Nobody thinks about how a garment opens until they are holding a newborn in one arm at four in the morning. Then it becomes the only thing that matters.
Newborn clothes come in three broad openings, and each exists for a reason. Knowing which is which saves a good deal of unnecessary struggle in the first weeks.
The kimono, or side-tie
The front crosses over itself and ties at the side. Nothing goes over the head at all.
This is the opening designed for a baby who cannot yet support their own neck — which is to say, every baby for the first several weeks. You lay the sleepsuit open, lay the baby on it, and fold it around them. There is no lifting, no manoeuvring of a soft head through a neckline, and no waking a baby who has finally gone down.
It is also the kindest option while the umbilical stump is healing, because nothing sits tightly across the middle.
If you buy one shape for the first month, buy this one.
The wrapover bodysuit
The same principle in a shorter garment: the front panels cross and fasten at the side, so it goes on without passing over the head.
A wrapover is the layer that lives under everything else. It sits close, it does not ride up, and because it crosses at the front it can be opened for a nappy change without undressing the baby entirely. In the first weeks, when changes are frequent and the room is rarely as warm as you would like, that is a real advantage.
The popper vest
The familiar shape: a neckline that stretches over the head, and poppers between the legs.
These come into their own slightly later, from around six weeks, once a baby has more neck control and the whole business is less delicate. They are quick, they are neat under other clothes, and they are what most babies live in from two months onwards.
Look for an envelope neckline — the overlapping shoulder seam that lets the shoulders open outward. It exists so that a vest can be taken off downwards, over the body rather than back over the head, which is the sort of detail one is grateful for exactly once and then permanently.
What to have, and in what proportion
For the first six weeks, weight the drawer towards openings that do not go over the head: a few kimono sleepsuits, four or five wrapover bodysuits, and only a couple of popper vests for when the weather or the outfit calls for them.
From six weeks the proportions reverse, and poppers take over.
A note on what it is all made of
Fastenings only matter if the fabric behaves. Ours is 100% organic Egyptian cotton — the softest cotton in the world, GOTS certified, and long-staple, which is the reason a Caico wrapover still crosses cleanly and lies flat after two months of daily washing rather than curling at the edges.
Poppers are nickel-free. Seams on the newborn pieces are flat and set away from the neck. None of it is visible in a photograph, and all of it is the difference between a garment that gets worn out and one that gets put to the back of the drawer.
