What's in your Baby Changing Bag | Designer Edition: TIBA + MARL

“We met during our first jobs at Miss Selfridge when I was a junior buyer and Lydia was starting out as a footwear and accessories designer. We bonded over fashion as we both have a really similar sense of style and our friendship grew from there.  We became mothers at a similar time and started lamenting the lack of decent baby changing bags on the market at the time. There was nothing really cool or unisex that we felt appealed to modern parents with a more pared back, contemporary approach to style”.

“We decided to go with our gut instinct and create a range that we knew our friends and contemporaries (various friends in fashion and design backgrounds, who like us had just become parents for the first time) would like, rather than creating anything similar to what existed in the market. We spent a lot of time testing the bags, and wearing them to parental events – like mothers meetings for example – and we found that people loved the brand and we started to get press in publications like Grazia before we even launched! We ended up with a waiting list of 1000 people before we launched, and there was such a great buzz about our brand, that we started to realise very quickly that parents were really ready for this new direction in changing bags.”

Anna
Our brand ethos is very much about both style and function.   It’s no use having a great looking bag if you can’t fit anything in it! This is especially true of baby bags and obviously our first hand knowledge of what you need to take with you when you’re out and about with little ones gave us the perfect insight.

Lydia
Every feature of our bags is perfectly considered – from the waterproof, wipe clean vegan leather to the insulated bottle pockets and internal laptop pocket.   We are constantly evolving and updating our designs based on customer feedback – a while back we added D-rings on all our bags to make them easier to attach to buggies and more recently we have added a bottle holder to the side of our best-selling Elwood backpacks.

Anna
I think every first-time parent packs EVERYTHING that they have read you need to take out with you. When we first launched T+M, we only had the larger sized Raf weekender in the range, and I quite frequently filled it right up!!! I’m sure there were some non-essentials, but by the time I had got to grips with what I DID need, I had started to potty train my toddler so had to take a potty out with me too! Good thing I had a big bag!

Lydia
I think by the time you have baby number two you realise that you can edit down a little, and if the worst comes to the worst you can always swing by a shop (or ask another Mum!) if you need a nappy or you run out of wipes. Though once you have two little ones you need more wipes than ever!

Anna
Wipes – I remember using Waterwipes – now for sure I would source Eco wipes that bio-degrade. Muslins – so useful in so many ways – as a sun guard on the push chair, to cover up if I wanted to when breast feeding, for all the millions of spillages etc.

Lydia
Obviously nappies – pack loads as you get through so many!! A water bottle as I got so thirsty feeding and didn’t want to have to buy plastic water bottles. Our bags come with lovely padded changing mats – I think I always had a couple on the go, either to use for changing or for the baby to lie on if I was at the park or baby yoga.

HERE