Wow, the Maclaren 2006 line is up on their website, and there are big changes and announcements afoot.
There's the Easy Traveller, of course; Volos are no longer monochrome; there are new fabrics and such, blah blah blah, but the big unveilings are Maclaren Leather and Maclaren by Starck, which has been covered here before.
First, the good dad news: leather. There's a black leather carrier and a bouncer chair, and the CF6506, a "carbon-fibre-skinned" stroller with a leather seat/interior. It's $1,000, or around half the price of the limited edition Ti Techno which came out in 2001. [Insider stroller baseball: this puts Maclaren in competition with their one-time collaborator on the Ti Techno, Bill Amberg, who did the leather, and who's probably best known now for that $400 sheepskin baby carrier that only seems to get used in the last place anyone'd need it, Los Angeles.] Materials here count for a lot, then, because otherwise, the stroller looks pretty unchanged from a traditional Techno.
But to the other big news, which turns out to have NOTHING to do with dads after all: Philippe Starck. In addition to the stroller, there is a quilted upholstered high chair and travel crib, both of which look like throwbacks to Starck's Royalton era [still his best work, if you ask me].
In Starck's statement about the collection, he stands up for children against the onslaught of "yellow elephants, pink ducks, violet mice, light purple whales, green rabbits" by saying;
Children are not cartoons, nor marketing targets. They have other aspirations, other visions, other dreams.Ok, I added the last part, but still, you get the idea.Their mothers as well.
Let us not pollute them.
Why whould a woman as a mother have to transform to become a psychedelic zoo keeper?
And why is a man caring about this child product in the first place? Even though I am a man and the founder of this company was an RAF pilot? Go make your money and leave the children where they belong: with the women! Now i would like some wine and a large royalty check.
Maclaren 2006: Maclaren Leather, Maclaren by Starck [maclarenbaby.com via dt reader meike]
Previously: Starck and the babies; Maclaren's last anti-dad stroller
Fortunately, Little Mary Sunshine (the twin's older sister)arrived at the same time Starck was designing kick-ass cool stuff for Target, and we loaded up on the lot of it - potty chair that looks like Magritte's hat, funky playhouses and tunnels, little Jetson's-looking-car-on-a-stick and more. It's lasted for the little ones to enjoy, thankfully, because there's not a lot of cool stuff around that doesn't fall into the psychadelic zookeeper category. You'd think choices would have expanded in the past 5 years....
[or that Target would've kept producing the stuff. We have that toilet now, too. -ed.]
Am I wrong or does the leather buggy look gawdaful (and quite honestly a little cheap)?
And if the kid is covering all the "luxurious high grain leather," how's everyone going to know how much coin you dropped on it?
Well, let's just hope it comes with a kick-ass raincover.
I love my Quest, mostly because I think it's handles are friendliest to my very tall frame. The Starck handles look slightly different and that worries me.
Then again, who am I kidding? As if I'll ever be able to afford one.
Ditto on the leather comment above. Cheese-a-rama
no global, huh? that always seemed like a smart model to me. Hate the new triumph "theme". Maybe I'll get the volo. my 1 y/o is not leaning back much these days...
The leather Maclaren looks awful. For that matter, so does the Burberry one. And the Starck carry cot, diaper bag, and high chair do not impress me at all. How many other products is this man going to stamp his name on (aside from the baby stuff)??? Seems like his name is everywhere these days.
The Starck travel cot is the first decent looking playpen-type option I've seen, but I can't find more info on the web other than the picture on the Maclaren site. Any idea where I can find out who sells it or how much it costs?
I called Maclaren directly and they said the travel cot will NOT be brought to market. Oh well! Was looking forward to it!