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| Calling All 'Cry Babies' Keep it Cool in BabyRab Fashions By Ofelia Saenz, Signal Tribune staff writer
The pair formed DJLu Productions last year, and developed a line of custom-art baby clothes, accessories, cards and even dog T-shirts. Since their online debut, on February 14 of this year, the company has branched out by selling their merchandise at events and exhibitions such as the Tiki Oasis Weekender, the Mooneyes Christmas Show, the Viva Las Vegas Weekender, the Yeah Baby Expo, the Blessing of the Cars and tattoo conventions. Their products are also being sold in various stores including Sneaky Tiki in Long Beach. "I've been drawing and cartooning since I was a kid," Rabiola said. Although his earliest inspiration was Walt Disney, as an adult he's drawn his influences from the car culture and rockabilly lifestyle with which he and Gholdoian surround themselves. "A lot of the culture that we hang out in is geared around music and cars," Rabiola said. "I started to do art work that was geared toward that." After a friend saw a drawing Rabiola created of a rockabilly monster trio, featuring Gholdoian as a chanteuse bride of Frankenstein, Rabiola as a piano-playing Frankenstein and a bare-pawed, pompadour-ed, upright-bass-slapping wolfman, the friend asked Rabiola to put the image on a onesie for his baby. Rabiola, a working actor as well as an artist, had already been freelance designing, producing images for production company logos, greeting cards and adult T-shirts for music festivals such as the Viva Las Vegas Weekender. It was Gholdoian's encouragement that persuaded Rabiola to try more of his cartoons on baby clothes. Thus, BabyRab was born. By the time BabyRab hit the Yeah Baby Expo at the Long Beach Convention Center, earlier this year, the couple thought they might be in over their heads. But as people swarmed their booth all weekend, they were pleasantly surprised. "We were swamped the entire time," said Rabiola. Although BabyRab's designs have a bite to them, they also have a sense of humor that rounds out the rough edges. Parents will appreciate that Rabiola's rebelliousness is sometimes sweet, sometimes, not so sweet-much like the temperament of the average 2-year-old. For more information about BabyRab, visit their online store at www.BabyRab.com. |
From rockabilly to rock-a-baby, thanks to the original designs of Signal Hill couple DJ Rabiola and LindaLu Gholdoian, retro-loving, hipster moms and dads can dress their "biker babies" and "kustom kids" in some of the coolest baby fashions in town.