Clvr Interview

Clvr Q&A with Holli Gibson, creator of LamanBlu children’s clothing line, and designer on the verge of greatness…if you help her (yes, you)

LAST UPDATED ON TUESDAY, 22 MAY 2012 06:11 WRITTEN BY LIZ WEDNESDAY, 23 MAY 2012 10:00

Designing clothing is no undertaking for the faint of heart, especially designing clothing for some of the market’s toughest customers: moms. Vision and fortitude are both necessary qualities in this industry, where moms demand clothing that is at once comfortable for their children, healthy on their skin, easy to wash, can stand up to rough play, and is above all, cute. 

One woman who understands this more than anyone is Holli Gibson, creator of the LamanBlu eco-friendly children’s clothing line, and a mother herself. Holli has somehow – brilliantly – designed a clothing collection that fits the description above. LamanBlu pieces are fundamentally wearable, adjustable, useable, washable, playable, AND adorable. THESE are the clothes you want to buy for your children.

“So why haven’t I heard of LamanBlu yet?” you may be asking yourself. Well, the line is relatively new, debuting in 2009. And it’s currently only available online and through upscale specialty boutiques. However, Holli now has the opportunity to take her collection to the next level and show at the prestigious ENK Children’s Club show in New York in July. This will propel LamanBlu further than ever, potentially into stores nationwide. This would be a dream come true for Holli, who has been designing for other companies her whole professional life. Now it’s her turn. But it’s not that simple.

Holli needs help – $4,000 worth of help – to get LamanBlu to New York. Still essentially a startup, LamanBlu is on the cusp of greatness, but needs a helpful push. Holli hopes this push will come from people willing to pledge $1 to $750 (and up) through Kickstarter.com, the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. Offering various prizes for different donation amounts, Holli is raising funds just as creatively as she designs clothes.

Learn more about Holli and LamanBlu below, and find out how you can help get them both to New York in July.

To read the entire article - follow this link:  http://style.clvr.tv/clvr-qa-with-holli-gibson-creator-of-lamanblu-childrens-clothing-line-and-designer-on-the-verge-of-greatness-if-you-help-her-yes-you/ 

Help LamanBlu Show at Children's Club - a Kickstarter Campaign

Help LamanBlu show at Children's Club - Kickstarter

We've been invited to show at the prestigious ENK/Children's Club wholesale tradeshow for several seasons now. We've been holding back for a few reasons, it's an exceptionally expensive show to attend for one, and as it's the top show of it's kind in the US, we wanted to make sure our production lines were up to speed to make sure we could properly handle the increase in orders and production quantities without any hiccups.  We're ready.  We're attending the show in August.  Now we've launched a Kickstarter campaign to help pay for this show.  The campaign won't cover the entire cost of the show by any stretch of the imagination, but we feel like we can successfully raise the $4,000 we've asked for and we feel like folks who participate in our campaign will get a couple of great returns out of it - in addition to our most sincere thanks of course.  This show will help LamanBlu grow to the next level and expand our reach nationally and internationally - which means you will be able to purchase LamanBlu in a store near you!  It also means you're going to get great LamanBlu merchandise in return for your donation!  Check out our video here and click the link below to find out about the cool LamanBlu products you can receive in return for your donation.

Thanks for helping us reach our goal!

Spring has finally sprung (in the mountains)!

So I know all my Texas friends are laughing now - it's been spring there since early March and they're already calling it summer.  And when we lived in Texas, we would have already broken out the boat and we'd be spending weekends at the lake.  Not so much here in the Rocky Mountains (especially at an elevation just below 9,000 feet).  BUT the snow has finally melted (save a few patches in especially shady areas of the woods) AND the hummingbirds have arrived!  The first to show up is always our little Rufus (they make a trilling noise as they zoom around).  And he's busily trying to keep all the other hummers away from the feeder - time to put out lots of feeders!

Other signs of spring - the aspens have still tiny leaves on them, the deer are jumping into the horse paddock to sneak a lick of the salt block, the bears got into the trash that we foolishly put out too early in the morning.  The horses are almost shed out - (I think I could have made another horse with all the hair I combed off them).  Oh yes, and the chipmunks are playing rousing games of hide and seek!

Here's wishing everyone a happy end of the school year and a start to summer fun!

Paper on Parade at the Denver Art Museum

On spring break a couple of weeks ago, we had so much fun spending the day at Denver Art Museum to work with the family program and create "Paper on Parade".  We spent the whole day in their studio celebrating the Yves St. Laurent exhibit.  We had all sorts of paper, colors, jewels and other fun things to work with the kids to help everyone create their own paper fashions.  We also had a real runway and held I think 5 fashion shows during the day so everyone could show off their creations.  The kids were all so amazing and so creative!  Here's a peek of our day:

LamanBlu's Fashion Paper Dolls for Spring 2012

So we did it! 

We've been having so much fun with all of our life size paper doll projects - at schools and at the Denver Art Museum that we can't stop.  We've created our first paper doll book!  And we want to share it with all of you (just in time for a quick download to add to the Easter basket).

Open publication - Free publishing - More lamanblu

We're pretty enamored with it - and I hope your kids have tons of fun!  This is a free book to download - so the great thing about that (besides that it's free, of course) is that you can use it over and over again!

We'd suggest printing the dolls on a sturdier paper - photo paper perhaps and printing the clothing on regular paper.  If you prefer, you can also print the dolls on regular paper then help your kids glue to cardboard from a cereal box to make them sturdier for play (that's what we used to do when we cut paper dolls out of the newspaper when I was a little girl).

There are three LamanBlu fashions for each doll, plus one blank dress for your child to design and decorate (bring out their inner fashionista!)

Happy Easter, and enjoy!

Invitation to Join LamanBlu at the Denver Art Museum to Celebrate the art of Fashion Design and the career of Yves St. Laurent

Guess what?!  We are so excited to be partnering with the Denver Art Museum during Spring Break to celbrate the art of Fashion Design and the career of Yves St. Laurent!  We want to invite you all to join us for the most fun project - we will be working with the children to design their own fashion creations on giant paper dolls.  Then we'll hold a fashion show and your child can model their paper doll creation on the runway!  The paper doll project will be held on Friday, March 30th from 11am-3pm.  I can't wait to see you and your kids there!

By the way - we ran a test of this project in my daughter's kindergarten class a couple of weeks ago - they had a ball (I had just as much fun as they did).  Here are some photos of their amazing and creative work!

I hope to see you on March 30th!!!

Salu,

Holli