Lillelam: Wonder wool

By Eva-Kristin U. Pedersen | Photos: Lillelam

Lillelam has for some time now excelled in the area of durable and warm merino wool clothing for children. Recently, the brand also added merino linen to its assortment.

When Pernille Siem became a mother, she struggled to find safe, sustainable and warm clothing for her baby. Thanks to her French mother, Siem had been dressed in soft merino wool herself – but that was nowhere to be found on the Norwegian market.

Siem decided that the best way to fix that was to set up her own company. In 2004, Lillelam was born, and the company now employs five people in the head office and four in the brand store in Oslo, doing everything from design and production to sales.

Designed to last

“Our products are designed to withstand the test of time. We use the cleanest possible treatment processes, as well as ethical and sustainable production methods,” Siem explains.

The result is a collection of clothes in 100 per cent merino wool for newborn babies and children up to six years of age. “It’s really the softest wool available,” stresses the entrepreneur.

No need for frequent washing

Merino wool comes from the merino sheep, whose long and soft fibres are very well-fitting for clothing. Because Lillelam employs a very careful production process, any of its garments can be broken down into compost when, eventually, they wear out. In addition, merino wool is self-purifying and hardly needs washing,

The original collection designed in 2004 is still Lillelam’s best-selling – after 17 years. The design and material were purposely made flexible to allow for a child’s movement and growth. Moreover, the high quality means that Lillelam clothes can be passed down from one generation to the next.

“A customer recently told me that she had one of our dresses, which had been passed on 11 times – a sign that we’ve really managed to achieve our ambition to produce sustainable quality clothing,” says Siem.

Like sleeping in a cloud

More recently, Lillelam developed a unique product: bedlinen for adults in soft merino. These sheets and duvet covers are sold online and in selected shops in Oslo under the brandname Baylon.

“It took us more than three years to develop them, but it was worth it. My daughter told me that it was like sleeping in a cloud,” Siem smiles, adding that merino linen has health benefits: “Even patients with ME or chronic fatigue syndrome have told us that the quality of their sleep greatly improves with our linen.”