Our Story
Our Story
It all started about 10 years ago after my first child was born. My husband and I were just starting out and didn’t have much.. but I became obsessed baby fashion. Pretty dangerous when you don’t have very much money, right? I (virtually) window shopped a lot. Found things that were super unique and cute and put them in my cart knowing I’d never purchase them.
Then one day, I had an idea. Why not learn how to make some of this stuff myself? So I did just that. It started with headbands and that just continued to morph throughout the years.. slowly growing. Then, I got pregnant with my second daughter. I was determined to find the most perfect coming home outfit for her and I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted lace, pearls, tea-stained.. I wanted something beautiful and classic, but couldn’t find the perfect one. Sooo.. I made it myself. I taught myself how to tea-stain clothing and different types of fabrics. I then taught myself how to sew. First by hand, then by machine. Then came embroidery. Then heat transfer vinyl. I wanted to learn it all. And I wanted to make really unique and one-of-a-kind items. My primary goal was to make stuff for my own kids to save money, but if I could sell some to help fund more craft stuff, even better.
Well.. to my surprise, people really liked my stuff, too. It all kind of just took off seemingly overnight and that became my thing.
I’ve offered so many styles throughout the years. A little of this, a little of that. Eventually though, I started to feel like all my stuff was.. basic.
Basic? I had built a business on uniqueness and one-of-a-kind items. Had I lost my love for it? Had it become a.. job? Yep. And a boring one at that. Don’t get me wrong, I had some super cute items.. but one-of-a-kind? No. Creative? No. And that’s the part of it that I loved. I had gotten in a creative slump. I had to fix it. I had to get back to why I started.. but this time, I already had all the tools in my pocket. Years of business had brought me to a point that I had all the knowledge and all the know how.. I began to realize that it was time for a refresh.
Branded Birdie is the sum of years and years of ideas, knowledge, and experience. It’s the merger of my greatest ideas and the best clothing in the industry (in my opinion!). And I am so ridiculously excited to let it loose.
My love for leather is silly. I love it. I love everything about it. An idea came to me one day to somehow incorporate the leather onto the clothing.. I would laser engrave it.. essentially branding it.. and then place it into the clothing for these babes. Similar to the way cattle are branded, Branded Birdie will (humanely) brand your Baby Bird. Well, not actually the baby. But the clothing they are wearing. I will share more about this throughout.
So, at this point.. I knew another area I wanted to improve of was the quality and fit of the outfits and also to add in more products customers have always begged me for.. like blankets. Ultimately, I wanted a line of products that were the best of the best. That are consistent. That are good. When you hold it in your hands, I want you to feel the quality just as easily as you can see it. I want it to fit your baby perfectly (Speaking of that: Early Birds, our premie line, will be debuted very soon!). I want to sell a coming home outfit to you that I would source the internet for months to find if it were for my baby. And then, I want to make it even better. I want to make it unique. I want to be able to personalize it for you. Basically, I want to sell you time because you’ve just found THE outfit.
Over time I will grow with even more products.. but for now I want to take it slow. During my phase of being basic, I leaned something big. Consistency and quality are two things that no successful business can ever survive without. It doesn’t matter what you do nor how you’re doing it, if you’re not doing it the right way it really doesn’t matter if you do it at all.. does it? Eventually it’s going to stop working. It’ll give out. So, we will go slow and steady and ensure we never lose the quality and consistency you all have come to know. The products may have changed, but that part never will.
So that’s basically it. How it started, how we got here, and what’s next. We’re excited and hope you all are also!
-Alli