babaà founded by textile designer Marta Bahillo is a small label from Spain, specialised in making quality knitwear for children in 100% natural materials. Find out about this slow fashion collection with delicious textures, colours and pieces made to last.
Marta worked as a knitwear designer for several companies in Dublin and Buenos Aires. She moved to Madrid to combine her passion for knitwear and the possibility to look after her one year old daughter. That’s how she launched her label.
“I worked with many knitwear companies in Uruguay, all beautiful and so professional many of them carrying truly amazing yarns so when I started babaà I tought I wanted to keep working with them but it turned out to feel more natural to look for the wool that was still available in Spain since I am here now. I work with local artisans and use the very few wool yarns left in Spain”.
Marta is very attached to sustainability for her label, so it is important to her to keep using a local wool. She’s produces enough now that she can work with artisans to develop her own babaà colours since all the wool is spun and dyed by them. She buy most of the cotton locally as well, un-dyed for a big part.
“I keep looking for local Organic wool and quality yarns , however I am about to start to use this amazing new wool from an ancient Woolen Mill from Ireland and I am happy about it. I am a member of Ethical Forum Fashion so I am hoping to get some good contacts for Eco wool through them”.
Running a small knitting label might sound an easy thing, but it is actually more complicated than it seems. Marta works hand by hand with the knitters as she develops her textile samples often mixing yarns in a very specific way. It’s a team effort to identify the best way to bring all into production, in a way that is appropriate for children´s wear.
When babaà was launched in Oct 2012, it was with a timeless collection in mind, but the success of her creations made Marta understand the necessity to work within the fashion calendars to satisfy buyers and consumers, constantly hungry for newness.
Plans for the brand are to participate to Playtime in Jan 2015 and to turn babaà into a successful business. Before babaà hits the shelves of all the top children’s stores, enjoy the images of the AW15 collection called “…and then we went home and lit a fire”!
Florence Rolando
I founded Pirouette Blog in November 2008. Today I am a contributor, looking with delight how the blog is developing with Katie as the new boss!
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