ORGANIC FOCUS: Aravore Babies

THANKFULLY - for the guilt riddled among us - the range of organic clothing and blankets for wee ones is on the rise. But one of the originals and the best, is Aravore.

Started by Yanina Aubrey, pictured left with daughter Thea, in 2005 in collaboration with her sister Norah, the collection is entirely made by hand in London, where Yanina and her family is based, and in Asuncion, Paraguay, one of the areas where Yanina and Norah grew up.

Here, the sisters gradually developed an appreciation of the handcraft skills around them, thanks to their high-achieving economist mother, who could also produce “the most glorious summer dresses” according to Yanina, and a grandmother who taught the sisters to crochet, knit and sew on an ancient Singer. Finally, with the birth of Yanina’s firstborn, (”there was no knitwear available in organic cotton at the time and very little in organic merino wool”), they decided to launch a fashion range for kids that didn’t just make use of traditional South American skills, but was intended to help local women carve out a living for themselves, and support Paraguay’s ethical farming developments. Today, apart from employing over thirty knitters and seamstresses in their workshop in Asuncion (and five in London), the company has helped mothers and those unable to travel to the workshop to develop mini workshops at home - and offered basic business training too.

All that good stuff is before we even get to the clothes. These are a refreshing, slightly retro, heirloom quality clothing and blankets for babies and small children (£15-£110), such as ruffled cotton rompers and embroidered dresses, where there’s not a logo, ‘clever’ slogan or cartoon character in sight. Instead there’s a focus on tactile knitwear.

This, says Yanina, is not just because hand-knitting and crochet is a particular skill area of Asuncion, but because: “There is something quite wonderful about knitwear. It’s very Read the rest of this article

Posted 6 July 2009 in Textiles

CULT REISSUE: byGraziela

“I REMEMBER THE 1980s’ prints most clearly. My mum did an ’80s black and white floral and stripe collection - and I remember me and a friend, aged about 12, going out into our quite suburban town wearing these matching floral outfits - including these weird little leggings. It was really embarrassing. “
So says 32-year-old Nina Nägel, daughter of renowned German textile designer Graziela Preiser who grew up so immersed in her mother’s bright, happy, retro graphic ’70s and ’80s prints on bedding, wallpaper, clothing and crockery that to her they were always just a part of the landscape. That was until Nina, a graphic designer based in London, had her son, Jakob, now 1.
“It was then I think that I really realised how they were more than just a really substantial part of my life. Especially when I dug some of the old ’70s pieces out of my mum’s attic and all my friends starting asking where they could get them. ”

Graziela Preiser’s famed prints were never commercially available. Nina explains how her mother used to work for a magazine (”the equivalent of Red magazine today”) that offered the pieces as mail-order specials to its readers. The magazine made her mother famous, and such was the cult that resulted in her native Germany that Nina gets fans sending her emails detailing the bedlinen they had when they were little. “But then even I used to have sleepovers and all my friends would turn up wearing her pyjamas. Everyone was matching!”

For Nina, this was all impetus for relaunching the brand - a move she started with her One, Two, Three bedlinen range earlier this year (see the print, top picture) - which has since grown to include wall organisers, pyjamas, posters made from original 1970s wallpaper cuttings (see picture, bottom) and a brand new collaboration of graphic mugs and plates with UK design maestro Thorsten van Elten (above). Reissued wallpapers and new posters are just some of the items coming soon, as soon as Nina can decide which of her mother’s amazingly modern-looking patterns to reissue next. Read the rest of this article

Posted 15 June 2009 in Decor

ECO PRODUCT: biodegradable wipes

WE, AT LITTLEBIG, have a secret addiction of which we’re quite ashamed. We’re wipe addicts. It starts off innocently enough. Baby’s bum is cleaner on the go thanks to a packet of wipes stashed in the handbag. Then you notice those wipes clean the changing mat beautifully, get killer stains out of carpets and rugs, remove spots of staining juice / vomit / felt tip pen out of clothes (your own and your babe’s). Brad Pitt even claims to use them to refresh his, erm, pits. And then, all of a sudden, it hits you, you’re addicted. Despite the fact your son is 3 years old, you still carry a packet of wipes around for ‘emergencies’ - which include cleaning cafe tables before you sit down - and playground swing seats. 

The guilty part? Most wipes aren’t biodegradable or anything like it. The supermarket own-brand varieties might be the best at stain-removing, but they’re essentially plastic, non-eco, poison for the environment and your toilet/plumbing if you flush. Whilst we should all quite clearly be using water and washable cloths where possible in lieu of wipes, thankfully there are a growing number of biodegradable alternatives - and ones that are just as effective at cleaning.

Method’s Flushable Bathroom Wipes, £3.50 in the UK at www.methodproducts.co.uk, aren’t baby bottom friendly, but they are intended to mop up toddler toilet spills, and are made from a biodegradable pulp. Nature Babycare’s bio wipes are biodegradable (made from sustainable beechwood sources) - see www.naty.com for stockists, as are Mio’s wipes, £1.50 for 40 in the UK from www.bumpto3.com, which are also flushable (see www.bambinomio.com for international stockists). And we’ve only recently discovered, but really like, Mothercare’s biodegradable, organic wipes which feature 15 per cent cotton, so they’re more like a cloth than a wipe, and are therefore gentler on tiny baby bottoms. 

Happy (guilt-free) cleaning. 

Posted 9 June 2009 in Products

TOP FIVE: cot beds

By Christine Samuelian

AS ANY NEW parent will attest, the biggest challenge is to get your baby to sleep. At all. To make things easier (at least psychologically) it’s worth investing in a beautiful cot or cotbed, preferably one that grows with the child. Plus, with the bed most likely being the biggest lump of furniture in the baby’s room, it’s wise to buy stylishly.

Best for value: IKEA’s Leksvig cot is simple in design and construction but will fit into both modern houses and well as more ornate ones. One side of the bed can be removed when the child is ready to climb in and out on his/her own. And, as with everything at IKEA, the price is more than fair. £73.40. www.ikea.com

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Posted 19 May 2009 in Furniture

TREND: retro robots

By Jenny Dalton

SERIOUSLY, when my mother was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, she and countless others genuinely believed they’d be being served by robots around now - such was the hype surrounding post-war robotics technology. 

And yet, despite constant and impressive developments, we seem further and further away from living the techno-servant dream. At the same time, we seem loathe to let go of the vintage robot aesthetic of half a century ago - even though the look has been very definitely superseded by today’s quest for near-human robots.

For Clifford Richards, who came to the fore of graphic design in the 1960s, the appeal of such robot aesthetics has never dated. “My robot designs are inspired by Japanese clockwork tin toys of the 50s and 60s. I have a small collection of them plus some more recent examples in plastic. They have an endearingly clumsy human quality that I find quite irresistible - and they’re great fun to do!” Richards’ work on a robotic tip includes mugs for Big Tomato Company, signature graphic identity for the Museum of Childhood in London and a new collection of robot metal clocks, pictured left, coming soon from The Original Metal Box Co. As far as possible he’s kept the clocks industrial and fairly ‘raw’ looking (so be warned, they’re not to play with) to mimic the age and patina of his tin toy collection. Read the rest of this article

Posted 19 May 2009 in Decor