Hannah first came across our fabulous manufacturer in Bali in 2005 and was instantly drawn to the quality and attention to detail that went into producing the dresses. They stood out from the mass produced dresses sold on the high street and the colours were both strong and iridescent – like butterfly wings! Bali at the time was suffering significant ecomonic hardship after the first Bali bombing campaign and this lovely family business, on the edge of Kuta (an area hit by the bombings) supported 10 local ladies in a small factory using locally sourced fabrics from the market. Hannah left the island with a bag of samples and arrived at Manchester Airport to the news that a second bomb had taken place on the island.

Hannah has since worked exclusively with this small family business to produce the Piccalilly dressing up costume ranges and in 2010 revisted with her family to develop this new range and also visit YKIP a foundation Piccalilly has been supporting for over five years now through sponsoring the edication of children through the Back To School Fund. We are soooh excited to finally launch this fabulous new range of dressing up clothes designed to inspire the imagination of little girls and enourage active free play. We’re also delighted to be continuing working with this fabulous little Bali based business.

Hooded Swimming towel

Spring is in the air and it’s the perfect time to get a little more active after months spent indoors throughout the winter months. Our friends at Izzi Wizzi Kids TV & Playfest asked their audience last week what they were looking forward to doing with their kids now that Spring is on the horizon and helping their children to master a skill such as swimming was high on the agenda.

Learning to swim is a fun activity and a vital lifelong skill for all children to learn. As a parent, you might not be too sure about how to teach your child to swim or when you should start teaching them to swim. So here are some tips and a checklist!

Top tips

 • Use bath time to show baby how fun being in the water can be. Gently splash water over his body or move him gently through the water on his back. This is great preparation for taking your baby to the swimming pool

• Infants can be introduced to a public swimming pool as early as 3 months, and the earlier your introduce them, the better.

• Visit your public swimming pool off-peak, when it is likely to be quiet, as babies can get stressed in noisy and crowded situations.

• Blow bubbles in the water. This helps to show babies what they should do with their mouths and breathing in the water, as they can’t inhale water if they are blowing out.

• Don’t expect too much and don’t give up! While your infant or toddler can learn how to swim in the sense that she can move in water on her own accord, many children are not be able to swim actual strokes until they are much older.

• Once your child is comfortable in the water enrol them in swimming classes. Being around other kids, with an instructor who is not you, may be a step in the right direction!

• Let them have fun!

Before your first trip to the pool, you’ll need to take:

Swimming Check List

• A towel with a hood or toweling dressing gown

• a drink and snack – swimming makes baby, toddler & kids really hungry

• Change for the locker

• Several swim nappies / waterproof nappies

Here at Piccalilly we love the challenge of creating great looking ranges that also have practical and functional application too. We’re always looking at ways to offer value and give parents that little bit more with the items we create. Piccalilly’s fabulous range of hooded towels and poncho bathrobes were created with active children in mind and are perfect swimming towels and great for bath and beach too! Extra large, super soft and made from premium organic cotton all Piccalilly’s towels are kind to the planet and kinder to wear on delicate baby & toddler skin.

www.piccalilly.co.uk

But what makes this lovely piece of soft and breathable fabric so special is the multitude of uses that can be applied. Listed below are some great uses for our lovely muslin wraps – but we’re sure you’ll think of a few more!

• Perfect for swaddling a newborn baby. Swaddling is an age-old technique for making a baby feel secure.
• Softly drape the lightweight muslin over baby while breast feeding
• Use as a lightweight cover or cot sheet
• Great for feeding, covering, burping and wiping!
• Wrap your Xmas Pudding in one or use to strain apples when making apple juice! (Well we did say it could be used for all kinds of things!)

Go on, get inspired by our fabulous 100% organic muslin wraps – the most usable and versatile baby must have this season and beyond!

Piccalilly’s muslin is made using Fairtrade organic cotton from our CHETNA organic supply chain.

• Nominated, shortlisted and highly commended BEST ECO BABY range in the Prima Baby Fashion Awards 2010
• Throughout 2010 Vicky bakes far too many scrummy cake’s to mention…… (extra special thanks to Vicky’s Grandma for her fresh farm eggs)
• Visit to Piccalilly suppliers in Bali & sponsorship of a new Balinese child through the YKIP ‘Back to School’ scheme
• Garment technologist Hayley joins Piccalilly team in March
• New Piccalilly branding launched and our logo given a fab new look
• In May our long awaited shiny new website went live
• Aurelia joins team to spread the Piccalilly word in France & Spain
• Aurelia eats ‘mon premier fish & chips’
• Autumn sees the launch of our biggest organic baby clothes ranges to date
• Piccalilly sales manager extraordinaire ‘Jill Bill’ reaches 40
• Sales in 30 countries throughout the world!!!!
• 82% growth in sales – whoop whoop!
• We join forces with novelist Leah Fleming for fundraiser which raised £1000 for BBA & Ladli, two special children’s charities Piccalilly continue to support in India – Awww… That’s nice!

Wow – what an incredible year it’s been! Can’t wait to see what 2011 brings………

Benefits of organic cotton

It’s Organic Fortnight (3rd-17th September if you didn’t already know!). Here at Piccalilly we love organic cotton clothes and the benefits that they bring to everyone! We thought we’d share with you some of the many benefits buying organic cotton brings;

•  Organic Cotton is kinder to wear on delicate skin

Piccalilly’s organic cotton is grown without the use of nasty chemical pesticides and fertilizers and processed gently with minimum chemical use making it kind to wear on delicate and sensitive skin. Its also a great choice for skin that suffers from eczema as the cotton is both free from nasty chemicals, its less likely to trigger allergies and is much softer to wear.

•  Organic cotton is kinder on the environment

Piccalilly’s organic cotton is grown using organic methods of production ensuring the local environment where the cotton is grown is free from chemicals. The use of harsh chemicals in cotton production and poor agricultural practice can be reversed by adopting organic practices. And in developing countries where cotton crops are grown alongside food crops it is much safer for the local community and environment.

• Organic cotton is kinder to the people who grow it

The impact of using harmful chemicals within cotton production is huge. The farmer’s health is compromised and farmers often end up in a cycle of debt as they borrow more and more money to pay for them. The suicide rate amongst cotton farmers as a result has become a big issue. So by growing cotton organically, without the use of nasty (and expensive) chemicals the farmer and their local environment become’s free from toxic chemicals and the chemical companies! And for all their hard work Piccalilly’s organic cotton farmers can enjoy the bigger fruits of success further down the supply chain beause they own a 20% share in the factory!

• Organic cotton is great value!

It’s often thought that organic is an expensive and luxury choice. On the contrary organic cotton clothes offer fabulous value given the fact that the cotton produced is stronger (with a softer feel) and more durable. Add to this the fact that it washes extremely well the quality is second to none! Yes the initial outlay is slightly more expensive however when buying Piccalilly’s baby and children’s wear we’ve designed the ranges to have maximum fit and because the clothes are produced using the strongest, healthiest and durable cotton the clothing will last and can be handed on – now thats GREAT value!

Les choses ont bien changé depuis. C’est après avoir fait grandir son équipe et lancé un nouveau site que Piccalilly réapparaît à Bubble London les 20 et 21 juin prochains, sur un stand plus grand, afin de présenter aux distributeurs d’Angleterre et d’Europe sa collection Automne/Hiver 2010.  On y retrouve bien sûr les meilleures ventes de la marque, des vêtements complètement intemporels et indémodables. Il y aura aussi quelques nouveautés que nous avons tous hâte de vous faire découvrir!

Le salon professionnel Bubble London, “The Kids Trade Show” est sur le point d’entamer sa 6ème édition. Il s’agit d’une rencontre internationale des  marques les plus originales du monde de l’enfant, dans le but de faire découvrir aux spécialistes de l’enfant, les produits incontournables d’aujourd’hui.

Alors si vous aussi, en tant que distributeur, vous voulez découvrir de belles choses, et que vous passez le week end à Londres, rendez-vous au salon Bubble! Et venez rencontrer l’équipe de Piccalilly sur le stand D5! Hannah, Jill et Aurélia seront ravies de faire votre connaissance.

N’oubliez pas de demander votre entrée gratuite sur http://www.bubblelondon.com

Impossible de passez à Londres ce week end? Alors pourquoi pas en janvier prochain? A bientôt peut-être!

We can’t wait to get to Bubble London this week-end and show off our new ranges  for Autumn Winter 2010 & Spring Summer 2011 to Piccalilly retailers old and new. It’s taken the last 12 months to put our new organic baby clothes and kids wear together and finally all the hard work is coming together! It only seems like yesterday we took our very first stand at Bubble London. Back then it was held at Kensington Olympia and our range was compact and bijoux (as was our stand!) Since then we’ve grown! So here we are in June 2010 on a bigger stand (D-5 right at the front of the show!), with a bigger team and our biggest collection to date! We’ve also got a fabulous new website and are about to launch the ‘new look’ Piccalilly to you all (we all need a bit of sprucing up every now and then don’t we!)

What’s great about participating at kids trade show Bubble London is we get to meet with our truly fabulous Piccalilly retailers. We also get to meet new customers too and it gives us the opportunity to tell them all about what makes Piccalilly so very special and different. You may not know, but here at Piccalilly we do things a little differently from other brands – we call it the Piccalilly way! We’ve thought very hard about what matters to us and caring for the people who make our clothes and our planet, and the kids that wear our baby clothes and kids wear are top of the Piccalilly agenda! So fair trade and organic cotton baby and children’s wear is our starting point always and working with a few choice suppliers who we know and trust is the order of the day. And from these fabulous foundations we create great looking clothes that are stylish, comfy and packed full of colour and design.

And here at Piccalilly we wholesale our organic & fairly traded baby and kids clothes a little differently too. You see Piccalilly commit to running a sustainable business from start to finish. After all, you can’t claim to be planet friendly whilst modelling your business on the ‘fast fashion’ approach of the high street. As a result we choose to produce baby and kids wear that are timeless and longer lasting than just one season. We also offer plenty of new and exciting products every season alongside our trans-seasonal ranges and best sellers.  And this sustainable business model is proving very popular with our retailers, enabling shops to take on our brand at any point throughout the season and maintain a healthy margin too!

We’re always on the look out for quality retailers in the UK, Europe and Worldwide – so if you’re coming to Bubble London we’d love to meet you. We can be found right at the front of the show on stand D-5. Piccalilly as a brand is multi-faceted and works on many different levels. If you’re simply after great looking products packed with colour and bags of style we’ve got plenty to choose from. But scratch a little deeper beneath the surface and you’ll find so much more

• The highest ethical standards across our entire supply chains
• The very best quality premium Fairtrade certified organic cotton
• A sustainable approach to business from start to finish
•  A different way of doing things – we call it ‘The Piccalilly Way’
•  Great looking designs that are comfy to wear and make children look like children
•  A genuine desire to make a difference and be the very best we can.

Here’s to a great show!

What a great name Piccalilly is – Well we think so anyway! And like proud parents a lot of thought went into this name.  A business you see is very much like a newborn child. You’re never quite sure at the start what you’re going to get, what its personality is going to be, how it will grow, what temperament it will have. At the start it’s hard to imagine how that baby will grow and what it will become. But get that name right and it will fit for ever.

But choosing that name in the first place can prove challenging. It’s our first real test as parents and feels like a big responsibility.  What we’re after is a name you’ll love for life. Should it be traditional, popular, unique, cool or unusual? It’s a really big decision in the run up to giving birth and inspiration can come from anywhere.

Whilst my daughters names were inspired by our family tree (Tiree & Cicely) Piccalilly less traditionally came from a cook book! But the minute we stumbled upon ‘Piccalilli’ it met with all our expectations of what the business should be – and more! Piccalilli you see is a fabulously British relish. It contains brightly coloured spices such as turmeric and mustard which nod to our clothing’s production in the east. The name is fun and playful, perfect for baby and children’s wear and has bags of flavour and personality.  And most importantly this name was thoughtfully picked to allow us to grow our business and evolve as the business establishes its roots and evolves.

So like proud parents – we’re pleased with our baby’s name! And our newborn baby is a baby no more and is growing up and blossoming and becoming everything that we imagined it would be- and much more!

Le dernier dimanche de mai, c’est celui que les français ont choisi pour rendre hommage à leurs mères. Dans le reste du monde, ce sont d’autres dates, d’autres origines, mais toujours la même façon de fêter les mamans.

Les Anglais ont célébré la fête des mères à la mi-mars (qui correspond au 4ème dimanche de Carême). C’est une histoire assez différente de celle de la France qui est à l’origine de ce jour où, comme chez nous, ils offrent des fleurs et des cartes de voeux à leurs mamans.

Si la fête des mères à été rendue officielle en France en 1950, après une forte communication politique de Pétain et de sa devise “Travail Famille Patrie”, elle existait déjà en Angleterre au XVIè siècle. La coutume voulait que les apprentis et les serviteurs, qui travaillaient chez de riches propriétaires, rendent visite à leur famille le 4ème dimanche de Carême. C’était aussi l’occasion pour eux de rendre hommage à leurs mères. Ce jour de l’année, qui était alors appelé le “Refreshing Day”, est aujourd’hui connu comme étant le “Mothering Day”.

Tout l’équipe de Piccalilly souhaite une joyeuse fête des mères à toute la France!

Faites-lui plaisir avec de joli peignoir en coton bio.

Cuando una conoce pocas cosas de un país, quedan estereotipos, fotografías e imágenes de la capital. Por ejemplo, en Inglaterra, quisiera ir a Londres, ver el Palacio de Westminster (¡y Big Ben!), la Catedral de San Pablo… ¡Y claro que pronto iré! Por el momento, estoy en el norte de Inglaterra, en una región muy pintoresca que se llama North Yorkshire. Aquí están mis primeras impresiones sobre esta región en la que paso unos meses, para mis prácticas en la empresa Piccalilly.

El paisaje

Aquí, lo más impresionante, es este paisaje verde, que el relieve de las Yorkshire Dales hace tan hermoso. También creo que nunca en mi vida había visto tantos carneros (¡es que en la región de Francia en la que vivo hay más bovinos!). Esto forma parte de la atracción del North Yorkshire y de Settle.

El clima

Pues, es un poco como en mi región: ¡muy inestable! Cuando llegué, el cielo estaba muy nublado. Pero cuando había un poco de sol, los colores que aparecían en las montañas eran muy hermosos. En este momento, hay sol y hace mucho calor. La gente nada en el río Ribble. Pero dicen que esta semana, ¡va a hacer frío de nuevo!

La gente

Primero, es muy amable, muy simpática. Estoy hablando del equipo de Piccalilly pero también de la familia con la que vivo.

Luego, está el té. Tal vez ya sabéis que en Francia nos gusta mucho el café. Es indispensable en la casa así como en el trabajo. Pero esto no es nada cuando lo comparamos con el consumo de té aquí en Inglaterra. ¿Sabíais que cada día se bebe 165 millones tazas de té en el Reino Unido?

Y para terminar, hay algo que me fui a buscar a Inglaterra: el humor inglés. Siempre me interesa cuando se trata de humor. El de los ingleses es conocido en el mundo entero, y este estereotipo es una verdad que he encontrado aquí en el North Yorkshire.

¿Ya fuisteis al North Yorkshire para trabajar, o para visitar? ¿Cuáles fueron vuestras impresiones?

Ambleside