We are so excited to introduce our new brand Q&A with Cheline from Little Days! The brand was created by two mothers (Cheline, and Kailin) who sought to create meaningful and unique gifts for their loved ones. We love the thought and care that goes into each of their designs, creating meaningful gifts that share feelings of gratefulness, appreciation, and grounded family values. These are timeless gifts you will cherish long after your little one has grown.
Read everything about Little Days, and our chat with Cheline in today’s Designer Q&A.
What inspired the name of your label?
The joy that accompanies the tiny pitter patter of feet running down the hallway, the uncontrollable giggles that come from deep inside their soft bellies, the sparkle in their eyes when they see something beautiful… it’s the magical journey of little people that inspired our name: Little Days
What made you want to design for children?
We actually had our own independent companies doing very non-children-related jobs before we started Little Days. Kailin had her own fine jewellery business and I ran my own graphic design company. Kailin and I both had our babies around the same time as all of our surrounding friends, and we soon discovered it was getting harder and harder to find unique baby gifts for each another. Going to a friend’s baby shower or first year birthday party, there was always that slight chance that someone else might have brought the exact same phenomenally-reviewed-mommy-approved-Scandinavian-style-inspired gift. This sparked the entrepreneurial side in us. We responded to our personal need for more unique and personalized, practical and beautiful gift items in the market and started Little Days on a hunch!
What is your brand’s mission statement or goal?
Kailin and I are great business partners, not only do we have a tremendous amount of respect for one another, we also share the same vision for Little Days. On top of that, we both have a strong sense of gratefulness for the immense love that surrounds us every day. Even on our worst days, we remind one another how much we are loved, and that helps us not to sweat the small stuff. We do all things in love (except for rushing our kids to get ready for school!), and strive to package that in whatever way we can, so that the person on the receiving end of a Little Days package feels special. We want to help mark all the little milestones of life through our designs, where each celebration becomes a vivid memory captured, treasured and remembered. Our goal is to be the backdrop to life’s most precious moments.
What are the motivations or inspirations behind the designs?
We are mostly motivated by the needs and desires of the five little children we have between us, including the babies and children of our friends and families! Kailin and I love meeting new people, which means we also love hearing about new ideas and suggestions anyone might have for us. We want to create products that inspire people capture the moment via a photo. I used to hate it when my father would include the date and time stamp on his printed 4R sized photos. I always found that glowing red digital font on the bottom-right-hand corner of each photo very distracting, and it annoyed me that my father insisted on keeping that option selected. Ironically, when I look back on these photos now, I truly appreciate having these dates on them! It gives me an immediate perspective of how much time has passed, followed immediately by a sense of wonder as I stare at the photo in a mixture of wonderment and disbelief. We want to provide this exact experience, to help time-mark moments in a child’s life, gifting them that sense of awe and wonder for when they look back on one of the photos taken on one of our milestone blankets. Almost all of our designs are deeply rooted in the sense of gratefulness and the love we want to share with others around us. For example, we love celebrating mothers through our Heart of the Home blanket, we want to thank someone special with our Grateful For You blanket. There are always a million ways to express our feelings to our loved ones, we choose to do it through soft and cuddly personalized blankets!
Is there a style decade you are inspired by?
I would proudly call myself a font freak, because I just love the interplay of thick and thin links that cross one other. I have always been attracted to clean lines that fit well together, which is why the Art Deco styles of the 1920s really appeal to me. You can see this at play in the more font-based blanket designs (such as Heart of the Home, and Love You To The Moon blankets). Because we try appeal to all mommies, we find ourselves inspired more by the feelings that a design emotes, rather than a specific style decade. We are attracted to styles that exude playfulness, warmth, and softness.
What makes your label stand out in the industry?
We currently live in a day and age where pretty much anything is accessible to anyone in the developed world via e-commerce. Kailin and I did our research before we started Little Days, and discovered that although printing and embroidery on blankets is common, personalized knitted cotton blankets were not! We wanted to create products that were long-lasting with no fear of fading. Little Days offers premium quality personalized blankets where every single one of our blankets is knitted using 100% soft cotton. We pride ourselves in the designs we offer, especially in regards to our baby milestone and birth announcement blankets. We offer 2 sizes in every design – a mini size for babies and toddlers, and a standard size for children and adults, as well as have 18 color combinations to choose from.
How does your design philosophy change when creating for boys vs girls?
We believe that love has no labels and we keep this in mind when we design our blankets. Customers always have the option to further personalize their blanket with any color combination of their own preference!
What do you have coming up that you are really excited about?
My manicure this afternoon.
My kids going to bed before 8pm tonight.
Eating hot food.
Netflix.
Kailin and I started our company in Hong Kong when Kailin was still living here. Her husband’s job eventually took them off to Singapore so it made sense for Little Days to start a branch there! Since then we have seen our customer base expand to Northern America, so we are extremely excited about introducing our brand to the US market for the first time in person! You will be able to find us at at the children’s clothing and lifestyle product trade show Playtime in New York this August! Please come and find us to say hello if you’re around!
What is/are your favourite item/s from the current collection?
We have become very eco-conscious as a company ever since we watched A Plastic Ocean. We are dedicated to discouraging the use of single-use plastic, decreasing the amount of plastic we use in our packaging, as well as in our products. With this in mind, our Under The Sea Collection, (which includes a milestone blanket, a nightlight, and a wooden name sign) is our choice of the month!
As with all most parents, we should try to leave the world a better place than when we entered it. As individuals, we can make a difference, whether that is to clean up the environment, work for peace and social justice, or to nurture the inquisitive, vibrant spirit of the young by being a mentor and guide.
We have donated and will continue to donate a percentage of our revenue, plus a portion from our Under The Sea Collection sales to PLASTIC OCEANS. We want to ensure that every Little Days purchase makes a positive impact! Stay connected with us via Instagram or Facebook for our updates. @littledaysshop
For more information, visit their website littledaysshop.com
