WildBird put one print on the whole nursery

There is a stretch, somewhere around fourteen months, where your toddler wants to walk, then wants up, then wants down, then wants up again, and the whole thing happens inside one block. WildBird’s answer to that week arrived yesterday as part of something bigger: a new print called Adelaide, dropped across 18 pieces at once, with a $94 hip seat in the middle of it.

What the print is

Adelaide is a dark charcoal-brown linen with golden ikat roses on it, which sounds like a lot and reads, in the photographs, like something from a 1970s curtain that you would absolutely still buy. It is the opposite of the oat-and-cream you get everywhere else in this category, and it is the reason to care about a colourway launch at all.

The whole room, not just the carrier

This is the interesting bit. Most carrier brands put a new print on the carrier, maybe a sling, and stop. WildBird ran Adelaide down the entire catalogue. The Aerial Carrier and the Toddler Aerial Carrier are $188 each. The Toddler Hip Seat and the Aerial Newborn Buckle Wrap are $94. The Newborn Wrap and Toddler Sling are $84, the Linen Sling is $72, the Mini Sling is $30.

Then it keeps going into the room: a reversible quilted playmat at $98, a quilted blanket at $78, a pregnancy pillow cover at $58, a linen and cotton crib sheet at $54, a quilted sham and pillow at $42, three linen loveys, bear, bunny and kitten, at $28 each, a pacifier clip set at $18 and a linen and maple ring teether at $14.

The hip seat

Worth pulling out of the list, because it is the piece doing real work. WildBird describes it as breathable linen with padded lumbar support, a zip pocket and an adjustable fit. That is a belt you wear, a shelf for the kid to sit on, and somewhere to put your phone and one snack. For the up-and-down fortnight, a hip seat beats a carrier because getting in and out of it takes two seconds rather than a negotiation.

Who this is for

If you already carry and you want one thing that does not look like baby gear, the $94 hip seat is where we would start, and the $14 teether is the cheapest way to find out whether you actually like the print in your house. If you are pregnant and building a registry, the crib sheet and the lovey together are $82 and cover the photographs. We would not buy the matched set. A whole room in one dark floral is a lot of one thing, and the print will look dated before the linen wears out.

One honest note: WildBird photographs its carriers on people, so the frames here are all the nursery half of the collection. The carriers look good too, you just have to go and see them.

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