We are The Gemmers (our name is said with a hard "G" sound that stems from Adam's distant German ancestry): Adam, Heather, Otis and Fern with our Border Collie/Aussie pup, Bast. We live in the beguiling Pacific Northwest; Portland, Oregon. We both work in Healthcare but before Fern was born, we had a bustling Photography business on the side of our full-time jobs in Healthcare. We closed the business after Fern's tumultuous entrance into the world.
I grew up in a family that had dark rooms for photographic development in their basements, under the magic of everyday photojournalism. My grandfather would get out his projector and put on "shows" at family gatherings and I fell in love with the movement in his photographs and the grain. After closing the business, I missed photojournalism, so I leaned into documenting my family. This led into the natural ache to immortalise and thereby re-experience the wonder of childhood as I watched my children grow. I find healing, peace and grounding as I have photographed them through the years.
We have a long term love affair with wool thanks to my sister, Bethany, she is an artist, seamstress, maker, homesteader, and all-around magical Mother. When I was newly pregnant with my son, Otis, I was learning all about the benefits of wool as she was recycling merino wool remnants she would find at resale shops and repurpose them into diaper covers, pants, and even woolly stuffies. I still have some of her first prototypes and the diaper covers that she made for him all those years ago.
Living in the Pacific Northwest means long months of that wet-cold weather that is really well suited to the benefits of wool. I loved that wool is antibacterial and requires less washing. I had done research on the fast fashion market and as a family, Adam and I had had some personal convictions in our buying practices and how quick we were to "throw" items away because they didn't hold up to real wear. We made a commitment in our family that as best we could, we would make changes in our purchasing habits and do deeper research on the companies selling us clothing. We wanted to be more globally aware of what our impact was. That led me to make several purchases on MamaOwl before we became parents, and those brands ended up being our staples throughout all of these years.
Looking back, I started realising that the distress my kids would express surrounding clothes didn't happen when they were in their wool pieces. My son started developing bouts of heat rash (no matter the season) and it made him erupt into sensory outbursts before he could talk. I purchased a few sets of Engel/Minimalisma merino wool base layers, and after putting him in these layers, his symptoms just dissipated. He still had sensory woes, don't get me wrong, but the heat rash went away, and he didn't pull at his clothing in frustration as he had before. I noticed he seemed more balanced and regulated in his emotions as he enjoyed exploring the world. We were still years off from recognising other signs or from getting a diagnosis, but it didn't matter at the time, because we had found tools to buffer his discomfort.
He was a giddy kid again; goofy and playful and authentically himself. And then, I started investing in wool pieces for myself, and I was convinced in a whole new way. The way wool temperature-regulates is fascinating to me. How I can wear a cotton shirt in summer and sweat through it in minutes, but in my long-sleeved wool piece, I am kept more balanced and though I may be hot, it seems to absorb the heat and disperse it in a way that cotton doesn't allow for. Wool has also provided us the comfort and warmth of being in the forests and mountains around us in all kinds of weather without the elements sending us back inside. And, being in nature for us has always been a sanctuary.
Our ethos is something akin to being globally-minded, environmentally conscious, and people-focused. We know that we don't have unlimited finances, but our goal was to find companies that are following fair trade/sustainable/living wage practices first and foremost. We asked questions of WHO makes the clothing, WHERE they're sourcing textiles and HOW well the makers are being cared for (as much as you can find out of that). We try to create a relationship with the brands we've come to trust and love. We get to know their own ethos and follow their textile stories. And, we tested out the durability of the brands we were introduced to. To us, it's most important that after we've researched the brand to be invested in our above ethos, it must also create a sensory soothing; it must be comfortable. Summer pieces must be durable to hard play and winter pieces must be durable and impervious to heavy rain and mud. One of the fallouts of this kind of financial mindset is that things are more costly up front. We believe paying higher prices up front lessens the higher environmental/financial cost of waste in the long run.
But that means, we purchase less items. We purchase things in a size up and we wear things longer. We repair (if needed) and then sell our used items to afford the next season's items whenever we can. I've loved the resale community surrounding some of my favorite brands, and have purchased multiple staples secondhand from this community as well. I love the community behind that sort of mindset. I remember bringing a wool jumper to work one day when I noticed a spot that got caught in a doorway and unraveling was starting. My friend brought her knitting needles and on our break, we sipped tea and she knit the unraveled parts together into a star. I loved that jumper even more afterwards, because it carried that story of community along with the story of my daughter's adventures in it.
We purchase any additional clothing items we need from our local kids' consignment shops, which we are fortunate enough to have several amazing ones here in Portland. In terms of toys, it's similar. We talked a lot to our children when they were little about how we can care for the earth. We picked up trash on our hikes, talked about the concepts of recycling and biodegradability, and that led us to purchase toys that were mostly wooden or made from recycled plastic or were consigned and reused in that beautiful recycling mindset. When it comes to books, we really wanted our children to have a global mindset as well. We wanted to expose them to so many worldviews and cultures and celebrations. We prioritized books that celebrated Black and indigenous voices and books that give different cultural contexts great respect and dignity. My children have Native American ancestry from Adam's mother's mother who is from the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina. It's deeply important to us to build up the beauty of their ancestry into their upbringing. We prioritized books that taught empathy, emotional regulation, curiosity, authentic apology and kindness. We are as parents always on a journey, even within ourselves, to do better in these things, so it is by extension that we are living out loud our values for our children even in our purchases. We talk openly about these things with our children, in hopes that they internalize these values too.
I believe in layering, big time. On the days when our kids had the toughest time in terms of sensory overwhelm, I can always pinpoint that it was in large part due to the choices in clothing/layering. Though the base layers that warm our very cores are seldom visible from the top, they are the heart of every winter outfit in our family. We each have wool base layers that start our outfits. Our favorites are from Engel, Siskin, Joha and Minimalisma. On top of our base layers we add a thicker sweater/jumper. Our favorites are from Disana. Then, we usually have thicker wool pants if we're in coldest weather. We have lived in the Disana boiled wool dungarees and wool leggings year in and year out. Their sizing lasts for so many years, and have been quintessential pieces in our winter wardrobes. Wool socks on top of a soft merino/organic cotton sock is a necessity. If we'll be playing in snow, we add the Fairechild weather-proof layers on top to be removed when they're done getting wet. The top-most layers are usually an extra wool layer that seals in warmth. Our family has found that Misha and Puff wool pieces have been our children's favorites.
We only wash our wool when it is visibly dirty after it has dried indoors, usually ambiently or over our floor vents (or, the piece has gotten stretched out in the knees too much and needs to be reshaped/tightened). When I wash, I use the Laundress or Woolite as a hand wash or on the delicate setting on my washer in cold water. Then, I roll them in a towel and press out the water to start the drying process. After that, I lay them on a drying rack in my bathroom with the dehumidifier humming.
Our favourite MamaOwl brands are Siskin, Engel, Disana, Joha, Minimalisma, Misha and Puff, Fairechild, and Mabli. For shoes- Angulus and Bisgaard - all have been life-savers for us!
My favourite MamaOwl purchase is so hard to quantify. If it would be our favourite purchase based on durability and how many wears/years it gave us, it would be our Siskin and Engel base layers and the Disana boiled wool dungarees. If it's my favourite MamaOwl purchase personally, it would be a toss up between my apple-red wool house slippers from Living Kitzbühel and the Joha merino wool base layers that I wear all winter long during day and night. But, if it's my favourite MamaOwl purchase in terms of emotional connection to memory, it would be the very first wool coat that we bought for Fern, which was the apple red Pixie-hooded wool coat by Kleine Schobbejak. She had dainty, elf-like features right from the start and we called her our "Elfling", so it seemed only fitting to get that coat for her. It suited her perfectly and on hikes, people would remark how she looked like an elf. We loved that coat so much! It's now neatly folded and stored for safekeeping for if she has her own little elfling someday. I love that these pieces carry our stories within them.
If I was to chose my favourite piece bought from MamaOwl it would have to be the base layers by Siskin and Engel, definitely! Not only are they the start of every winter outfit, but we use them as pyjamas in winter and in-between seasons or when we're visiting the mountain. But, we also wear them in the summer when there is a lot of wind exposure at the beach underneath our Fairechild weather proof gear so that it temperature regulates, gives our sensitive skin coverage from the constant sun exposure and protects them from the windy coastal sensation that is being "wind-chapped". It's a thing, for sure!
All Photos - Heather Gemmer - @thegemmers
Thank you Heather for your knowledge and love of wool