Swaddle Blankets - Baby's Own Fashion Statement - NYTimes.com Munchkin Swaddling blankets from Munchkin. Britt Levine, 33, who lives in Los Angeles and works in media sales for Clear Channel, has a 2-month-old baby boy and says that the colorful blankets she uses to wrap him, made by a company based there named Munchkin, are a way to extend her love of fashion to her newborn. Her regular afternoon promenades with her son at the Grove, an upscale mall, are a sea of strollers with colorful swaddle blankets draped over them. "It's become a thing where moms are checking out what swaddle blankets other moms have," Ms. Levine said. The ones I have with their catchy prints is my way to make a statement. There are designer diaper bags and "it" strollers, but until recently the swaddle blanket, used since ancient times to wrap babies tightly and give them a sense of security, has floated above trends. That has started changing, most notably in July, when Kate Middleton and Prince William stood on the steps of St. Mary's Hospital in London to introduce their son, Prince George Alexander Louis. The royal newborn was swathed in a white muslin blanket adorned with green birds from Aden + Anais, a Brooklyn brand. The four-pack Jungle Jam set that included it immediately sold out, said the company's founder, Raegan Moya-Jones, and sales of all of its swaddles over the next month increased almost 200 percent from the same time period the previous year. Ms. Moya-Jones started Aden + Anais after she moved to the United States from Australia, gave birth to her daughter (Anais), and couldn't find the wraps made from loosely woven cotton muslin that were a staple back home. "In Australia, you would buy muslin wraps in four packs of white, but I wanted something with more of a design element," she said. Weeks after she introduced two patterns in 2006, Adam Sandler was pictured in US Weekly walking with his wife on the beach with their baby draped in one of her swaddles, which cost around $20 each and are sold at Neiman Marcus and Kitson. Sandra Bullock, Beyoncé and Hilary Duff are also fans. "Once Luca was too big to be swaddled, we used them at the park or draped them over his stroller for shade," Ms. Duff wrote in an e-mail. Other companies have followed. Little Giraffe, a blanket company based in Van Nuys, Calif., has patterned swaddles in jacquard dot, links, stripes and zigzag made from sandwashed muslin ($48 for a package of two). Munchkin's swaddles ($50 for a package of 2) are made from rayon derived from bamboo pulp, and include batiks, oversize florals and diamond patterns. And Summer Infant, a Woonsocket, R.I., brand known for its high-tech monitors, ventured into swaddling in 2009 with its SwaddleMe wraps (starting at $13.99). At first there were only solid colors, but the company soon hired a fashion director who has a background in textile design, Richard Graumann, and there are now 150 options with new ones added regularly. "I get the inspiration for my patterns straight from the runways," Mr. Graumann said. The wraps with the animal-skin prints and ones in bright oranges and yellows, for example, mimicked the trends from last season. Sarah Demarest, 36, a stay-at-home mom in Washington, likes the SwaddleMe wraps so much she used a leopard-printed one for the birth announcement picture of her two-month-old daughter, which Ms. Demarest said won raves from family and friends. "We take so many photos of her, and I want to look back on them and like the way she is dressed, and an attractive swaddle is key to that," she said.