The other week we had a very special wrap come to visit, a new tester from Liora Rae Wovens - Bloom. Liora Rae are a relatively new brand designed and produced in the UK by Natasha Stoller. While Liora Rae was born last year, I only encountered them for the first time a few weeks before when I met Natasha by pure chance on a family day out. In general my own wrap collection largely comprises very newbie friendly wraps, lots of stripes and or wraps with teaching rails. So I was really excited to get to try one of Natasha's beautiful, luxurious wraps.
Bloom is a unique marriage of floral and geometric prints, in a deep plummy purple and a pale duck egg blue. The colours are far more vibrant in real life than any of the photos I'd seen prior to it arriving. And while I am not normally a big floral/chintz sort of a person, the detailing on the flowers is simply exquisite and really won me over. I loved how more of the creamy warp shines though the weft threads to give that detailing.
Aesthetics aside, Bloom is composed of 76% combed cotton and 24% Egyptian combed cotton - so nice and easy care (always a win in my book) - and is a fairly heavy weight wrap weighing around 320 gsm (grams per square meter). In hand it felt thick and 'waffley' in texture, which lends Bloom a lovely spongy and cushy feel and not at all beastly considering the thickness. In all honestly, it was thicker than I'd usually go for Rachel at just 9 weeks old. But with Tom (who is 17kg and will be 4 next month) it was brilliant. Very supportive with excellent grip and sponginess lent by the waffley texture meant that this rocked in back carries. Zero sag and soft on the shoulders! I would really recommend this wrap for a bigger kid or in a shorty size for just about anyone.
For a newborn I did find it a bit too all encompassing, just maybe a bit too thick and too rigid for my tastes with a 9 week old. But that said it was so supportive, I could wear her in it four hours and hours without anything moving. In fact I realised most the time I'd just tie a single knot. The grip was so good a double knot just wasn't needed! I also found it very forgiving - you didn't have to get the tightening perfect for it to be comfortable.
My real worry with thicker wraps is always how much work will be involved in breaking the wrap in. But let me allay your fears on this one! I think I was only the 2nd or 3rd person to try it and while Bloom was still clearly breaking in, it already felt pretty great and I really felt it transform during the week we were using it. Certainly not the long drawn out epic battle to break in that I usually associate with heavier weight wraps... Bloom seems to soften up pretty quickly and once fully broken in I am sure it will add buttery softness to this waffley-spongey feel.
-Madeleine
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