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It was a middle-of-the-night moment with her baby daughter that sparked an idea that would change the way Claire McCartney thought about children’s clothing. Faced with a wardrobe of beautiful pieces her daughter had barely had time to wear before outgrowing them, she began thinking about the huge volume of baby clothes that still have plenty of life left in them and the environmental impact of constantly buying new. From there, Bébé Deer was born: a preloved baby and children’s clothing business dedicated to giving beautiful clothes another chapter while making more sustainable choices easier for families. Here, she talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about building the business from bags of donated clothes, the joy of seeing treasured pieces find new homes, balancing entrepreneurship with life as a mum of two, and her hopes and dreams for the future of Bébé Deer.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
Bébé Deer really began in the middle of the night.
I was rocking my daughter, Océane, back to sleep and, while trying to keep myself awake, I looked across at her wardrobe. She had grown again, which meant it was already time to pack away one size and bring out the next.
Then I realised she hadn’t even worn half of the clothes hanging there. Some had been worn once or twice, and others still looked brand new.
That was the moment I realised that the problem wasn’t the clothes. It was how little time babies have to wear them.
I had always cared about nature and the environment, but becoming a mother made me think much more deeply about the world we are leaving to our children. Seeing that wardrobe made the environmental impact of our buying habits suddenly feel very real.
That little moment planted the seed for Bébé Deer.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
My very first stock actually came from my own family.
I had been given huge bags of baby clothes and spent hours and hours sorting through them. It made me realise just how many baby clothes families hold onto, hoping to pass them on to someone else one day.
But that doesn’t always happen. Even donating them isn’t necessarily straightforward, as charities can’t always accept everything. Too many perfectly wearable clothes can eventually end up being thrown away simply because people don’t know what else to do with them.
So I started asking local families if they had baby clothes they no longer needed and would rather donate than throw away. The response was incredible, and those donations gave Bébé Deer the stock it needed to get started. As the business has grown, I’ve been able to invest in buying stock too.
One of the very first things I did after sorting those mountains of clothes was organise a professional photoshoot. It was important to me that preloved clothing was presented with the same care and quality as new clothing.
Over time, I taught myself product photography and now have my own little photography studio at home.
Looking back, I think that sums up the early days of Bébé Deer quite well: starting with what already existed, learning as I went and finding ways to give it new value.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
For me, the biggest breakthrough has been seeing customers come back.
The first time someone orders from a small business, they’re taking a chance. When that same customer comes back again, it tells me they were happy with what they received, trusted the quality and service, and chose Bébé Deer again.
Receiving Google reviews from parents has been incredibly rewarding too, especially when they include a photo of their baby wearing something they bought from us.
I remember one particular order that included some of Océane’s own clothes. As I was packing them, I suddenly remembered her wearing them as she was learning to walk.
For a moment, it felt strange to let them go. But then I realised that those little clothes weren’t losing their memories. They had simply finished their chapter with our family and were about to become part of someone else’s – perhaps another first step, another family day out or another ordinary moment that one day becomes a precious memory.
That’s when the whole idea behind Bébé Deer came full circle for me.
Returning customers, reviews and those photographs are the best measure of success I could ask for. They show me that parents don’t just buy from Bébé Deer – they trust Bébé Deer.
And that’s exactly what I wanted to build.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
Finding the right balance hasn’t always been easy, especially because I’m the kind of person who gives 100% to every project I take on.
But I have two young children, aged four and ten months, and the time I spend with them is more precious to me than anything else. So I have one important rule: when they’re home, work stops.
When it’s time to pick up my daughter from school, I switch off my computer and close the door to my office for the day. I don’t come back to it until the children are asleep – and even then, only occasionally. From school pick-up onwards, my children have my full attention.
There is, however, one little Bébé Deer ritual that has become part of our after-school routine. On our way home, my daughter loves helping me drop off the parcels I’ve prepared that day. In fact, one of the first things she asks when I pick her up is whether we have any parcels to send!
Every now and then, the two worlds overlap in other ways too. Once, she came in while I was doing a product photoshoot. Rather than carrying on working, we picked up my professional camera and took photographs together. They definitely weren’t photographs I could use on the website, but they became something much better: a lovely little moment between mother and daughter.
I won’t pretend I always get the balance right. Occasionally, I work at the weekend, and sometimes I work in the evening once the children are asleep. But I’ve learnt that, for me, balance means protecting the time when they’re awake and with me. Bébé Deer is something I love building, but these years with my children are time I can never get back.
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
I think every new project comes with challenges, and Bébé Deer has certainly had its share.
Before I even launched, there was an enormous amount to think about. What needed to happen before a single item could be sold? How would I check and prepare every piece? How could I organise hundreds of individual clothes so that I could actually find them again when someone placed an order?
I spent a lot of time building systems for all of this, and those systems have continued to evolve as Bébé Deer has grown. I’m still constantly learning, changing things and finding better ways of working.
But I think the hardest challenge was simply starting – and making that very first sale.
There were so many doubts in the beginning. Would anyone actually buy from Bébé Deer? Could this idea really work? Could it ever become a profitable business?
I don’t have all of those answers yet. I’m still building Bébé Deer, and I’m still finding out just how far it can go.
What I do know is that I genuinely love what I’m creating. Every new order gives me a little boost, every returning customer means more than they probably realise, and every kind message or piece of feedback reminds me why I keep going.
Those moments give me the confidence to keep learning, keep improving and keep pushing forward towards the dream I had when Bébé Deer began.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
For me, the greatest advantages are freedom and independence.
My daughter has just started preschool, and being self-employed meant I could rearrange my schedule for her very first day, so I could take her there in the morning and be there to pick her up afterwards. More generally, if one of my children needs me, I can rearrange my day. If someone is ill, I have the flexibility to be there. Having that freedom while my children are so young is incredibly precious to me.
I also love the independence that comes with building my own business. I can decide where I want Bébé Deer to go, change the way I organise things when something isn’t working, try new ideas and shape the business around what I believe in. That freedom to make my own decisions is something I genuinely love.
Of course, independence comes with its own challenges.
I gave birth to my second child ten months ago, and as someone who is self-employed, my maternity leave had to be much shorter than I would have liked. There is no paid holiday waiting for you either, and when you run your own business, the responsibility ultimately sits with you.
There are doubts, there is pressure, and knowing that your family also depends on the work you do can sometimes feel heavy.
But strangely, the things that make running a business difficult are closely connected to the things I value most about it. With the responsibility comes independence. With the uncertainty comes the freedom to choose my own direction. And with all the work comes the ability to build my life around the people who matter most to me.
I wouldn’t trade that freedom for anything.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
So much!
I dream of seeing Bébé Deer grow, reaching more and more families and, eventually, being able to build a team of people who share the same belief that we can consume differently.
There’s a scene in The Intern that has always made me smile. Anne Hathaway’s character has built a company so big and busy that she rides a bicycle through the office to save time. Yet she still orders a parcel from her own company to check for herself how it arrives and whether the customer experience is good enough.
I remember watching that and thinking, one day, I’d love to build something like that.
My dream is for Bébé Deer to become a big company while keeping the values and attention to detail of a small family business. However much we grow, I never want us to lose the care that goes into every order or forget the individual family waiting for it at the other end.
I hope that one day there will be a whole team behind Bébé Deer, helping more families choose preloved and making that choice feel completely natural. But I also hope we’ll still be wrapping every order carefully in tissue paper, checking the little details and remembering why those details matter.
Because, after all, these aren’t just clothes. They’re clothes that will be worn by the people our customers love most in the world.
Visit the Bébé Deer website to find out more and shop their gorgeous range, and follow them on Facebook.
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