Composition: 100 % cotton
Weight: 221 g/m² (counted by us)
Size: 4
Inside-Out Coolest Hip Cross Carry, Rucksack Carry
Do you remember me being extra-excited about Vatanai Unalaska and the wonderful, witty ˈgeographicalˈ names of Vatanai wraps…? After writing the article about Unalaska, I started to google the Vata-names and was eager to know the meaning of Taranaki, awaiting similar revelation as in case of the Alaskan blue whales – something connected to medieval England, Stonehenge, menhirs, etc. To my surprise, Taranaki is in fact the most popular and visited mountain in New Zealand… of course, grey rocks, white snow, but I am kind of disappointed that there is no poetic context of the name as in case of Skye or Reim Labyrinths for example.
When Linda grabbed the wrap, she looked at me a bit suspiciously and said something like: “This is a little too thin, isn’t it?”. The first thing I blabbered was: “Thin Vatanai, good Vatanai.” Well, I was right.
Taranaki is really skinny, soft and pliable, suitable for little babies; however, taking a walk in it with 9kg Emilka in a back carry was surprisingly comfortable, too. In front cross carry with a ring it was OK, too, the wrap held fine in the M size ring, and on my shoulders it felt like wearing a wrap with a much higher weight! I do not usually use hip carries, certainly not for longer walks, but I have to admit that the tying and tightening was very easy, even in the carry I am not used to tie and, in fact, it was the second or third time I tied it for the photoshoot.
The wrap was sliding just enough, held tight in the carry and felt comfortable on my shoulders; however, the single-layer carry was not supportive enough for my toddler – therefore, I would not probably buy it as a universal ˈrucksack wrapˈ. Moreover, it is too ˈwhiteˈ for the purpose of being a toddler shortie, even though the colour is very elegant and suits the ˈLabsˈ the most of all colours in my opinion. On the other hand, Vatanai is no sissy when it comes to laundering of the all-cotton wraps – as far as I know, they ˈallowˈ to wash them at 60 degrees. To be clear, to ˈallowˈ is a different word than to ˈrecommendˈ. Filip Kašlík himself once commented on this topic that the 60 degrees is the temperature the ˈwrap can bearˈ, but it probably is not the best idea to launder it like this every other day. However, in case of some substantial dirt on my wrap I would be able to use a washing programme with higher temperature without being afraid of totally ruining the wrap. Possibility of tumble drying is a very pleasant bonus for us, no-balcony home plants.
What to say at the end? A great, great, great wrap. Aesthetics-wise not really my style, but I would probably get used to it; however, for me a thin Vatanai is a total must-have for a potential second baby!
I hereby want to thank the group Nosíme děti (i.e. We wear our babies) for the opportunity to test the wrap.
