Composition: 50 % schappe silk, 50 % cotton
Weight: 250 g/m²
Size: 6
Reinforced front wrap cross carry
Not having a single article about such a famous brand as Sling Studio here, on our blog? Almost unforgivable. However, it does not mean that I never held a wrap from this manufacturer in my hand before – on the contrary, it has been quite a long time since I had the first opportunity to try and tie a Sling Studio – well, just as you can see in these photos that were obviously taken quite some time ago. To be clear, this review was written almost a year and a half ago but it had to wait for the photos for such a long time. Yes, that is what takes me so long usually; I am undeniably a kind of a graphomaniac and it really does not take me long to write a review – which subsequently rots in the depth of our archive to be pulled out in the open after I finally decide it is time to adjust and retouch the photos. On the other hand, working on this particular set of photos was a really nice flashback – it was just a few days after Emilka’s first birthday, she could barely walk and babywearing was in fact implied that time. And how cute and tiny she was (not saying she is not cute and tiny even now, but mums of bigger toddlers certainly know what I am talking about 😉 ).
Well then – Sling Studio, British legend of legends, founded in 2012 by a mum of two girls Alicia Jeffrey, that takes pride in using ecological and sustainable materials; one of the “three saints” of the most famous global high-end brands Sling Studio-Artipoppe-Solnce. Of course, nowadays there are much more apt players on the HE field along Sling Studio and the two above-mentioned Dutch brands – mainly able to compete when it comes to the price, because what certainly did not change in time, is affordability of these wraps. Sling Studios are really expensive and tend to stay quite expensive even if you want to buy a second-hand one.
But there is a reason for that – in case of Sling Studio the prices are not high “just because” or because of the brand itself, but because of the price of the yarns they use (count in the above-mentioned eco-bio-social aspect) and the overall quality of the wraps. Sling Studio fans praise the wraps mainly thanks to the fact that they are very supportive despite being usually (relatively) thin. In one word, the have the “vata-magic” I always mention the talking about Vatanai wraps, but in this case a much more global and a bit more high-end kind of magic.
To be honest I could not truly appreciate this kind of magic, but 50 % of silk and in this quality? I do believe it was there. Before I start to talk about the wrapping qualities of this wrap itself, lets have a bit of a “technical” intermezzo – what does “schappe” mean? In short, the silkworms’ cocoons consist of two layers – the inner one contains the finest fibers of the highest quality (called “mulberry silk”) and the outer layer from which fibers of a bit poorer quality are obtained by several different methods. If the method of fermentation is used, the product is called “schappe silk”.
Back to the wrap – it is thin, not much to hold in one’s hands, easy to work with. It is soft, slightly shiny – and yes, quite slippery. The weave is dense and therefore does not seem prone to pulls at all; however, it is too little elastic for my taste. The best word I can find to describe it is probably “firm” – which is not something that must be necessarily negative, but I personally do not prefer it. Bottom line – I was not blown away by the properties of this wrap. Of course, it is a good wrap, we had a good time wearing it but for me, it lacked a certain bit of the true “wow-factor”.
On the other hand, I loved the grey-silver fern! This Sling Studio’s pattern is a real classic; even though several other brands have some kind of fern pattern among their designs, Bracken somehow the most elegant and graceful of them all (moreover in the colourway). Simply said, something the defines Sling Studio as a brand for me. A true piece of beauty!