Want to celebrate the magical realism of childhood in a more sophisticated fashion than your average Anne Geddes print? Of course you do – unless you really love grinning infants wearing pumpkin costumes. (I have always suspected those children are drugged). Kid-in’s take on childhood is thoroughly grown up.

If there is a child in a pumpkin costume on the site, you can be sure that it was intended as a wry and pointed commentary.

At Kid-in, an online platform on which a wide range of international and local designers and photographers focus their creative efforts on the subject of childhood, you’ll always find something fresh.

Updated fortnightly, the site features photos of children dressed in war paint, sitting like tiny tutu-ed dictators on thrones, and grimly dragging their toy trains. Meanwhile, toys like the Slinky lend themselves to the “platonic solids” series. The overall effect is more fashion editorial, less consciously cutesy. That is to say, the children in it still look like children – but they don’t look like they were posed to provoke squeals of delight from adults.

Alice Bertay and Stephanie Arpage, the two Brooklyn moms from France who founded the site, see childhood as more than simply adorable. Alice notes that she’s driven by “her love of spontaneity and the surreal” while Stephanie’s inspiration stems from the family attic and “the hours on end spent pilfering forgotten trunks of exotic fabrics and costume jewelry.” Perhaps those insights account for the stunning outfits seen on children to the site – or maybe that’s just good stylists at work. Regardless you can expect to see something brilliant and inventive – with very little kidding around.