How Babymel started.
There was once a little girl called Melanie, who had an even littler brother, Melvin. They lived with their mummy Suzi in a very tall, very narrow terraced house in Camden Town in North London. Their home was a bright shade of sunflower yellow.
It was the Spring of 2006, and Melanie and Melvin liked nothing more than trips out with Suzi to the park, the playground, a museum or the nearby shops.
The problem was that Suzi tended to get a little bit frantic before leaving the house, and time would often slip away while bottles, clothes, keys and toys were stuffed beneath their buggy, into mummy’s poor handbag and sometimes even into the arms of Melanie and Melvin, who hated carrying anything!
One day, Melanie and Melvin came up with a brilliant plan! What their mummy needed was a bag with lots of pockets and room for nappies, wipes, snacks and toys, much like Mary Poppins, which would hold all of her belongings too. They carefully drew her a picture of the bag they had imagined, and called it ‘Babymel’.
Suzi was delighted, and added to the design wipe-clean linings, a padded changing mat, insulated bottle holder and built in stroller straps as extra features to help them on their adventures together. She took the drawing to her friend Amanda, who was very crafty and an excellent seamstress. Together they made the first Babymel bag, which was called the Amanda bag in her honour.
When Suzi showed her friends her Babymel bag, they were all in awe of it, and begged her to design more bags to suit their needs. So came the Katie bag, the Ella, the Ruby, Wendy and the Camden Carryall. The X2 was made especially for twins, and even won Suzi an award for its innovative design! For dads, Suzi designed the Compton and the Soho Messenger. Life had never been more fun!
In the September of 2012, on the morning of Melvin’s first day at school, Suzi presented her beloved children, who had brought her so much joy, with their own little bags to help them on their new adventures together. As Suzi watched them skip off into the school’s playground, and headed home to work on her latest designs, she felt very happy indeed.
