Founded by Elysia Hansen in 2017, Wildflower & Oak is a Melbourne-based brand and online destination for linen essentials and nursery decor.
Tell us about Wildflower & Oak.
We are a Melbourne based brand centred around ethically made linen essentials for your littlest loves along with curated nursery decor from female makers around the world.
Our collections are consciously produced, hand dyed and for every swaddle and cot sheet sold we donate a safe birth kit to Midwives For Haiti – a not for profit organisation working to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for women in the rural villages of Haiti.
What inspired you to start Wildflower & Oak?
While pregnant with my second baby I found myself searching for neutral pieces that were thoughtfully made with high quality fabric that would stand the test of time (and multiple babies). The marketplace for ethical and aesthetically pleasing babywares was exploding and I loved the idea of bringing linen into that space. I wanted to make pieces that were functional, consciously manufactured and beautiful.
Tell us about your career and background.
Throughout my twenties I worked alongside my husband Andrew in our own digital marketing company with my area of focus being SEO. After becoming a mother I felt drawn to doing work more suited to the season of life I was in. I was elbow deep in babies and swaddles and it felt like a natural progression to move into this space.
I have had to learn a whole lot “on the job” about manufacturing and ecommerce but my years in digital marketing have definitely given me a solid foundation upon which to build from.
Describe a typical work day for you.
I am going to preface this answer with a *this is how it looked pre covid* disclaimer.
I would love to say that I’m up at 5am to meditate, journal and drink my coffee before the children wake but the reality is that in this season of life – they are our alarm clock. Usually our three year old will appear in our bedroom sometime after 6am and ask “is it time to wake up?” and the day begins.
We all sit together for breakfast and the crucial first coffee of the day then it is go time.
Andrew drops the big boys off to daycare and kindergarten three days a week and those are my main work days so the second they are in the car I get started. My littlest is four months old so I can usually squeeze 3 work sessions in during his nap times and I try to get as much out of that time as possible.
The rest I make up in the evenings when they’re all tucked in for the night, during an afternoon movie or when Andrew is able to tag in for an hour of Lego, transformers or wrestling (parents of boys everywhere will understand).
How are you navigating operating your business during COVID-19?
Slowly. I gave birth to our third son right as Melbourne went into the first lockdown so very unexpectedly we had both of our older boys at home 24/7 plus a newborn in the mix.
I am very fortunate that our store is based online so we have been able to remain open for orders of our current collection, but I have definitely been operating with reduced capacity when it comes to pushing new collections forward between the restraints on my work hours and the inevitable manufacturing delays that covid has caused around the world.
I am spending a lot of time planning for when things do open back up and trying to zero in on small, achievable but strategic action steps I can take to push the business in the right direction in amongst all this chaos.
What advice do you have for those wanting to start a business?
Take it slow. Do your research. Ask for advice from those who walked the path before you.
And sometimes done is better than perfect when you are starting off. You don’t need the $10k website design to launch your store. Get the $200 template and build from there as it makes sense. You don’t want the paralysis of perfection to hold up your momentum unnecessarily.
What’s next for you, and Wildflower & Oak?
We are working on a new collection of linen swaddles right now building on everything our customers have loved from the current collection but with a fresh palette I know everyone will adore. Once we have established this core collection we will be looking to expand into some complementary specialty products that I’m quite excited about.
We will also continue to curate beautiful pieces from female makers around the world to share in our store which is fast becoming one of my favourite parts of this business. Collaboration and community is everything especially at a time like this.