Merineo sprang to life when founder, Claire Hausler, from a passionate Australian wool-growing family couldn’t find suitable Australian merino sleepwear for her newborn. Knowing babies sleep better in superfine Merino and when swaddled, Claire designed the Merineo swaddle bag with input from experienced hospital midwives, which was successfully hospital trialed at a maternity hospital in Melbourne.
Merineo’s products are made from the softest and most luxurious, superfine merino wool fabrics. Claire wants parents to experience premium, non-itchy, silky soft, superfine Merino to hopefully lead parents to become repeat users of Merino – ultimately supporting the Australian wool industry.
We spoke to Claire about her passion for creating Australian Merino baby clothing, which we proudly stock at TWC.
How do you keep your beautiful products affordable?
As a slow fashion business, we use classic colours to create our baby clothing and sleeping bags, and styles designed for long lasting wear. In steering away from fast fashion trends, we don’t inflate our retail prices to later sell excess stock at heavily discounted prices.
We try to keep our costs low by not using agents to buy our fabrics or to sell our babywear, and we are constantly price checking our inputs, such as fabrics and zippers, to ensure we are keeping our cost to produce as low as possible. We try really hard to pass on any savings to our customers, whilst ensuring we can continue to stay in business delivering quality, Australian made babywear.
Why is wool a safer choice for infant clothing?
Wool is supported by lots of scientific research proving it to be a safer and healthier fibre to use for infants to sleep in, and to wear. Wool is the miracle fibre, helping keep baby warmer in winter and cooler in summer, making it ideal for baby to safely sleep in.
Babies often suffer from eczema, and research shows that 17.5 micron merino actually helps reduce the symptoms of child eczema, which is why we have used the softest 17.5 micron merino for our baby clothing range.
What is your vision for the future of Merineo?
My vision for Merineo is to be the ‘go to’ for quality, Australian made baby sleeping bags and clothing made from Australian grown Merino wool. It makes me really proud to receive feedback about how soft our merino wool swaddle bags and clothing feel, which will hopefully encourage consumers and their friends and family to become repeat purchasers of Australian merino wool products.
Our thanks to Claire for finding the time to chat to us! Find these hard-working, award-winning, Australian Made items in-store and online!