Watch out for The Brand

Here is another great kids label coming from Scandinavia... The cold weather is clearly making people very creative!!! The Brand, based In Sweden, is a family business. This very edgy kids range is designed and owned by Mr and Mrs Brandstrom, hence its fabulous name! Their motto is absolutely inspiring " Here at the BRAND we genuinely hope that all our products inspire you to shape and mould your own styles. Styles that ultimately will strengthen the love and connection in your family. It´s what it´s all about!". I really believe that we you create something out of love and passion, you can't go wrong. Their collection for this spring/summer is utterly cool with plenty of nautical stripes, skinny jeans and great tees!!!

Check it out: http://www.thebrand.se

Q&A with the very talented Melanie Rodriguez

If, like me, you are a fan of Papier Mache, you would have come across Melanie Rodriguez's amazing work. I love this serie of images for issue 13 called "love like a sunset". I was so happy Melanie took the time to answer a couple of questions for the blog.

WTWKA: How did your love of photography begin?
I think I've always loved photography, since I was a child. My parents bought me a plastic camera , I brought it with me at every holidays. I also loved to dig through my grandmother's old trunks every time we visited her, they were always full of very old family photos. I really loved that.
Then in high school, I discovered the magic of the darkroom and everything really started.

WTWKA: Who inspires you?
In my life my daughter inspires me so much. In Photography I 'm really inspired by Masao Yamamoto, Sarah moon , Sally mann, Paolo Roversi, Guy Bourdin and many more.

WTWKA: You have done a lot of work for Papier Mache, how did this collaboration come about?
I wrote to them 2 years ago, and they give me the chance to do a story for them, they were the first ...Since then I have shot a lot for them, I love working with them, they are so great.
Thanks to them I met really great people like Deborah Sfez.

WTWKA: What is an ideal day for you?
Being in the present moment ( not so easy ), being surrounded by nature, preferably on a trip far far away with people I love the most. Also when I'm sooting something personal. Whenever I am able to be creative it's a great day too.

WTWKA: What was the last song you danced to?
I think it was Diana Ross and The Supreme.

Thank you so much Melanie!!!
Visit Melanie's site to view more of her work: http://www.melanierodriguez.eu

the lovely book I found the other day

This is the lovely book I found last week at my local book store the " book lounge": " milk teeth" by Julia Morstad. I had seen her beautiful illustrations in Papier Mache before so it was the nicest of surprise to come across this book lying strangely by the check out counter. It was clearly waiting for me!!!

it's back to black for New Generals SS13

Here's a preview of New Generals Spring Summer 2013 collection. This super quirky danish brand has chosen black as its main colour for this collection. New Generals is already known for its high quality basics and sleepwear. This is a brand that never stops growing, this collection shows a wider range of daywear with some really cool LBD's and some low- crutch pants to die for. Their slogan of being " ethi-cool" sums up what this company is all about, being ethical does not have to be to the detriment of style.
http://newgenerals.com

it's almost time for Playtime Paris!

How very exciting it is almost time for Playtime Paris, if you are around the French capital in July, do not miss this amazing kids tradeshow!
Some of my favourite brands will be there: Franky Grow, Talc, The Brand, Atsuyo Et Akiko and many more.
Dates 7th to 9th of July, for more info go onto their website:
www.playtimeparis.com

La Miniatura S/S12

Some brands have a really strong identity and La Miniatura is a perfect example of that. I get very excited when new collections like these come out. La Miniatura is very inspiring to me as it is exactly what my little dude Noah wears: skinny jeans all the way, fitted hoodies and plenty of attitude! I love this look on a little boy, and I guess it fits within my style too. So La Miniatura is up there for me, alongside Chinche and Finger In The Nose,in my top 3 rocking kids brand!
http://www.laminiaturakids.com/

Franky Grow's blog:

here are some super cute images from Franky Grow's blog:
http://blog.frankygrow.com
I had to share these with you, this little girl is just too adorable for words!!!!

exclusive interview with Chinche!

Chinche has been one of my favourite kids brand since I first layed eyes on it! I remember thinking that it was just so cool that somewhere out in the world, some very creative people were designing such cool clothes for kids. It was liberating to think that brands like these could be successful in a world where baby pink and baby blue dominated for far too long!

Interviewing Chinche is a real treat for me!!!!

 WWKA: When did you start Chinche? 

 In early 2007 we came up with the idea of creating the Brand and in July of that year we went out with our first collection.

WWKA:And what inspired you to do it? 

The birth of our son , he inspired us in a lot of aspects!

WWKA; What do you love the most about designing clothes for kids? 

The ability to dream without limits! The collections becomes very demanding as well as fun!

WWKA;  I love how edgy Chinche is and the fact you use black a lot in your collections. Where do you get your inspiration from?

The black colour is a primary colour in the composition of the collections, it's not commonly used in kids fashion and works very well to convey the character of the brand.

WWKA: Any big plans for 2012 for Chinche?

Some of our first plans are related to growing sales, improving the production etc... Our first aim is always to keep the essence of Chinche, to believe and have blind faith in what we do.

WWKA: What's a perfect day in your life?

A day of leisure with my family, enjoy the sun, sunsets, laughter... the simple moments are of best value!

Chinche, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview, you rock!
www.chinche.es