After Midnight and Harlekin

What do you think when you hear Steiff (if you know Steiff at all, that is)?
Your first thought probably goes to soft and cuddly plush animals for children. If you are a collector or, erm, old or maybe even both like me, you might think of mohair which is not so soft.

Actually, Steiff has used a lot of different materials over the years.
Before they started making toys, the founder Margarete Steiff had a business making felt clothing for women, and in fact the first animals were from felt as well, like the famous elephant pincushion which became so popular as a toy that it shifted the business from clothes to toys.
Other fabrics used were velvet and linen, and with the birth of the teddy bear mohair. Mohair is from the hair of the angora goat and Steiff always got it from the Schulte company, today one of the last weaving mills existing in Germany.

There were times, however, when materials like felt and mohair became scarce, for example in and around wartimes when they were used for military purposes instead like for uniforms.
Steiff always did its best to meet those challenges and come up with toys from substitute materials or to make toys other than plush animals, like a variety of wooden toys like building blocks, wooden flower building sets, carriages, scooters, and more.

For substitute materials they used wool plush, artificial silk plush, cotton plush, and in 1919, they actually made animals from paper plush made from wood fibers with a backing of cotton.
Given the fragility of this fabric, it is not surprising that paper plush animals are hard to find nowadays.
But fret you not, o collector!
In 2020, Steiff started a new line of animals made from different fabrics called "Teddies for tomorrow" (although it's not just teddies). There's rayon, linen/cotton, alpaca, linen/vegan felt, bamboo, hemp, plush from recycled PET bottles - and paper plush.
One reason are rising energy and material costs which endanger the future of Steiff Schulte (which was taken over by the Steiff Holding in 2009), the other the question of sustainability which should be a topic for every company.

Being mainly a collector of vintage Steiff, this series had gone by me completely until someone told me to look a sweet dark blue bear ... and sometime later at a colorful bear.
They are called After Midnight and Harlekin.
(Marsha, this is for you - it was a (very good) sale and I blame my sister. Again.)
These are no cuddly teddies meant for children, not that I expected them to be. The paper plush feels a bit harder than my towels (I don't like fabric softener) which is interesting to me, and I just think they are very cute.
Harlekin is made after an old Steiff design. I love that his colors look a bit faded as if he were vintage.
Others buy clothes, shoes, cosmetics, accessories, I buy beads and teddies 😉

Sources:
1. Rebekah Kaufmann: Cut from a different cloth - six of Steiff's lesser-known teddy bear fabrics. On: Teddy Bear Times & Friends, September 21,2020
2. The History of the Teddy Bear. On the Steiff website
3. Steiff Schulte: History. On the Steiff Schulte website
4. Sustainability promise. On the Steiff website
5. Susanne Decker: Steiff - die Stoffe. Auf: Steifftiere, ein Stück Kindheit (in German)