Betty Meinert trousers

Image copyright Betty Meinert

Where I live, in Brighton, England, we are lucky in that there is a plethora of young and talented designers. Brighton's famous art school turns out lots of graduates who like the city so much that they end up staying here. As a result, there are loads of quirky little shops selling one-off pieces.

That's great news for shoppers; slightly less good news for my bank balance. I was picking up the groceries last week when I saw these Betty Meinert Ruperts trousers in a shop window. Striking, aren't they? I certainly hadn't seen anything like them before, so I made sure to look them up online.

Now, I don't know anything about Meinert, but she's got a good head on her shoulders. How many children's clothes designers tackle the issue of built-in obsolescence? Yet these trousers are designed to last for three or four years (choose from ages 1 to 4, or 3 to 6) - with no sewing required!

You start off with them as dungarees, and adjust the braces until they finish up as trousers. The cut is wide enough to accommodate reusable nappies, which is a rarity in itself. They're unisex too - I love the idea of a little girl striding around in big baggy pinstripe trousers like these ones.