Collaborations
I’ve always been drawn to collaborating with other people. Other creatives, other Mums in business, my family. There is huge value in what others bring to the table - whether it’s their expertise in their field or their talent or their ability to challenge you to do what you do better!
The lockdowns of 2020 strengthened my belief in collaboration, and the significant positive impact it can have when you reach out in some way.
Our latest kids clothing collection, Elemental, and our new Wander leather baby and toddler shoe range, were both borne of collaboration and lockdown.
While we were all in lockdown last year, I decided to put the call out to our Burrow and Be fans to flex their creative muscles and send me some of their designs for our Elemental collection. And man am I glad I did, because the designs I got back were stunning and shows the huge amount of talent out there that I would otherwise never have known about or collaborated with! By opening up this textile design competition, it allowed the fans of our brand to shape the direction of this collection and I think it is all the better for it. All three design brief winners had their designs featured in this collection - I’m so impatient for you to see their beautiful work!
This is the first time I have opened up to our wider Burrow and Be community to collaborate on a collection, but it won’t be the last. Every previous collection though has been contributed to in some way by other creatives I have reached out to. I love the creative process of crafting, designing and refining a collection, and working with another artist to bring my visions to life truly lights my creative fire and is a major reason I do what I do.
Adding the Wander shoe range under our Burrow and Be family also came about through collaboration. Nyssa (the previous owner of Wander, and fellow Westie) and I realised there were some lovely complementary aspects to both our businesses, so we decided to collaborate on some photoshoots and support promotion of each other's brands. When Nyssa floated the idea of selling Wander, it seemed like a natural fit. So during lockdown, we finalised the sale and I have been busy behind the scenes getting our first range launched under our new branding! This range is a true collaboration of some of Nyssa’s classic designs, and a range of new shoes and boots that I think you will love just as much as the originals. And available for purchase now!
Lockdown also gave me time to consider the vision I had for Wander, and where I wanted to change things up to align the brand with our Burrow and Be values. One glaring aspect of leather shoe production that didn’t sit well with me was the amount of plastic packaging used. Against the advice of the previous production factory’s advice, I have gone against the industry grain and worked really hard to get all our Wander sandals, shoes and boots delivered in cotton fabric bags (rather than the soft plastic packaging most factories insist on). This involved significant research on new suppliers, and challenging a few on the old ‘that’s how it has always been done’ attitude. I don’t believe we will make any headway with moving to sustainable practices if we aren’t prepared to consider doing things in different ways, and I am so pleased to have found suppliers and factories across Burrow and Be and Wander that are prepared to work with me on shaking the industry up a bit!
The first drop of our new kids knitwear featured in our Elemental Collection is now online, and also took a bit of consideration and gentle nudging with our factories to get over the line. But the end result was worth it - they are gorgeously soft and made from 100% GOTS Certified organic cotton.
I can’t wait for you all to see our next drop in the Elemental Collection very soon. It not only features the designs from our textile competition winners but also some beautiful new fabrics for winter (keep an eye for our next blog for more info on that!).
Comments (2)
We love what your doing!
By: Gay Gaskell on 8 March 2021We already love Burrow & Be but the new elemental range is gorgeous. Knitwear we have dreamed of, now tights and shoes to complete the outfit. We love that you have used other creatives to design the range. Can only imagine how much behind the scenes work this has taken for you. We are big fans. x
Love shoes in bags!
By: Alice Quartly on 7 March 2021I love that you are using fabric bags for your shoes, shoes are tough, they don’t need to be wrapped in plastic! Well done you for paving the way x
