Meridith Layne is the founder of luxury brand, Coveted Things. Meridith created Swaddle Scarves™ out of a desire to meld her modern design aesthetic with functionality and the belief that being a parent does not mean sacrificing personal style.
Coveted Things is a contemporary children’s luxury brand that focuses on the modernization of the classic swaddle blanket. Using 100% certified organic cotton, fun large scale, and original prints, Meridith aims to create something that you will not only ‘covet’ for your child, but also for yourself. The brand's main focus will always be the swaddle blanket, however stay tuned as they are expanding their product line to include other everyday essentials for babies and children.
We can't wait!
We are also SO excited to welcome Meridith into our tribe of BURU Tastemakers. Read below as she share more about her personal journey into motherhood as well as her fabulous #momstyle !
I love that in the midst of the most chaotic adventure of my life there is this unbelievable sense of being so full of love. It is like this ever present feeling of happiness that I had never felt before. Today out of the blue at a restaurant, Goldie just climbed on me and grabbed my face and gave me the biggest kiss on the lips and said ‘I love (lub) you forever mommy’. Never in my pre-kid life did anyone grab my face in a restaurant and tell me they love me, I mean how weird would that have been? Ha, and how amazingly beautiful and heart warming was it to me today!
I let go of a lot when I became a mom. After my oldest daughter was born, I felt like I had to say goodbye to the old me, the old way of doing things, etc, and find my way in my new skin, I was essentially reborn the day my oldest daughter was born, reborn into a mom. I love who I am so much more now. I am happy, and I don’t care about insignificant things like I used to. Mostly because I don’t have room in my brain for nonsense. Also, I cannot believe how many things I can get done in the smallest amount of time now.
Stella Ene is 5, and Vivian Goldie is going to be 3 next week.
I always say that Stella is my moon she silently encircles me. She is quiet, mysterious, and has a little bit of a dark side. She is very much like my husband and myself, very quite, sits back and observes everything before making any moves. She is unbelievably detail oriented, she will notice right away if something is misplaced in a room. We have a bit of clairvoyance that runs in our family. I am told that my grandmother had it (she passed before I was born), I have it, and Stella shows signs of it as well. She feels all the feels, has a heightened sense of of the world around her. Her memory is insane, she will bring up things from when she was a baby, and will say things that blow us away, she is definitely an old soul. She never leaves my side.
Goldie, Goldie, Goldie! She is our sun, she is loud and on fire! Our family revolves around her. She is fiercely passionate, and intense about everything she does. She does and says what she wants, and is extremely independent. She is going to shake this world up.
Yes. I breastfeed Stella until she was 9 months old. She just stopped one day, and it was very difficult for me both physically and mentally to accept and let go. I had to kind of make Goldie stop at 14 months. She was only breastfeeding mornings and nights, but I was over it, and wanted my body to belong to myself again. She was too big and too demanding! ha.
I was horribly sick with hyperemesis gravidarum during both my pregnancies. I couldn’t stand any kind of waistband touching my belly, so I mostly wore dresses. When the babies were born, I was so ready to wear jeans again. I never really wore dresses until I stopped breastfeeding, because I found it too difficult to breastfeed in dresses, unless I lifted my entire dress up, which doesn’t work so well when you are out! I lived in jeans and button downs, or just loose woven cotton tops that I could lift up easily. I would wear a tight tank top under the top, but just leave my arms out of the sleeves, so when I pulled up my top to breastfeed, my stomach wouldn’t show.
I think I stuck with my after birth style, minus the tank top under the shirt. I really live in skinny jeans and woven tops. I never wear leggings or t shirts, it is just not me. I feel like I feel so much better when I put a little effort into getting dressed every day.
These are my favorites!:
Obsessed with all the Lem Lem!!
LemLem Aden caftan in grey
LemLem Afia jumpsuit
LemLem Elsi Caftan Dress
Penelope dress with the Gretchen Cardigan- Demylee
Elliane Dress- Malene Birger with the Gretchen Cardigan- Demylee
Rachel Comey Meryl Blouse
The Great painters dress- Love this dress with the ryan roche fringe sweater in avocado pink-
The Great almost skinny wyoming wash with buru white label katie white cotton tunic or classic white shirt and the ryan roche fringe sweater in avocado pink
Jillian cashmere sweater nude- under the Buru White label classic white shirt and The great almost skinny wyoming wash
The Great anchor sweatshirt
The Great estate top- I actually have this in black and wear it at least once a week!
BWL Sydney striped sweater
BWL Selah side zip sweater
BWL Polly pajama set
BWL Leigh blouse
I love all these as well:
Emmanuelle jumpsuit
Demylee Margot shorts
Lance dress white- I have a thing for white dresses
Mothers en vogue one shoulder maxi goddess dress
BWL Opal off the shoulder dress
BWL Pinkston blouse
BWL Natalie blouse
Shop Meridith's Tastemaker Collection >
Honestly I just think you should have whatever makes you happy. I have a collection of gorgeous, fancy dresses that I never wear, but are like art in my closet that I love to look at. I have a very simple personal style, but I have a deep love and appreciation for beautiful clothing.
I left my career in the apparel industry designing private label lines for Urban Outfitters, Delias, Bloomingdales, etc when my oldest daughter was born. I knew that I wanted to stay home and raise her, but soon after I felt a void, like a bit of myself was missing. I wanted to be doing something creative again, and had always had the idea of making contemporary swaddle blankets that you could use for a multitude of purposes, since everything at the time was so ‘baby’ looking, but kept talking myself out of it. I came across a quote by Arthur Ashe, 'Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.' Everything changed the day I read that quote, it was truly the tipping point for me. I printed out that quote and taped it to my wall, so that I was forced to look at it and read it every day. I figured I might as well just try what I really wanted to do. The worst thing that could happen was that it wouldn't work out, but I knew that if I never attempted it, I would always wonder 'what if'. I started with nothing, I had to figure out and find all of the puzzle pieces through trial and error.
I think I will always feel like a work in progress. There is always going to be room for growth and improvement, so I don’t know if I will ever feel as if I have ‘made it.’ However, some highlights for me were when industry mamas that I really respect like Stacey Bendet and Erin Kleinberg posted on Instagram about my swaddles. I was floored they even knew who we were, let alone posted about them. I lost my mind when Vogue featured us in an article, that was a really cool thing to wake up to!
I grew up in Phoenix, and my husband is from New York. We met while I was living in LA and he was in NY. I moved to NY and we moved to LA together 13 years ago, so LA is very much our home. I love love love LA!! We don’t have family here, so our kids pretty much go everywhere with us.
We eat out a lot. Some of our favorite spots are:
Escuela Taqueria
We always used to eat at the restaurant on top of Barney’s in Beverly hills when it was Greengrass, because they had a great outdoor patio and no one was ever there. They recently turned it into Fred’s, and we still love it, but it is a lot more crowded.
Love Nong La on Sawtelle for take out.
Hinoki and the Bird is one of my favorite spots to meet my friends out for drinks.
Love going up to Malibu to eat on the pier and enjoying the sound of the ocean.
We live by Holmby Park. I love this little park, it is gorgeous and very calming.
Love the bookstore, farmshop, and Barney’s burgers (for the salads, not the burgers) at brentwood country mart
We like to walk around Greystone Mansion
Love to soak up the magic of griffith park and eat lavender short bread cookies at trails cafe
And of course, we LOVE the beach.
I used to try to do everything at once, and realized that nothing was getting my focused attention, and that I was spread too thin. One major goal as a mother and business owner is to be very focused on the present and find balance, which is hard to do when you are constantly being pulled in a million different directions at the same time. I now break my day up and specifically focus on whatever it is in front of me, whether it be my family or my business. I find that more gets accomplished this way.
‘Motherly’ to me is a nurturing force that encompassed my life after my children were born. Putting yourself aside to care for another, not because you ‘have’ to, but because you want to.
mother: soul
wife: forever
business owner: complex
product designer: focused
friend: supportive
Bedtime Story: 'What do you do with an idea’- Kobi Yamada. Love the message of this book so much!
'The book with no pictures’- B.J. Novak. My girls absolutely love this book.
‘What if everybody did’ - Jo Ann Stover We found an original copy of this book from the 60’s at a book sale, and it is one of our most cherished.
Lullaby: I have a certain humming rhythm that I have always hummed to them since they were born. It is no specific song, something that just came to me and stuck. They hum it now when they are tired.
Vacation spot: I take the girls to a little town in northern Indiana every summer for about a month to visit family. It is a great escape out of LA, and into nature. They are barefoot almost the whole time, swim in rivers, dig in the dirt, make a mess, and most importantly do it all outdoors. Such a great way to reconnect with nature every year. I did it growing up, and I am so happy that I am able to do it with my children.
We have taken them to Turks and Caicos twice now, and it has proven to be the best beach vacation with children both times.
Restaurant: See list above
Children’s Brands: James Vincent Design Co. makes the most gorgeous baby rompers. https://www.jamesvincentdesignco.com/
Just how fast it all goes. I remember when Stella was a baby the days were so long. I would give just about anything for even one of those days with a tiny baby, no agenda, and a quite, clean house.
I really wished that I would have discovered Janet Lansbury’s parenting advice when my babies were little. She talks a lot about letting babies just be. Let them work things out from a young age, and not always jump in and entertain or save them. I follow her on facebook, and she always posts great parenting essays.
