Get Your Own $80 Diaper

globeandmail.com:

For earthy moms with money to spare, cloth diapers aren’t just a greener alternative to disposables - they’re wearable art. Diaper connoisseurs pay up to $80 (U.S.) for a single diaper that’s been handmade, embroidered or appliquéd by a work-at-home mom.

Diapers have fetched staggering prices at online auction sites such as HyenaCart.com and eBay.com (until it banned the sale of diapers earlier this year, stating hygiene concerns).

One creation by designer Ann Hall sold at auction for $150. Bids for other diapers have reached $300.

Working from her home in Denver, Ms. Hall is famous for her Righteous Baby designs embroidered with animals - there’s even a hyena - and stitched portraits of her clients’ infants.

Equally coveted diaper lines include Muttaqin Baby, Daisy Doodles, BeccaBottoms and Bizzy B Hive.

Playful diapers with tie-dyed, plaid, camouflage or planetary motifs have become such status symbols that many parents allow their children to wear them only after a poop to avoid spoiling the fabric art.

Some mothers don’t even use them. “I’ve been told by people that they were going to frame my diapers and put them on the walls instead,” Ms. Hall says.

For the hyena set, cloth diapering is both a pastime and a competitive sport.

“It’s a collector thing,” says Inge Brunner of Moylan, Pa., who sells several dozen brands from her online store at DiaperWare.com.

The cloth diaper craze is an extension of fashion, she adds. “If you’re got a little girl with a lovely diaper showing under her dress, it looks really cute,” Ms. Brunner says. And for mothers who change a zillion diapers a day, “it’s a lot more fun putting a pretty diaper on.”

Photo from Stock.xchng.