woven wrap

Peace and Harmony at Christmas ...

This time of year has me a bit paralysed, even more than usual. Despite wanting to make the perfect wreath, create the most perfect Christmas table, I honestly know it's just never going to happen - too many projects, too many children, too many chaotic thoughts whizzing round in my head.

Add into that snippets of world news stories that freeze me further with their unspeakable atrocity and, frankly, I'm just happy to be alive and able to hug my children.

And, with that, I wish you the most wonderful Christmas, however imperfect, but hope it's full of lots of love and hugs <3

Peace and Harmony, complete with really imperfect pictures (!) Friday 23rd December at 14:00 GMT 

- Ali x

Theft vs Integrity ...

This is a heartfelt outcry about copying, about design stealing, about lack of vision, lack of creativity. You know, theft. Because that's what copying someone's design(s) really is. Whatever the industry, whatever the product... Stealing is just that - stealing. But I never thought it would happen in the industry I now call home! Surely we are an industry where empathy and integrity are as interwoven into the fabric of our community as the yarns in our wraps, yes?? 

Many moons ago, I started (with much trepidation) a little online shop called Maverick Baby. Tentatively, and over time, I contacted Easycare, Didymos and Girasol to ask if I may stock their woven wraps. To my delight and wonder, they agreed. To say I was bowled over would be an understatement. For starters, Didymos and Girasol were the remarkable makers of the very first two woven wraps I ever owned (and still do - they are my legacy wraps); it felt incredible - to think that the journey of enveloping my daughter in fabrics so precious had brought me to the point of bringing even more folks into the world of a tradition so relatively new to western culture and yet so valuable to our society... Never mind my online shop, I felt so part of such an incredibly supportive baby carrying community; one which loved, cared for and carried not only our babies, but us as mothers as well...

That journey took me further than I could ever have imagined. It's thanks to companies like Didymos and Girasol, to whom I am ever indebted, that I became a photographer; my creative vision was seen and supported in an industry where hearts were always in the right place and, most importantly, those hearts showed purpose and empathy.

Girasol Ardent

 

Fast forward to the beginning of 2016 and, holy moly, how things have been tarnished - by one company - seemingly overnight. Remembering a culture of mutual respect and co-operation, I now am horrified to discover a violation of these previously-held industry-wide values - perpetrated by a Russian company (purporting to be Italian and which shall remain nameless - I'm definitely not going to give them any press!), but which is causing a big ole outcry within the babywearing community, and for good reason - it's stealing designs from a 30+ year old woven wrap company, Girasol; a company with heritage, with values, whose beautiful woven wraps, produced in the traditional slow manufactured way, support the skills of local artisans in Guatemala - it's a company long-admired in the babywearing industry.

You might be able to reproduce someone's designs, but you can never reproduce the heritage, the values, the story that come with the originals. Reproducing someone's designs is cheap; cheap because you don't have to take the time and energy to come up with your own, but also cheap because that's how people think who are just in something for the money; they don't care about integrity, about their customers or their customers' stories; it's all about bottom line. I'm cross, can you tell?? I feel violated. And if I feel violated, I can only imagine what the Girasol wrap designers must feel. Theft may bring fleeting glory and profit, but story, values and heritage? Well, they will always win our hearts in the end...

 

 

 

 

The Life and Soul...

Towards the end of September, my youngest children and I ventured up to Wales for The Good Life Experience, a small but perfectly formed festival held at the Hawarden Estate by the fine and kind people at Pedlars along with Cerys Matthews and Steve Abbott. One year previously, I had done the same. It's where I launched my very first woven wraps - Studio and Voyage - and thus holds great meaning for me. 

The festival is about everything I love - freedom for children to run, play and learn in the outdoors, going back to basics with cooking, carving and whittling wood, great music and equally great kindred souls with whom to share it all. 

And so to two new woven wraps...

Good Life has a pop of bright blue and a pop of red with understated dark navy and grey, all finished off with a striking golden yellow rail. It's in honour of the aforementioned festival that propelled me out there into the world; in honour of a life that's simple and kind and lived slowly. 

 

Soul also has a pop of bright blue, but is married with gentle greens and pale blue tied in with a subdued charcoal. It's in honour of living a soulful life full of purpose and meaning and of the little souls we carry in our wraps...

Here's to living a life that is good - maybe even great! - but always with our little ones, our life and soul...

Good Life and Soul, two new woven wraps releasing at shop.alidover.com on Sunday 12 October at 20:30 BST 

- Ali x

Thoughts from a kind customer...

There is nothing more heartwarming - this is why I do what I do - words and photo by Rachel Todd - thank you Rachel xx

"When the postman unexpectedly rang my doorbell this morning, I couldn't have been more delighted with the super speedy delivery of my beautiful Breeze wrap. Almost exactly a year since Studio arrived on our doorstep I was so pleased to see that all the lovely personal details, the brown paper and twine, the handwritten labels and receipts, the sheer love and time and attention packaged up with the wrap, was just the same as I remembered. And I can't believe it but I think I love the colours even more than Studio!!! I know I'm late to the Breeze party, sorry, I took a break from the crazy wrap world for a while, but this wrap sums up all the things I most love and missed about it! That sharing of love from one parent who has held their baby close to their heart, to another. Thank you so much Ali!! ❤"

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Lucy's cosy cushion...

One of the hardest things about putting my heart and soul into designing the colourways for my woven wraps is knowing that, without a very small little in my brood, my chance of actually using them for their main purpose is rather slim. But knowing that a woven wrap is so much more than a tool for carrying a baby gives me and my children the opportunity to connect closely with my creations in other ways. 

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Here, I turned the middle three stripes of a Boheme wrap scrap into a cushion cover - the colours mingle perfectly with the vintage Liberty fabric of the childrens's window blind and cushion, as well as Cold at Night's blanket. And, according to Lucy it's so soft, it's just like cuddling a teddy. That's plenty good enough to keep my heart happy... :)

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