Time for some more reviews in brief because I’ve been lucky enough to holiday some beauties here recently and I just have to write about them. Here it’s the tale of two linen lovelies, Sling Studio’s Punk Greenday and Spots n Stripes Solent.
When I was at Sling It recently Hilary of TigerPig Creations had her Punk Greenday proto there and I touched it out of total pervy curiosity as the Punk design has always intrigued me. Punk was born as a homage to the wit, naughtiness and edginess of British fashion, its quirky sub cultures, and in particular it called on the influences of Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen.
Hello! Ears pricked up, my heroes get a proper wrap check! Henceforth the Punk design incorporates the recognisable Enfant Terrible signifiers such as a tartan (but constructed from chains) and badass, voluptuous roses with stamens of leering little skulls. It’s a wrap that mimics what I aim to achieve with my wardrobe and jewellery, a sense of the traditional, somewhat pretty but with a biting edge, an edge that offers the wearer a certain protection. Heaven.
So I touched Greenday at Sling It, and recoiled. It was stiff, rough like sandpaper. I decided it embodied all I feared about linen wraps and politely turned my attention elsewhere.
A couple of days later I got the opportunity to holiday and break in a Sling Studio Spots n Stripes (SnS) Solent that the owner was hoping to soften up. I like a bit of breaking in as it gives me a daily wrap mission to wear the hell out out of a single wrap, with the by product that I get to know it well. It’s also very satisfying to send it on that little bit softer.
I’ll admit that SnS had been a design to completely pass me by. I’d see it on the groups and think, gosh it looks a bit different, almost eighties, and something else but, never quite putting my finger on it, I moved on. I was also wary because it was a linen wrap and well, linen can be diggy. Regardless, who wouldn’t holiday a wrap so I said yes please and looked forward to its arrival.
When it came my indifference turned to a pitter patter heartbeat because up close SnS is wonderful. The design is a series of swooping lines that crisscross across the wrap, picked out and accented by contrast lines and dots. It is a design I later found out to be based on an Alexander McQueen piece. Pitter patter went my heart again. The lines in Solent are black on a crisp white background but the contrasts and dots picked out in cream, grey and silver. It is a stunning wrap to examine as the weave is also very clever, full of texture with a lovely diagonal stretch.
The first up was a bit of a wrestle as it was still quite stiff but after that it got better with passes moving more easily into place and once there it held like a trooper. Solent was a size 3 and, determined not to be a lazy bum and just ruck it for the week, I tried as many carries as I could to make sure I was using as much of the wrap length as possible to help break it in. Therefore I finally made peace with a Reinforced Rear Rebozo Rucksack with a candy cane chest belt or RRRR with a CCCB as it’s more catchily known. I had tried this carry as part of the thirty day wrap challenge and it didn’t feel secure. In the intervening time I had finally got to grips with a good seat and tightening a rebozo pass so this time an RRRR felt amazing. Smallest was up high, extremely comfortable and the CCCB helped to distribute her weight. Not once did the linen blend bite my shoulders, not once.
I romanced that Solent hard for the week or so it stayed here and if I’d had the funds I’d have bitten off the owner’s hand to buy it; I felt so glamorous wearing it. It was also the wrap that changed my view on traditional (not lazy) linen wraps and how great a size 3 could be.
Fast forward a few weeks and Hilary put up a post inviting hosts for her Punk Greenday as she wanted help breaking it in after a recent wash. Oh yes please said I. I was second on the list and well prepared for a wedge of cardboard wrap to arrive but it wasn’t quite so. Seeing the design and the length of wrap (it’s a 5) I was madly compelled to wrap myself up in it and prance about. As you do (first photo). The violently vibrant acidic turquoise green was fabulous and I loved the design all over again.
The first host had done a good job of softening Greenday up however it was still a bit of a heated, red faced, struggle to get my eldest up in a double hammock; she’s always game for a carry in a new wrap. She also gives you feedback such as “mummy ow ow, it’s pinching my legs”. Yes I know lovely but I’m just adjusting it. Ahhhhhh, that’s better. I straighten up and she cuddles in. That day she had been at nursery and was exhausted. She threw her arms around my neck as I swayed and she watched some Octonauts. I felt her breathing slow and become sleepier. I closed my eyes and smiled. A few days later she asked for front cuddles and we did much the same, swaying and cuddling in a FWCC. Greenday held her weight effortlessly and she was obviously very happy in it.
I asked Hilary for her thoughts on these two wraps and she of course nailed her comparison.
I’m sitting in the floor of my studio regarding Spots n Stripes and Greenday, and wondering what, if anything, else one could possibly say. I think there is a sliding scale in SS linen, with (obviously) the lazy linens at one end and Greenday at the other.
Spots n Stripes falls somewhere in the middle – although it’s a bit stiff loom state, it’s a kind of thin stiffness: less beastly that the green one. 300gsm vs 320gsm, so it stands to reason.
I love how you’ve picked up on the stretch of spots n stripes – I think it’s amazingly mouldable, almost lycra-ish. When I see it I think of someone wearing it as a bodycon dress and a big floofy hat at the races or Henley Regatta.
Working with Greenday gets easier each day; I have been a very diligent host and wrapped with it as if it were my only wrap. It positively rocks a double hammock with just the right amount of stretch but I do sometimes need help getting the second pass over high enough. It does a brilliant ruck tied Tibetan for the fast morning commute; I’ve realised I like my linen with some grunt because the support from a punk is unsurpassed. I’ve walked for hours in it and it’s been solid, dependable, comfortable and absolute fun. Yesterday Smallest was up for the walk around the river and canal and she swayed herself to a mesmerised nap. I treasure these times.
I’ll be so sad to say goodbye to Greenday, but I do hope to say hello to Punk again soon, as if there’s one wrap design that is the epitome of a perfect collision of fashion and motherhood then Punk is it.
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