New kids brand on the block : Velveteen

Made out of soft, hand dyed and block-printed fabrics, Velveteen reinvents a repertoire of classic and sophisticated silhouettes for children up to 6 y old. Based in Hong Kong, this young brand launched in 2012 exhibited at Playtime New York last August is growing nicely.

The name comes from Velveteen Rabbit, a classic children’s story in the US and UK. The illustrations are award winning and the images stuck with Laura Eckerman Egloff. “This vision of classic childhood is what inspires Velveteen and I loved that it is also a type of textile as textiles are my key focus in design” says Laura .

Creative Director and Founder of Velveteen, Laura was born in Los Angeles California, studied at F.I.T. in New York, Mount St. Mary’s and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She’s now living in Hong Kong with her husband and their 2 children aged 3 years and 1 year.

In her 20’s, Laura felt a strong need to leave her native California to move to Europe. She initially wanted to move to Paris but found a job opportunity in London and moved within 2 months of deciding to leave the US. In 2006 she was relocated by the same company to Hong Kong on a temporary basis but she met her husband Markus who was also in Hong Kong on a temporary basis from Switzerland.

“I knew from an early age that I needed to be a designer” say Laura.”I graduated school with top honours and promptly set off to study design at FIT in NY – rather than the expected path of an ivy league university. My parents were both educators and, despite their reservations, were supportive of my following my dream”. After studying at FIT, Laura returned home to Los Angeles and fulfilled a promise to her parents to get a business degree. It’s taken her 15 years to extricate herself from the world of Corporate Finance and return to doing what she loves. “I feel as though I have such an amazing balance of creative passion and business knowledge that I guess I owe a debt of thanks to my parents!”. Wise words!

Velveteen is available at Petit Bazaar (Hong Kong), Eggy in Los Angeles, Lester Harry’s in Boston, Carousel New York and The Plaza Boutique in New York.

Laura Eckerman Egloff and daughter

Florence Rolando

Florence Rolando (journalist, co-founder of Bubble Trade Shows) was the original Founder of Pirouette in early 2009. Pirouette blog* has been a reference in the industry since it started with its combined business and consumer view of the children’s market. A fantastic resource for children’s fashion, design, trends and culture, it aims to support creativity and talent but it also does this by talking about life, family, culture and health.

Florence is an international leader in the industry (8 years as a Milk Collaborator, contributor to Naif Magazine in Spain, co-founder of Bubble Trade Shows in New York and London).

Now Florence runs Energy Therapy Porto @enrgy_therapy_porto

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