A Patterntastic Afternoon at Cosatto Towers
Every so often you get a lovely invitation which gets you a little excited and a few weeks ago, when I was enjoying the perfect day out, I happened to check my email and saw one such message.I live in Farnworth, a small town near Bolton which also happens to be the home of the headquarters of one of my favourite baby brands, Cosatto. In fact I can get to their offices in a less than ten minute walk so this was that very rare event - a blog event where I didn't need transport!
So the lovely Dawn from Mummy's Little Peeps arrived at my house, my little people were collected by their grandparents and we set off on our 'scenic' walk through the park. In around ten minutes we were at Cosatto Towers,a familiar building to me and one which shouts their slogan 'saving the world from boring baby stuff' to the world, and yes, that is a typical June afternoon sky in Farnworth.
Once inside we met up we were greeted by the lovely Cosatto team, some of whom I've met a couple of times over the last few weeks. We had the chance to sip Prosecco and eat tasty canapés, as well as meet up with some of my favourite local, and not so-local, bloggers. Very soon it was time to take the slide down to the showroom. Yes, the slide. Cosatto staff get to slide downstairs, of course we all had to try it out!
We were here to see the brand new range of products for Autumn/Winter and I can safely say that none of us were disappointed. In typical Cosatto style their new designs were bright, colourful and highly desirable! There were brand new products in addition to new designs of existing favourites like the Yo! Stroller and updated Supa Noodle highchair. We have a Babi-pop Noodle highchair at home and I was really pleased to see the improvements that have been made in the restyling of this already fab highchair. Another favourite was the Yo! Pushchair's redesigns -Pow, All Star and Monobloom. Pow is perfect for Cosatto's brand ethos - a superhero stroller for to help with saving the world from boring baby stuff! Despite having a Yo! Pear Drop at home (review coming soon) I couldn't help imagining Little Miss in the very pretty and girly Monobloom.
We were also introduced to a brand new Cosatto Travel System - the Ooba. I don't think there was a mum amongst us who didn't fall in love with this. This is Cosatto's take on the more luxurious end of the baby market and I feel like they have achieved it in spades. Available in Duck Egg blue or Marzipan yellow the travel system is supplied with carrycot and pushchair seat, with car seat (and isofix base) available to buy separately. The stroller frame is white with accents of the main colour, and has white wheels too. Featuring beautiful punched leatherette with contrasting patterned lining it has a fully adjustable handle, individual raincovers for each mode, a large shopping basket, adjustable cosy toes and matching changing bag. This is the travel system that could persuade me to have another baby and I think we all fell a little bit in love with it. It's available for pre-order at the moment and will be on sale in September. I'm so looking forward to seeing them being pushed on the street although I might have to resist the urge to go over and rave about the pram to unsuspecting new parents!
Another favourite of mine was the beautiful Story Cotbed in Babushka. I adore Russian Dolls and even have a Matryoshka Pinterest board devoted to them. The high-gloss red finish and cute Babushka design would grace any little girl's bedroom and, much as I love our Cosatto Arlo cotbed, I couldn't help thinking how perfect it would be for Little Miss. The design is such that, no matter which stage the cotbed is at - cot, bed, or sofa, you can always see the distinctive Babushka on the red design. The Story cotbed is also available in Yellow with a bright robot design.
Following a fascinating presentation about the design inspiration for the Cosatto range we were finally admitted into a secret room that we had previously no idea existed. Did you know Cosatto owned Koo-chi? Nor me! To me Koochi is that very successful budget, lightweight stroller retailer that you see in airports a lot. Well, no more. Koochi has been repositioned completely as a stylish urban brand which they anticipate will be as popular with Dads as with Mums.
New Koochi is strictly for transport. They have pushchairs, travel systems and car seats. The design can be likened to some of the really cool, urban brands. You can totally imagine Liam Gallagher pushing one of these strollers. Even the changing bags which accompany them have awesome retro styling. I fully expect these pushchairs to be spotted on the streets of Hoxton and Shoreditch after they launch. The colour pallette is really bold - using red, pink, yellow and black - and the attention to detail was terrific.I love the awesome footmuff on the Pushmatic stroller, it looks just like a parka hood and I believe offers a unique selling point for that stroller. It looked so warm and cosy that I wanted to climb in! The big launch of the new Koochi website takes place on the 8th July when you'll be able to see the range for yourself online.
Following all the excitement of the lovely new products we were treated to a scrummy vintage afternoon tea with opportunities to chat to the other bloggers and the Cosatto team. We left for home with a Koochi goodie bag and lots of smiling faces, following one last go on that slide of course!
I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon at Cosatto Towers and am so pleased that they are part of my local community, it's great to have this fantastic brand in my hometown!
Disclaimer: I visited Cosatto as their guest, I have not been asked to write this post and all opinions are open and honest.
