons · snap legs · OshKosh B'gosh · 1990s to 2000s · approx. 18–24 months
The toughest silhouette in children's clothing, made in the softest possible pink, with a heart-shaped pocket stitched right onto the bib. The heart is shaped, not printed: someone cut it, and someone sewed it, and it is the whole character of the garment.
OshKosh B'gosh, The Genuine Article, 1990s to 2000s. The brand that made workwear for children when children still played hard enough to need it: soft rose cotton drill with real body, engraved metal buttons on the straps, snap closures along the inside leg. OshKosh began making overalls in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1895 and has been making children's versions since the 1970s, each pair carrying the same attitude toward construction that the adult version had. These are the children's line at its most characterful.
Care
Warm gentle wash with like colours. Turn the metal buttons face-down in the drum. Line dry and press warm on the legs.
More on looking after vintage pieces in our care guide.
Size
Measured flat: length 55cm, bib open (no fixed chest width), hip 28cm flat, leg length 31cm, leg opening 13cm. Approximately 18–24 months.
Our size guide explains how vintage sizing is read here.
Condition
Good. A small rust stain on the back bottom, visible in listing images. The pink drill is otherwise bright and the heart-pocket bib is intact.
Our condition lexicon explains the grades we use.
Before it reaches you
Someone loved this before you did, and I try to honour that properly. Each piece is hand washed, or cleaned in the way that the fabric permits, then steamed until it softens and straightens and feels newly attended to. Wherever a button was missing, it has been replaced with a vintage one from my long-kept collection. Wherever a hem had given way, I fix it by hand. By the time it leaves this room it is genuinely clean, pressed, whole, and looked over one final time before I let myself believe it is ready. Not restored. Not made new. Just returned to a state where it can be loved again, by someone who was not there the first time.
The heart on the bib was cut out and sewn on by hand, which makes it a real one, and real hearts on overalls are known to keep safe whatever is whispered into the pocket beneath them. These were built in the town of Oshkosh to survive children who played hard, so the softness is a disguise and the toughness is the truth. The small rust mark at the back is only the place where it once leaned against a fence and thought about something for a while. Fill the heart pocket with anything small and it will guard it like the genuine article it claims to be.