THE FOLD: PETIT PLI COMMUNITY MAP
We’re so excited to share our community map!
IS YOUR FAVOURITE SPOT ON THE MAP?
Your LittleHuman needs clothing that they can push to the limit, and then at the end of the day is easy to clean. Which is why we devised the Mars Test. If you’re planning on a trip to the red planet you have to get your packing right: your clothing needs to be versatile, comfortable, essential details only, and extremely tough (you’ll be waiting about seven months on Mars for a replacement from Earth). All our garments have to pass this criteria, and added to that they have to adhere to our strict environmental policies.
The most important part! Petit Pli's childrenswear is available in three sizes
If the human in question is aged between the ranges above, select the respective size. If they are about to reach the age range above, size up!
Extremely tough
We use a Ripstop fabric so that tumbling, scraping and sliding doesn’t easily damage it. Ripstop is a special reinforcing technique that makes material resistant to tearing and ripping. We’ve also put hidden reinforced knee patches on our trousers.
Don’t take our word for it. The material was put to the test using a universally recognised system called the Martindale Test, which simulates natural wear and tear, and the overall result is 40,000 Revs under a load of 9kPa. Translated that means that it’s tough enough for heavy duty use in a commercial environment, or scrambling up a rock face.
Soft on the skin
With all this talk about tough and durable you might think this means rough and scratchy. We wouldn’t be doing our jobs well if no LittleHumans wanted to wear our clothing, so we can guarantee that, unless stated otherwise, our clothing can be worn directly against the skin, is soft to the touch and won't irritate, even on a newborn.
Windproof and breathable
Windproofing keeps you warmer, and breathability allows moisture from your body to escape so that it doesn’t sit against your skin and cool you down. Our LittleHuman clothing performs both functions at once, and uses the same material as our MSK (mask) which has been designed to reduce fogging on your glasses whilst performing to a medical grade PPE standard (it lets breath out and stops germs getting in).
Water and dirt resistant
Our rainproof garments have a biodegradable DWR (durable water repellent) treatment applied to them which means that water rolls off the fabric instead of penetrating it, as does oil, grease and dirt. These garments aren’t waterproof, but will protect against showers and splashes.
No harmful substances
To make sure it’s not just kind to the environment but also to skin, we got our material tested and it was awarded an Oeko-Tex 100 rating. This internationally recognised certification means our clothing has undergone testing for a wide range of harmful substances and has passed with flying colours.
Essentials only
All garments are lightweight, pack down to almost nothing, and only have essential detailing (eg ankle cuffs, reflective strips).
After Dark
Keep track of your LittleHuman as the sun goes down with reflective detailing. The Lunar Ice range takes this even further and both the top and bottoms are made from a fabric which mimics ice dispersion on the moon, with millions of tiny dots reflecting the light - the ultimate day to night outfit.
The inspiration comes from satellites which are huge structures that have to be made as small as possible for getting them into space. Material is stowed away and then deployed using origami techniques once they’re orbiting the earth. Our garments use a patent pending structure to achieve a similar effect - as a child grows the structure expands, and adjuster tabs keep the garment in place. This also works in reverse, so for a smaller LittleHuman the structure contracts back down to fit tiny legs and arms.
Our garments have been designed to be extremely easy to care for. Find all our recommendations here.
Extended life:
One LittleHuman garment = seven traditional ones. Clothing that grows benefits us all. It’s not just a way of saving money, but by extending clothing life by nine months alone, carbon and water footprints can be reduced by 20–30% each.
New life:
Each garment is made using at least six recycled plastic bottles. The plastic is turned into a yarn and woven into a ripstop fabric. The recycled fabrics have a mono-fibre construction, which means they’re made from just one fibre rather than a blend, allowing them to be easily recycled at the end of their use.
What kind of world will our LittleHumans grow up in? The negative impact of fashion has been far-reaching, impacting every single human, and now is the time for change. We are committed to using materials sustainably and have worked on every part of the design and production process to eliminate harmful waste that threatens planetary health. This approach is called Circular Design and it goes hand in hand with our Zero Waste approach. Read more about it here.
“I lived on the south side of Chicago, and I was a young girl who loved to stare up at the stars, I imagined myself going there.” - Mae Jemison
Mae Carol Jemison is a doctor, engineer and astronaut. Her eight-day space flight aboard the space shuttle Endeavour in 1992 established Jemison as the United States' first female African-American space traveler.
As a young girl growing up in the 1960’s Mae studied the Apollo program obsessively. Despite Mae’s passion for space travel, at university she decided to study engineering and medicine to become a biomedical engineer. During her medical studies she worked with the flying doctors in East Africa. The experience brought her closer to the stars, but she desired to be even closer.
Soon after Mae picked up the phone and called the NASA Johnson Space Centre requesting an application to be an astronaut and join the astronaut program. To Mae’s surprise the person on the other side of the phone didn’t laugh and she handed in her application shortly after.
When Mae applied to the astronaut program, she didn’t think about the fact whether I would be the first African-American woman in space. Mae just wanted to go into space, she said “I couldn’t have cared if there had been a thousand people in space before me or whether they had been none. I wanted to go.”
When Mae travelled to space to study how astronauts responded to gravity, she decided to take to space things that represented people who sometimes are not included.
Mae took with her:
_ A poster of Judith Jamison - an African American Ballet Dancer, performing the Dance Cry.
_ A Bundu statue, which was for the Women’s Society in West Africa.
_Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority flag. The sorority is the oldest African-American women sorority in the United States.
Being in space allowed Mae to feel very connected with the universe, ‘as much a part of this universe as any stars, any comet.”
Source: PBS LearningMedia
Mae Jemison features in Petit Pli's second comic, Mission 2: Earth’s Hidden Figures for LittleHumans, which highlights the importance and significance of the Black Lives Matter movement.
We hope our comic helps to nurture LittleHumans' innate curiosity and inspires them to never stop asking about Earth's hidden figures.
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“I counted everything. I counted steps on the road to church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed. Anything which could be counted I did." - Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson was an African-American physicist, mathematician and a rocket scientist. She was born Katherine Coleman in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, USA in 1918.
Katherine was a brilliant student, who loved Maths and counted everything. Katherine’s thirst for knowledge allowed her to skip two grades to graduate from high school at age 14, and graduate from university at age 18 in 1953.
From 1953 to 1958, Kathrine worked in a segregated pool of mathematicians referred to as ‘computers with skirts’. However, because of her knowledge of analytical geometry, she was invited to participate in the previously all male editorial board her contributions. They were so important that, as she later said, they forgot to put her back in the pool.
In 1958, Katherine’s office became desegregated, but a glass ceiling remained. In the early days of NASA, women were not allowed to put their names on reports. As a result of her assertiveness, perseverance and the quality of her work, Katharine Johnson became the first woman in her division ever to have her name on a report. Not the first black woman.
During her time at NASA, Katherine was responsible for calculating the trajectory for the May 5th, 1961, space flight of Alan Shepard, the first American in space. She also calculated the launch window for his 1961 Mercury mission. She plotted backup navigational charts for astronauts in case of electronic failures when NASA used electronic computers for the first time to calculate John Glenn's orbit around the Earth; Glenn had asked for her specifically and had refused to fly unless Katherine verified the calculations!
Along with these achievements Katherine co-authored 26 scientific papers. And on May 5th, 2016, a new 40000 square foot building was named and dedicated to Katherine Johnson computational research facility at NASA's Langley Research Centre in Virginia, USA
Source: PBS LearningMedia
Katherine Johnson features in Petit Pli's second comic, Mission 2: Earth’s Hidden Figures for LittleHumans, which highlights the importance and significance of the Black Lives Matter movement.
We hope our comic helps to nurture LittleHumans' innate curiosity and inspires them to never stop asking about Earth's hidden figures.
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2020 has been a confusing time for humans Little and Tall, to help reduce the confusion around Covid-19 Petit Pli released its first comic Mission 1: Unstick The Sticky Alien!
To Petit Pli, supporting social justice is integral to creating an environment on Earth which we are proud to live in and to be borrowed by the next generation; for we do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.
We felt it was imperative to create a tool for parents to use when LittleHumans ask them “What is Black Lives Matter?”. Why are people protesting? How can I help?”
The Petit Pli Team created our second comic, Mission 2: Earth’s Hidden Figures for LittleHumans, to highlight the importance and significance of the Black Lives Matter movement.
We hope our comic helps to nurture LittleHumans' innate curiosity and inspires them to never stop asking about Earth's hidden figures.
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With the news of an extended lockdown, the immense pressure on parents to LittleHumans to: teach geography, police screen time and be a loving parent - all between zoom meetings, continues. Fortunately, all humans - Little and Tall, learn through play. Few things excite children more than the humble empty cardboard box and unused water bottle. To children - and hopefully some adults, the cardboard box is not just a product lockbox. The humble cardboard box is much more, it is a pirate ship-icecream factory on Monday and a space den on Tuesday, - obviously!
Creating and playing with unused daily objects in lieu of toys takes children on thrilling adventures; allowing LittleHumans’ imaginations to develop. This is great news for two reasons: 1. It is a form of unstructured play 2. Makes for efficient upcycling.
To celebrate International Space Day, we wanted to encourage LittleHumans to explore the great unknowns & possibilities of life beyond planet Earth through some crafty upcycling.
If you love converting waste into magic, please download and follow the instructions in our Make Your Own Rocket Ship manual.
This is a confusing time for us, let alone LittleHumans. Petit Pli has made a little comic to help out.
"Why can’t I see my friends? Why can't I go to the playground? Why can’t I see my grandparents?"
These questions are incoming and we hope the story helps you stay prepared! Hats off to parents 🎩 - as working from home while looking after LittleHumans is no easy feat! Hang in there, we're positive that things will improve soon.
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