I’ve expanded a bit beyond owl hats this time around (although there are still plenty of those). Now introducing dolls, quirky creatures, and hats with Japanese Kokeshi-inspired faces!
Which one is your favorite?
See all the new Winter 2012 items.
It’s time for another installment of Conversations with Designers! My aim with this series is to inspire and encourage fellow creatives — and either introduce you to talented people you might not have otherwise met, or help you get to know your favorite creatives even better.
Today, we’re talking to Ieva from the gorgeous brand Mummymoon about the clothing business she runs alongside Vėjūne. Ieva lets us take a peek at her creative process, and shares how she’s influenced by her children, the country of Lithuania, and trends — or the lack thereof.
Welcome, Ieva! Let’s talk about your clothing brand. What prompted you to start Mummymoon?
Boredom. I am very active in nature, I have to be busy 12 hours a day – it makes me feel complete. After I had my first baby, when I got used to being a mother, I came to realize that I struggle with just being at home all the time. As she got older, I found it difficult just being at home or playing outside with my daughter. I started to express myself here. I always wondered what I would do when my children get older. Maybe back to making films, or interior designing or even photography? But it happened, when another life was growing inside me, I felt a desire to start sewing and making clothes for little people. It was only one example of this kind of business in Lithuania at the time – MUKU, so it was hard to imagine it will grow into something big one day. It was more like a hobby for me, a way to express myself. However, looking back now, we have our distributors and agent in Korea, Japan, have a little shop in the capital of Lithuania – Vilnius. We have teamed up with other 6 designers and opened a YéYé store in Paris. So I can firmly say – don’t be afraid to dream as dreams come true!
Nuobodulys. Esu begalo veikli, turiu buti uzimta aper diena 12 val. ir tik tada jausiu pilnatve. Kai atsirado pirmas vaikas, kai apsipratau su motinos role ir supratau, kad paagus dukrai man darosi anksta buti vien tik namuos ir lauke kartu su vaiku – emiausi realizuoti save cia. Iki to laiko masciau, kur eisiu, kai vaikai paaugs. Ar atgal prie kino, ar prie interjeru, ar..fotografija? Bet taip nutiko, kad pastojus ir pradejus glausti pilvelyje antraji vaikuti Rapola – mane kazko pradejo traukti siuvimas ir mazuju rubeliu kurimas. Lietuvoje tokio verslo pavyzdziu buvo tik vienas – MUKU, tad buvo ganetinai nedrasu svajoti apie kazka daugiau, nei hobis. Bet siuo metu mes turime distributorius Korejoje bei Japonijoje, turim parduotuvele Lietuvos sostineje Vilniuje, bei kartu su 6 dizaineriais ikureme Paryziuje YéYé store. Tad…reziumuoti galiu drasiai, kad svajoti reikia! Svajones pildosi!
Walk me through your creative process — I guess you could call this the “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” question. Do you have a finished product in mind from the start, and then execute a series of steps to achieve this? Or do the ideas evolve and take life as you go through the creative process?
Sometimes the egg comes first, sometimes the chicken. Creation is like life, it falls into how you live the time. Our creative process is based on our children’s moods or if we simply have time to create or not. It might not sound very interesting but you would not like to hear a fake, made up story, would you?
You can never know how one or the other item of clothing, a detail, a shade will come into life. I always sit down with a pencil and a piece of paper when I get a chance. The desire to create…it is always there, it never goes away. Sometimes I get angry with myself for not making more time for this but I want to give myself to my children first and then to other part of my life – mummymoon.
Kartais nuo kiausinio, kartais nuo vistos. Kuryba kaip ir gyvenimas. Kiekvieno susidelioja taip, kaip pats gyveni. Musu gi – viskas pagal vaiku nuotaika. Yra ar nera laiko. Skamba labai neidomiai, bet ar jus norit pagrazintos istorijos?:)
Niekada negali zinoti, kaip atsiras vienas ar kitas rubas. Viena ar kita detale. Vienas ar kitas pustonis. Sedu prie popieriaus ir piestuko kai tik yra tam laiko. O noro…jo yra visada, jis niekur nedingsta, kartais pykstu ant saves, kad nepasidarau jo daugiau, bet norisi atsiduoti vaikams, o tik tada savo gyvenimo kitai pusei – mummymoon. Continue reading “DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT :: A Conversation with Lithuanian Childrenswear Designer Mummymoon”
I only like icy landscapes in theory. I can say that with some authority, because I’ve tested the, er, frozen waters. In college, I lived across the street from the Lake Superior shoreline, and meh — not my thing! See, it’s not an urban legend or an exaggeration that humans can have icicles hanging from their personage. Oh, no. That really happens.
Here’s a photo of me, standing on Lake Superior when the ice had already started to break up. It was Easter break, so I’d switched to my “spring” snowpants and coat — and was subsequently frozen to the core. (What was I thinking?! DOES THAT LOOK LIKE SPRING TO YOU?! And who in the world has “spring snowpants”?)
Brrrrrrr. It’s true that the air is amazing and clean, there are myriad stars, and the stillness and quietness overnight are like nothing I’ve experienced elsewhere. But you know? It’s cold. Your car’s doors freeze entirely shut. When you do get the car moving finally, the wheels feel square. The worst part of it all is when the sky and the ground fade together into a dusty, dreary gray, swallowing everything in between them. The sun disappears. Weeks pass before it reappears momentarily, only to slip away again. Sometimes, it’s too cold for snow even to fall.
So when I’m oooh and aaahing over the pretty wintery scenes in Toast UK’s most recent lookbook, I try to remind myself what living inside those pictures really was like, and realize that I’m much happier just looking at the photos*.
*I’ll let you decide how much of that is true and how much is an attempt to convince myself I enjoy sweating in Florida-October’s swampy heat.
You may also be interested in my Toast UK catalogue round-ups from previous seasons. They’re not all wintery. ;)
There’s a strange phenomenon I’ve observed since becoming a parent: the irrepressible urge to brag.
Oh no, I don’t mean pulling a quintuple-fold wallet out of one’s pocket and loudly showing the pictures to everyone within earshot. That’s to be expected. The instant one becomes a parent, one firmly believes the wrinkled child held up in that room is the best-looking, smartest baby in all of humankind’s existence. That’s normal. That’s to be expected.
It’s beautiful, actually.
But the moment a parent lays eyes on any other parent, a bizarre transformation takes place. Alongside the beautiful pride, a strange and paradoxical pride also rises up, causing the parent to believe his or her child is not only the handsomest and most gifted, but also the worst and most awfully-behaved.
Remember the Topper, a character in the Dilbert comic strip? No matter what anyone said, Topper would top it.
Well folks, when this Topper complex is observed within the parental habitat, it’s truly a weird thing to behold.
Exhibit A:
“Hi, friend! How’re you doing?”
“Oh, pretty beat. My kid didn’t sleep much last night.”
“Psh. I have thirty-eight kids and none of them slept through the night until they were twelve.”
Exhibit B:
“Oh hello, friend, where have you been lately?”
“Yeah, it’s been a while. My kid just got over chicken pox.”
“Ohreally? That’s nothing! Mine came down with an extremely rare case of TURKEY pox! It’s so rare, my doctor hadn’t even heard of it. Here, let me show you the rash. He’s still incredibly contagious. Yeah, it’s the grossest rash ever…let me just pull down his..”
“Ummm, actually, yeah, we were just leaving…”
Exhibit C:
“What a coincidence meeting you here!”
“Yeah, my kid is going through this phase where he’ll only eat bananas, so…”
“Psh, don’t talk to me about grocery shopping. You’ve got it easy. My kid only ate fin-less goldfish and square cheerios for eight years straight.”
Exhibit D:
“A cast? What happened?”
“Oh, it’s ok. My kid fell out of a tree in the backyard and broke his wrist.”
“My Bobby fell out of the Eiffel Tower and broke seventy-two out of the twenty-six bones in his foot!”
Friends, I have no answers. No tidy little explanations. Honestly, I can’t figure out if this sort of behavior stems from a superiority complex or an inferiority complex.
The bottom line, it seems, is that each parent wants others to believe his life is better — or is it worse? — than every other parent’s.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go scrape off some cheese (?) my daughter stuck to the television screen. I guess she can escape her Pack n Play now.
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We’re still drinking our coffee iced, so these cozy scenes seem like something out of a movie. Some of my family members elsewhere, though, have already had sprinkles of snow and are busy with all the mundane but necessary outdoor chores which accompany winter’s arrival.
I think I’ll stick with my romanticized perspective. ;) Here are my favorite images from Toast‘s Autumn/Winter 2012 collection for House + Home.
I’ll have my picks from the Winter 2012 Women’s lookbook up later this week. Meanwhile, feel free to enjoy my favorite images from past Toast UK catalogues, all linked below.
It’s alllllmost here…the very first print issue of Babiekins Magazine!
Cover photo: Kelly Roper Photography
The issues are en route from the warehouses as I type this, and will be sold in every single Barnes & Noble store in the US, beginning Tuesday, October 9th.
In the US, you can also check Books-A-Million and Stater Bros. If you’re in the UK, copies are available online at Lapin & Me; in Brasil, Supersoniko, and in France, D’Arthur à Zoé.
I’m particularly thrilled about a little piece I wrote on my childhood in the former Yugoslavia, and about some photographs the wildy talented Deb Schwedhelm shot of Aveline and I. (I’ve had to keep that a secret since April.)
There’s lots more, of course; each page is bursting with fresh content from dozens of incredibly talented people. (And did I mention how proud I am of our Editor-in-Chief for including a verse in her Editor’s Note?) Oh, I can’t wait for you to see it!
So, here’s the thing. I’m hoping to see the entire stock SOLD OUT. Wanna help me do that? :) You can find Babiekins Magazine in the fashion section of the magazine rack.
Another prototype, one which makes me smile. A lot.
Aveline, on the other hand, grabbed him by a single whisker and tossed him down the stairs.
Oh dear.
Hello from Finland! My name is Sari and I write a blog called MrsAgatha. I’m 32 years old and a mother, a wife and also a step mom. My blog is mainly about kids fashion and my son who is 4½ years old.
Lovely Gina invited me to write a guest post here on my little boy’s style and I’m so happy to be here on Oaxacaborn today! Thank you Gina for the invite!
My son loves cars, animals and everything that has color green in it (he’s obsessed with this color!), he eats almost anything and is always very happy to try new things. I’m a lucky person to have this kid as my son since he’s one of the funniest, cutest and happiest kids I know (and yes, I might be a bit biased).
I love to buy clothes for him. He might have too many clothes but I always think that better too much than too little, don’t you agree! I can choose all his clothes since he doesn’t mind what he’s wearing and this is one of the things I love about him (just kidding, although it’s great to pick his clothes since if he was the one choosing, his clothes would be all green and have cars on them)! ;)
Our whole family dresses mostly in dark colors and we love clothes that have bit of ‘rock’ in them. So also my son’s wardrobe is full of black/dark grey clothes but there are also some ‘real’ colors! I’m not the one who plays with different kinds of accessories or believes in layering, I just choose him a shirt and a pair of pants and that’s it. Might be boring but I believe that with easy choices he is more comfortable to move around and do whatever he wants and it’s his personality that makes the outfit not the clothes! :)
My favorite brands are Mini Rodini, Bobo Choses, Yporqué, Minti and Munster Kids. All of these brands have very unique designs and prints and these are the things that I look for in his clothes.
Here are some photos of the kiddo wearing our favorite things. Some of the photos are over 2 years old so his appearance is a bit different in those compared to the newer ones. You can also see me in some of the pictures!
Continue reading “LITTLE STYLE :: Finnish Blogger MrsAgatha Guest Posts on Little Boy Style”
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