Words by Smiley Team
When entrepreneurs Anna Tizard and Lydia Barron became new mums back in 2015, they couldn’t find maternity bags to fit both their aesthetic preferences and the hoards of baby gear they needed to lug around.
Both had an eye for fashion trends, with Anna working as a bag buyer for Topshop and Urban Outfitters, and Lydia as a designer for brands such as Zara, Jaeger and Sigerson Morrison.
So together they decided to put their skills to good use and answer the calling for functional bags that would be appealing enough for parents to want to keep them well beyond their baby-rearing days.
“We knew we were on to something when before we even launched we were featured in Grazia magazine and had a waiting list of over 1,000 people,” said Anna.
Hence their idea quickly materialised into Tiba + Marl, a thriving business with the capacity to contribute substantially to social and environmental causes.
On 24th March 2021, the designers will launch a new collection of Smiley™ bags bedecked in the iconic smiley face. With every purchase, they will send a copy of the Happy Newspaper to the buyer as well as pupils returning to school post-lockdown.
“We both have two school-aged children so we know first-hand how hard the pandemic and lockdown has been on the younger generation's mental health,” explained Anna.
“We hope that by focussing on good news and setting a positive example we can encourage kids to read The Happy Newspaper and go some small way to make them feel a little bit more positive about things.”
From the off, Tiba + Marl has committed to supporting communities and environmental causes.
“As a brand, we are very socially conscious and work behind the scenes with charity donations all through the year, but we don't really publicise these,” explained Lydia.
Each Christmas they donate £10 from every sale to Family Action as part of the charity’s Toy Appeal, buying Christmas presents for underprivileged children. In the days leading up to Christmas, they donate all profits to Crisis UK, to help fund Christmas meals for people sleeping rough.
To help protect the environment, a portion of the profits from each bag sold goes to three UK-based and international carbon reduction projects, improving biodiversity, air quality and the climate. Partnering with Carbon Footprint Ltd, they are supporting the UK-based environmental company to deliver solutions for carbon management and carbon offsetting across the world.
Look out for their new Smiley™ collection on the Tiba + Marl website from 24th March 2021.
