Tang’ Roulou

Like peeking through a candy coated kaleidoscope, Beijing's Tang' Roulou defines the sweetness of childhood and the charm of hutong life found within the ancient city walls. Inspired by their surroundings and specializing in traditional Chinese-style children's clothing, infant bundle blankets, and cheery lifestyle accessories, designers Amélie Peraud and Pierre-Yves Babin divide their time between creating in Beijing and traveling across China on the lookout for fabrics, ideas and shapes to incorporate into their beautifully-made garments.



Children's wear, the pair recall, was something the French duo fell into quite by accident - although both agree, a very happy one. On arriving in Beijing, Amélie had settled into a quaint hutong where she enjoyed watching neighbors air out bright cotton quilts and gather in the walkways to chat and chase after their little ones. After hearing the news that a friend back home was pregnant, she tapped into this daily inspiration and sought out a tailor to create a traditional Chinese style two-piece clothing set and quilted blanket. "It was not only a gift," she reflects, "but a way to discover Chinese arts and crafts. I made a real personal connection with Chinese culture through this project…I really liked this project so I stayed in Beijing".



Amélie continued to work with the tailor creating children's items and opened a small shop in the courtyard between the Drum and Bell Tower. Pierre-Yves discovered the project and after recognizing a shared love of Beijing life and handmade items, proposed getting involved. He recounts the good luck that followed his joining Tang' Roulou, "A few months after we got associated, the shop next door opened up. It was much bigger, and the best part was it had a huge window in the front." Amélie chimes in, "it was like a big cinema screen of Chinese life! From the shop you could see the two towers, people biking, life…."



Though the GuLou shop has since closed and moved to the more modern SanLiTun, the designers keep their office in a hutong neighborhood. Amélie explains: "We feel that there is a real community in the alleys and that the life is like a village…most of our inspiration comes from the hutongs".

The product range still includes goodies for newborns, like the popular Prince (Wangzi) sleeping bags, featuring a cute pointy hood with traditional frog buttons, and an eminently practical stripe edged bib with a decoratively patch to wipe inevitable mess. Made primarily out of cotton fabrics, Amélie outlines the thinking behind their work, "We do what we think is good, of course it has to be comfortable for the kids, it has to be soft. For the new designs we try to develop something that will add important elements and make the collection more complete".



The label caters to children up to the age of 8 – we particularly love the Chasuble dress, beautifully adorned with cushy polka dots. Amélie laughs, remembering "I had a little girl wearing the sample and she didn't want to return the dress after the fitting! The back was not even finished, but she told me it was very comfortable and freeing…I never got it back!"

The playful designers still find great pleasure in developing new products, which Amélie describes as like "a game of ping pong". Inspiration could come from anywhere and everywhere: a simple spot of color from a cherished Chinese quilt; or perhaps the lively mix and match from a senior hutong dwellers' outfit could prove the creative catalyst for a new design.

Drawing from a library of around 300 floral, dotted, and striped fabrics, materials are purchased in low volumes from local Beijing markets. Pierre-Yves notes that this is by no means a constraint in product development, as the limited quantities push them to be more creative, "…often the result is not the original idea, but we are very happy because it is usually nicer because the process is organic".



It's not just children who benefit from Tang'Roulou's beautiful clothing: the hand embroidery is done by women's' group, Cooperative Baihua in Ningxia which not only provides jobs in rural areas, but allows Amélie and Pierre-Yves to give back to the community. Similarly, a portion of each sale of the women's handiwork on the colourful school notebooks (each decorated with the phrase nuli xuexi, or 'study hard') is donated to the NGO, Children of Ningxia, who provide children with educational scholarships.

With a predominantly China-based client base, Tang'Roulou recently set up shop with online retailer, Taobao. Launched mid-November 2011, the project took many months of overtime, but it seems the hard work is paying off with a steady stream of sales and shipments of beautifully crafted clothes across China. For Amélie and Pierre-Yves, though, their homemade brand means much more than profits alone: "When we see a child in our design, it feel so close, like so different from if we were designing for H&M. We feel so emotional….and we are quite sensitive! It isn't everyday we see someone in our clothes so it is very moving when it happens."



Tang' Roulou items are available at their boutique in Phoenix Design and also in Brand New China in Beijing. To buy online, check out their Taobao here and peek at their daily inspiration on their Weibo here.