“I have really enjoyed my brush with the famous,” says Charlotte Dean.
She started hand-making beautiful personalised cot blankets to be bought as gifts celebrate the arrival of a new baby in the mid 90s.
Since then, she’s built up a stellar client list which includes Hollywood actors, rock superstars, prime ministers and royalty – names such as Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, Eric Clapton, Jamie Oliver, Hugh Grant, Liz Hurley, Helena Bonham Carter, Helen McCrory and Damian Lewis, Claire Danes, James Purefoy, Matthew McConaughey, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and the Dutch royal family and the Monaco royal family.
“I wonder if they could imagine that the blankets are made in a studio in a back garden in Norwich,” she laughs.
Originally from Cambridge, Charlotte has been creative since she was a child - her first love was fashion.
“I have always enjoyed making garments and made a dress completely by hand when I was 10,” she says.
“I studied fashion and textiles at Liverpool Art School in the early 80s. I set up a business in Liverpool making knitted garments, but it was very unsuccessful, so I went into teaching English as a foreign language and taught in Spain, Italy and London.”
In 1993, after having her first daughter, Lily, the family moved to Norwich.
“I decided that I wanted to start a business making personalised baby blankets,” she says.
Thanks to an article in the Eastern Daily Press and support from Norwich Enterprise and Training, Charlotte Cot Blankets started to take off.
“The business was greatly helped by the rise of IT in the mid-90s,” she says. “It suited me as a mother of two young daughters to work from home and sell through the internet. My first website was designed by a team at the EDP.”
Charlotte works from her studio, which is a converted dairy in her back garden (“lovely and cool in summer,” she notes).
Her blankets are made on a back-to-basics domestic knitting machine.
“Electronic knitting machines and programming the patterns was state-of-the-art in 1985,” she says. “Brother stopped making the machines in the early 1990s, so it looks like a time warp now – I still use a floppy disc to save the knitting patterns!”
Charlotte’s cot blankets were originally inspired by Victorian samplers.
Over the years other design influences have included Lowestoft pottery, Edwardian toys, 1960s toys from her childhood, and artists such as Matisse, Eric Ravilious and John Craxton.
Norfolk beauty spots Wells, Blickling, Holkham and Stiffkey have given their names to some of her designs.
She uses only natural fibres, soft wool, cotton and cashmere, to make the blankets and tries to be as sustainable as possible – plastic packaging was dropped years ago.
Charlotte also makes personalised hats and mittens and Christmas stockings.
Speaking of Christmas, she’s currently working on some cashmere scarves inspired by the colours in Pierre Bonnard’s landscapes.
Charlotte must be proud of creating items that go on to become family heirlooms?
“Babies love the blankets and treasure them well into adulthood. Sometimes we have to make a replacement blanket for a teenager going to university in need of some comfort,” she says.
To find out more visit charlottecotblankets.com
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