This Home Decor Website Founder Just Launched The Ultimate Baby Shop
Source: AdPro, Jane Keltner de Valle
Photo: Moehlmann at home with her daughter in her nursery. (Brett Wood)
Meet Land of Bébé—the new brainchild from Land of Belle’s Annabelle Moehlmann
For Annabelle Moehlmann, necessity was the mother of invention. Land of Belle, the beloved online home accessories store she founded in 2017, came about when she was planning her wedding registry and couldn’t find a source for all the unique homeware pieces she would discover on her travels. “It started from this really personal experience,” she says to AD PRO. “I thought, why not create this destination for like-minded design lovers who want special pieces made with a real eye to old-world craftsmanship?”
Fast-forward to the arrival of her daughter, Clementine, this past spring, and she was faced with another conundrum. “I was the person who years before being pregnant would kind of wander into Bonpoint and look around. So you can imagine how excited I was to buy clothes for a real baby,” Moehlmann says. “After having her, I discovered so many brands and shopping destinations, a lot of them really small and unknown. I thought why not create something similar to Land of Belle but for babies—this curated shopping destination that has a clear aesthetic point of view where people can discover interesting brands, whether it’s clothing, homeware, or art.” Et voila: Land of Bébé was born.
For the launch, Moehlmann has tapped various artisans to curate and design all manner of precious offerings. There are bedsheets block-printed in India, nursery baskets handwoven in Colombia, an “Italy Alphabet” (the G shows a giraffe in a gondola eating gelato) made in collaboration with illustrator Riley Sheehey, and three dimensional dresses crafted from Paris maps in collaboration with artist Dawn Michelle Wolfe. “A lot of the things are rooted in the idea of wanderlust,” says Moehlmann, “and that we should surround ourselves with things that remind us of our favorite places or places that we want to visit.” There’s also a whole suite of personalizable items—from embroidered baby pillows to placemats—and a holiday capsule of baby clothes and nursery accessories in collaboration with textile house D’Ascoli. Rattan lovers will find baby hangers and chairs—both child- and doll-sized. (What doll doesn’t need a wicker peacock chair to recline in?) In the spirit of giving back, Land of Bébé will be donating 10% of the first month’s sales to Baby2Baby.
“With Land of Bébé, I hope to create a destination for shoppers with a clear point of view that is sophisticated and old-world, but still playful and not at all precious,” she says. That this venture has been nurtured and brought to life in the short time since Moehlmann gave birth is a feat. “It’s been a very, very busy” quarantine, she says with a laugh. “I definitely questioned my decision a couple times along the way, but on the other hand it’s been so much fun to put this together and it’s all really inspired by Clementine. I think when a lot of people buy things for babies it’s an interruption from their aesthetic, and I believe it should be an extension of it. That’s the grounding principle to start this in the first place.”