LoveBrand Co-Founders, Oliver & Rose Tomalin

Discover the inspiration behind the brand

Saltee loves discovering inspiring, like-minded brands.  LOVE BRAND & Co. are the men’s swim and resort wear designer store committed to saving elephants. Their business is built on quality, authenticity, sustainability, family and giving back.  They combine their passion for travel and Summer lifestyle together with their love and to desire to help conserve the natural world.  Meet Oliver & Rose Tomalin, founders of LOVE BRAND & Co.

“We believe that elephants hold the key to the change of attitude needed to ensure a healthier planet in the future. Elephants are our largest land mammal; they demand a huge amount of wild space to survive. Elephants are on the front line of our planet’s battle of space and resource and to us protecting them means protecting so much more.”

Elephants are on the front line of our planet’s battle of space and resource and to Oliver and Rose, protecting them means protecting so much more. 

Since day one, LOVE BRAND & Co. has been donating a percentage of revenue – not profits to protecting the natural world.  Now proudly partnered with 1% for the planet,  the brand is an integral part of a business movement that hopes to see a shift in how companies are run and how they repair the ecosystems and societies they have impacted.

Every year, LOVE BRAND & Co. supports and works closely with remarkable conservation charities and foundations, helping ensure the survival of some of the most vulnerable species and habitats on earth.   This year, the brand has partnered with WildAid as the main charity partner, helping to tackle the demand that funds and fuels the illegal wildlife trade. 

The brand distills a sophisticated summer lifestyle into classic linens, beachwear and swimming trunks as it simultaneously narrates the story of endangered wildlife and species through a vibrant print handwriting that presents one of the corner stones of the brand. Oliver hand draws the iconic prints taking an inspiration and a colour palette from the natural world. Iconic prints such as Elephant Dance or Eye of The Tiger tell the stories of endangered species that urgently need recognition. 

The collections are 100% vegan and produced in Europe using the finest organic and recycled fabrics.

Saving elephants since day one, there is also another important love story to be told. At the same time as developing his brand, Oliver met his wife Rose for the first time. Oliver designed the brand’s logo – of two elephants forming a heart – on a napkin during their first date. A month after meeting, Oliver and Rose went to India together to meet an elephant called Tara (the same Tara from Mark Shand’s book – ‘Travels On My Elephant’) . 

Since this initial adventure Rose and Oliver have built the brand together and Tara  continues to inspire their mission today.

Married in 2014 and now with two children, the couple have built a community around the brand that centres on a love of travel, family and a desire for luxury with purposefulness and sustainability at the core. 

Saltee asks Oliver Tomalin some burning questions we’re excited to learn more about:

What does travel mean to LoveBrand?

In a word – Everything. The brand was founded as a way for my wife Rose and I to marry our love of travel with our love and respect for the natural world. This alongside our determination to protect and raise awareness for endangered species drives the brand. Respectful, inquisitive and adventurous travel is at the heart of the brand.

What are some of your go-to winter staycation destinations?

We recently had a weekend at Thyme in the Cotswolds to make the most of the Indian Summer we had. Rose and I had the most amazing and relaxing weekend after an intense summer and I can’t wait to go back and drink some more wine under the stars beside their firepits. Thyme is a ‘Village within a village’ and they stock LOVE BRAND & Co. at their boutique. Just like us they have a wonderful commitment to the environment, biodiversity and living peacefully with nature.
Growing up I spent a lot of time in South Devon. A coastal walk along the cliffs at Thurlestone, or swimming with the tide in the estuary at Bantham beach. And for the best fish and chips try Rockfish in Dartmouth.

How do you spend your downtime?

With my family at home. Nothing better.

What travel destinations inspire you the most?

India and Africa play a huge part in the roots of the brand. Rose (Co-founder and wife, then girlfriend) and I visited India a month after meeting each other to see our first conservation project with Elephant Family, helping protect the elephant migratory corridors there and witness the great work the charity are doing in helping promote ‘human-elephant co-existence’. After visiting a corridor in Kerala, we went to the Kanha National Park and stayed at Kipling Camp to meet a very special elephant called Tara. The same Tara from Mark Shand’s (the founder of Elephant Family) book, ‘Travels on my Elephant’. Weeks before I met Rose, she was in Nairobi visiting an elephant orphanage at The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, and we have been back to the same orphanage many times together since. Africa and India inspire a lot of the wildlife conservation we do on land but we also love the water, hence we started a swimwear brand!

One of my favourite places on earth is the Bahamas. Rose’s family have been living at points in the Bahamas for several generations and Rose took me to the Exumas to a spot where her parents honeymooned, with no wifi or TV, only a pack of cards, some rum and the most incredible beaches I have seen in my life. Rose’s grandfather was Governor of the Bahamas and her grandmother also started an orphanage there ‘The Ranfurly Home for Children’, so the Bahamas remains very special and I have been going back ever since. LOVE BRAND & Co. supports the local marine conservation group in the Bahamas ‘BREEF’ and this year we are supporting WildAid and their work with a Shark Sanctuary in the Bahamas as well as fighting the demand for shark fins on an international level. The waters are so blue in the Bahamas it is breathtaking and they are abundant with marine life. We are very proud to be helping protect it.

How do you motivate yourself and your team through these uncertain times?

Teamwork has been important and adapting to the situation as best we can. There are always opportunities and things to improve. The hard work and the optimism and the collaborative approach my team has had during these testing times has been brilliant and ultimately we will come out of this stronger.