Borne meets the team @Mini-Cycle
Christine, founder of borne kids and Maja, described as “the other half of borne” by Christine were lucky enough to meet Emily Morrice from Mini-Cycle on a Live Instagram chat this week.
The first retailer to stock borne in Canada, Mini-Cycle sell stylish, sustainable apparel from brands like borne that are selected for their eco-friendliness, durability and style – plus they guarantee to buy back from you once your children have outgrown them! A no-waste fashion solution we’re so proud to be part of.
Jab Robitaille, own and founder of Mini-Cycle says she’s hoping to create a closed loop cycle (a mini-cycle) where eventually only high quality, durable kid’s clothes are purchased and reused. The goal is to put an end to fast fashion and all the negative impact it has on society and the environment.
Emily, a mum -of-three herself, wearing a new collection borne T-Shirt in dusty pink, gave us a virtual of their head-offices in Montreal on Tuesday afternoon and followed up with a few questions on a live Instagram feed to introduce borne to Canada and the Mini-Cycle family and to get to know us better.
What motivated you to start Borne?
Christine says, “I have always been a womenswear designer and after having 4 children, I motivated to design an everyday essential kids wear – garments that kids really wanted to wear and that parents loved dressing them in. Everyday Essentials that looked great and performed well! The idea of a sweater and jogger was “borne”, ones that were made of organic cotton only, washed well, were durable and looked good over time, were comfy to wear, mix + matched with each other (and over every season), didn’t fit a gender stereo type (I wanted a unisex collection) and were full of extraordinary details that made the garments look great and practical too. I knew there was a demand as not only being that parent myself, I launched borne through a Kickstarter back in 2016 selling bundles of my first prototypes in mix + match combinations and it was a huge
We are loving the new collection from Borne! What is your favourite aspect of this collection?
Christine loves this season’s colours!. “Mon Orange, meaning ‘World’ in Catalan in Spain, has become a staple colour over the last 3 seasons as it really does mix + match with all the colours, with Sol yellow (meaning sun and in honour of my 4 year old Solomon) is such a happy addition to our Summer 22 Collection. Ocean Blue is another favourite, brighter than our light blue colour from previous seasons,” says Christine. 3.
As parents, we certainly are drawn to the brand, but we'd love to hear why kids love wearing Borne clothing?
Maja says, “We’ve designed garments that are made for adventure, they look great and are in no way restrictive when it comes to exploring the world around us. We’re super proud of all of borne’s extraordinary details incorporated into each of our items that we think make them so unique: Keyring loops for all those treasures our kids are constantly collecting, triple knee pads and double elbow pads to keep elbows and knees super protected and comfy, wide neck openings making for effortless dressing, double waistbands that make sure trousers and shorts stay up but always remain comfortable, adjustable too, so no matter kids body shape, they always fit perfectly. And lastly, all our labels are outside and not inside… need we say more?”
What's one article of clothing from the collection that you're especially proud of?
Christine says, “The Bermuda’s are currently my favourite as we’re all ready for a summer wardrobe and these Bermuda shorts are so comfy as they’re loose fitting, with deep pockets, available in bright colours and have all the extraordinary details included within the design including the triple knee pads which given the slightly more relaxed fit means knees remain protected! My daughter came home from nursery with grazed knees yesterday and pointed out that she’d prefer to have been wearing her borne bermuda’s!” 5.
We're big believers in "Less is More". How does the Borne collection inspire collection?
“We’re all looking at little ways to live better lives and at how our consumption impacts the world we live in. At the heart of it, borne is about making little changes that make a collective difference: through the extraordinary details designed in our garments that both parents and kids love to wear, to investing in the relationships and the people we work with, the raw materials that are sourced, the manufacturing processes used and the packaging that source, always continuing to push the boundaries when designing future collections is important part of our sustainable journey. (Organic Certified Cotton, EcoTex dyes and recyclable packaging are only the beginning for us).”
“And also making sure social footprint remains present (encouraging little borne wearers to make little changes, encouraging a pass on- pass down attitude as part of people’s buying decisions (wearing items for longer by more people), that buying ‘slow fashion’ is an easy and meaningful way of contributing to a change and by donating end-of-season stock to local charities all help towards little changes, helping to make all the difference,” says Maja.
