Exclusively at Cotton and Olive
For the last month, we have been feeling the excitement of launching our brand-new cotton bedspreads. It was something positive uplifting our moods during the pandemic. However, production at the time of Covid has its own challenges as well which have their own tolls on us.
We have been working on developing these new models along with others since July 2021 and they finally arrived at our warehouse in Surrey in February 2021. It was a seven-month-long adventure!
Having proper communication with the suppliers during the pandemic was a major problem in the first place as many of them and their workforce was sick.
We normally supervise the production at every step of the way to make sure the process is smooth and products & colour schemes are coming to life as we planned and quality is up to our standards. During the pandemic, we stuck to the same procedure even though it was much harder for us to be physically there in Denizli/Turkey where our production takes place.
Flying back and forth to Denizli, finding a safe hotel accommodation and a rent-a-car, physically distancing ourselves from the suppliers at the times that requires a lot of time in close contact with the suppliers/weavers were among the challenges we had to face in real terms.
On top of these practical difficulties, we encountered some logistic problems at the handling of these products, too. The time products were ready to leave the Turkish port coincided with the realization of Brexit and the accumulation of the long queues on both sides of the Channel. We had to delay their departure from Turkey a couple of weeks until the backlogs were eased. And they finally made it.
We carried on business as usual as much as we can since the announcement of the first lockdown back in March 2020 and tried to overcome these challenges on the way by sacrificing our family unity.
My husband who is the co-founder of Cotton and Olive and in charge of the production & quality control side of the business in Turkey leg, had to spend most of his time in Turkey while I was busy with the marketing and the daily operations of Cotton and Olive in the UK.
This enabled us to continue having close contact with the production line and enabled us to launch new products in the meanwhile. We worked every single day of the year in 2020 without a day off.
Having our new bedspreads safely placed on the shelves in our warehouse doesn’t mean we came to the end of the story by any means. Now it was my part to play to take their images and launch the products online.
I am not a professional photographer. I only love to take their images while I use them in my own house as a throw or as a bedspread. I believe this aspect of taking their images in their own elements brings life to the products. Even after the professional shoots, I usually keep my amateur images online as I believe they are more personal and homely.
Leyla and Ela bedspreads are named after our 2 daughters. Ela is our younger daughter and the bedspread we named after she is vibrant and buzzing very much like her personality.
Leyla, our eldest daughter, on the other hand, is a more subtle and conservative personality and quite full of character sounded like a perfect match for the Leyla bedspread.
Both bedspreads reflect the happy marriage of traditional weaving technics with contemporary designs. Their quality is something we are pleased with and proud to put our brand on it.
Their feel is soft and cushiony and their style is great both for minimalist and maximalist interiors. Colours are striking yet relatively subdued on a taupe backdrop colour. Patterns are bold and full of charm & character. Their eclectic aura is adorable in bringing the global trends from far afield to your home particularly at the time of travel restrictions.
We hope you love them.
Keep well until the next time,
Ilgen
