Baobab Autumn/Winter 2012: The Scribble Collection For Babies, Girls & Boys 0-8 Years – Interview With Designer, Belinda Blooman

Written by Angela

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I was thrilled to speak with Belinda Blooman, head designer at Baobab – www.baobab.com.au – about Baobab’s Autumn/Winter 2012 ‘Scribble’ collection for babies, boys and girls from birth to 8 years. Read below to discover more about this stunning collection, which is available to buy from the Baobab website now.

Want to know more about Belinda? Click here to read our Meet & Greet interview from 2009.

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Inspiration & Background

The inspiration for this season’s collection is the wonderful looping crayon drawings that kids do – hence the name, The Scribble Collection. Starburst patterning is another main motif of this collection and this idea came to me because I often doodle starbursts when I’m talking on the phone.

The collection mixes a pared down European aesthetic through attention to cut and detailing with Asian influences – I’m mad about fisherman’s pants! Rather than use the same fabrics across all pieces I sourced certified organic cotton fabrics of different weights, textures and stretches to match the application of the pieces. Fabric for Scribble and Starburst pieces are a very soft certified organic cotton knit with a dense tight weave interlock. It’s sumptuous with a lovely feel and weight for winter.

My aim is to celebrate and reflect the joyfulness and freedom of movement and expression that children naturally have through the pieces I design and create – comfort is paramount! – and to make life easy for parents, too. Everything is designed to mix and match within the collection and the classic colour palette of is charcoal, grey marle, navy, red and khaki with light and dark denims in the mix makes it easy to wear with items from other labels. Many pieces are unisex, and it’s all easy wash and wear.

Jackets & Hoodies

We’ve produced our first jackets this season to run alongside our hoodies. Available in single breasted for babies and double breasted for older kids, all our jackets are made from 100% cotton fleece jersey. These are the perfect trans-seasonal pieces: wear now and pop more layers under as the weather gets cooler.

Denim

We moved our manufacture from China to India with our previous collection and I finally felt we had the quality and expertise nailed down to do denim really well. The soft wash denim fishman pant for babies features a shirred cotton rollover top that’s tailored especially for little bubs. The harem jeans with contrast button fly provide a bit of an edge. The pale denim dress is super easy for kids to put on themselves and the drop waist dress brings together the texture of the denim with the softness of our organic cotton gathered top. The gathers on the top part of the dress are actually elasticated so little ones and parents don’t have to struggle getting it on.

Circle Prints

It wasn’t until I’d distilled down the collection to it’s final stages that I realised there was a theme happening here! I really love the infiniteness and symmetry of circles – they just feel good to me! For the grey marle spot turtle-neck dress I added warm colours to convey heat and warmth in the midst of winter, the circle twisted neck tee has an ‘X’ shape within it – X marks the spot! – and the sense of a maze. Peace and love are very important issues for me and the Peace symbol combined with the wishbones conveys my wish for peace. I love the picture of the model, Beau, wearing this tee – his smile is so broad and true. The fact that he has one trouser leg up and one down was actually a ‘mistake’ but it’s such a kid thing and the shot worked so perfectly we kept it in.