A little while ago we asked a few of our favourite picture taking mums to collaborate with us - celebrating our coloured classics and their creativity with a camera. We wanted to find out more about the women behind the images on some of the Instagram accounts we follow daily.

Charisse Goings is a full time working mum to her 3 children, Marlee, 7, Avery, 5 and toddler Jett, 1.  Charisse selected Amy & Ivor Black Classics for Jett to wear.

 Charisse is an engineer by day and a creative by night.

 “I mostly work on kids lifestyle blogging projects. I have some exciting things coming up...! I also love capturing my little squad whenever I get a chance”

Tell us about family life and how you fit it all in as a working mum. 

Life is busy! I'm a working mom, trying to find an optimal work-life-mom-wife balance (if that's possible). It's pretty non-stop during the week with work, school pickup, homework, extracurricular activities, cooking and housework.

The weekends are for family time. We love going out for brunch, exploring the different cultural events in the city, or having a simple movie night!

What is your favourite thing about motherhood?

I love raising little humans! Watching their personalities develop and watching them grow intellectually and emotionally is most rewarding. I love reliving those old childhood memories.

How did you discover Amy & Ivor?

I came across Amy & Ivor while exploring some of my favourite accounts on Instagram. The High Tops are by far the best-designed moccasin that I've come across. The modern style along with the quality material and craftsmanship is what makes Amy and Ivor stand out from other moccasins. 

 Tell us about your inspiration for this series of images.

 I wanted to capture our slow Fridays, which are usually spent at the park, walking around the lake, swinging on the playground and eating lots of snacks! I included some of my favourite fall colours and pieces from Bobo Choses.

Charisse captures more of her beautiful family and their adventures on her blog growingupgoings.com

Follow along with Charisse’s family adventures on Instagram @reeseypiecey

 

Jet wears Amy & Ivor classic styles in Black. Travellers, High Tops, Traditional Moccasins and Laced Moccasins. 

This season our collection is entitled 'Garden Party’.  If you have followed our brand over the past years you will know every season we try to create something that is new and totally different to other shoes you find out there. At our heart, we are a creative brand making all of our product in-house ourselves. 

This season's collection is a super stylish collection of soft-soled footwear, many of our signature styles reworked in the prettiest hand-painted prints.  A hazy nostalgic vibe dominates.  Florals to evoke modern mood chinoiserie with a hazy nostalgia, and memories of your grannie's china tea set but true to brand you will find fresh modern natural footwear that is designed to be worn, while each pair of shoes is also a beautiful object in its own right.  If you are looking for that perfect first pair of shoes that you might just want to keep on the shelf to remember how little your babies feet once were - these are the ones!  Contemporary classics that are oh so special!

I was super excited to shoot and style this seasons campaign myself.  Styling the little ones in gorgeous Coco & Wolf clothing with Camomile London bedding.  I wanted to evoke feelings of nostalgia through a misty lens, a vibe that was somewhere between the opulence of a previous century, mashed up with a slight 50s and 70s soft feminine and romantic feel. Classic in many ways and yet totally fresh and new.   I imagine all of the shoes would work wonderfully worn with simple casual outfits such as jeans and a plain white tee.  But in the shoot, I wanted to create something that was as pretty and delicate as the shoes that I designed.  Almost over the top pretty.

Clothing in the shoot came from my dear friend Amy at Coco & Wolf, specialised in making Liberty baby wear and interiors (you need to check out her bedlinen too!) her style is traditional and classic but always modern and fresh. Camomile London makes gorgeous bedding, quilts and cushions and more, all in gorgeous hues. A creative mother and daughter team who have combined their experience and skills to create this beautiful brand.  Classic and timeless - if you are anything like me then you'll want it all.

This is hands down our prettiest baby shoe collection to date. You can see the rest of the lookbook here and shop the collection here. We are really enjoying seeing your little ones wearing them!

So excited that today our award winning soft soled kids footwear brand Amy & Ivor is joining forces with our accessories Hedley Field.  

We are finally joining up the dots and linking both of our product collections and brand names under the one Hedley Field umbrella. Here is the low down on why we are making the switch.

As many of you know we have been making Amy & Ivor baby moccasins and footwear since 2013.  The business started pretty much accidentally when I made my two baby daughters some little soft red leather moccasins. I did not have the plan to sell to them but when their shoes started attracting so much attention I thought 'ok let's see what happens...'  at that point there is no way I could have imagined how much we would achieve in these 5 years or even that so many people could love something I had made with my two hands.

We had a trademark complication two years ago with the name Amy & Ivor (although we do now own the trademark). We were in a position where we could not expand in the natural direction we would have wanted to take with the brand because of being blocked by another company who hold a very similar trademark.  So the decision was made that we would need a new name. 

We set up Hedley Field a second company one year ago, in our family name.  The idea (aside from wanting to make myself a buttery soft handbag) was to give us the scope to expand our product offering while supporting the Amy & Ivor business.  Both of the product areas we make support each other. Because we are very fussy about the leather we use to make our baby shoes, it works well to have both products being made in harmony. 

We can make perfect accessories from the slightly tougher parts of the leather hide that are not perfect for our tiny shoes. Our shoes are preferably made in the finer grained more supple parts of the hide.  And vice versa.  In terms of handmade production and minimising waste, it is really a match made in heaven.

We started Hedley Field very slowly, using a slightly different business model to Amy & Ivor, where still every shoe is handmade to order. With Hedley Field, we make small batches of product which is then personalised to order.  Hedley Field accessories have been very well received by all who have bought them so far - which has been amazing!  And I have been enjoying having a new business which has allowed me to work once again on a very small scale handcraft business model.

I have loved having the chance to be very present in all of the processes and in close contact personally with my customers. When you have a small handmade business to hear genuine reactions and feedback first hand is the most rewarding thing. It is something that feeds back into the creative process and adds fuel and momentum. When the chips are down this part has always kept me going.

SO this feels like we are at the start of something new. We are very excited where this next leg of our business journey takes us.  We hope you enjoy being able to find all of our products to buy in one place.

Thank you all so much for always cheering us along and for all of your support of both of our brands.

Big Love!
Alice, the Hedley Field family, and the Amy & Ivor team xx