Of course I couldn’t get to the letter L (very late I know) without writing about the word leggings! (Thanks to my hubby for suggesting it, I’m really struggling to think of things in this challenge!) Children’s leggings of course, I’m not that bothered about adult ones, unless they are designed by me obviously 😉 (you never know, this could be my next venture).

I’ve now launched 2 mini collections of leggings and sell them through my online shop on my blog. It’s been a dream of mine for a long time, but I never thought it would actually happen. I mean, I have my own clothing brand? Me?! Of course it’s early days and I’m not well known, but with everything else going on in my life I’m happy for my brand to growly slowly and organically for a while, you know, while I’m having a baby next month!

I’ve had an obsession with leggings for Lamb for a couple of years now and the brand developed from there. There are so many independent brands on places like Etsy and Instagram selling beautifully made items and there is such a niche for these kinds of products.

Shopping for boys can be difficult, especially if you don’t want the obvious baby blue colours and trains and diggers. There are few places you can buy ‘cooler’ clothes for boys. For example Next recently had an amazing range of boys baby clothes with milk bottles all over them (you can see it in my baby boy haul post), but now all they have is pale blue and sail boats. Yawn. Next you were doing so well

H&M and Zara are always good places to go if you want something a little different, or more modern/contemporary. I even buy from the girls section from Lamb as I find a lot of their leggings are unisex.

After shopping for Lamb for 3 years I’ve learned a little about what’s missing on the high street and I want my brand to slot into this area nicely.

My biggest aim is to offer a range that is mostly unisex. I know everyones taste are different and not everyone will agree that what I design is unisex, but I look at my work and think would I put a boy in that, would I put a girl in that? I always send photos of my prints to my friends with kids and ask for their options. As long as I get a general yes I know I’m going down the right path. For example 2 out of 3 with girls may say yes, which is fine as some mums have girly girls and some have tom boys.

So far I would say the majority of my customers are buying for their sons, but I think that is down to my following, my shop is connected to my blog and as my blog is about my 3 year old son and soon to be baby boy, it seems the general following is more aimed at boys.

One of my goals with this brand is to get more girls in my leggings. You may have seen my purple dinosaur leggings which are proving very popular with mums of girls. I’ve had a lot of requests for girly dinosaurs – “girls can wear dinosaurs too!” I want to cater more for this kind of customer, as well as the lovers of monochrome and bold prints, and more!

As I’ve covered animal prints in the last 2 mini collections, I think I’ll try something else for the next collection, whenever that may be. I’ll also try to introduce new styles. I get a lot of requests for baby grows and t-shirts.

I find myself explaining a lot to of people how my business works, because most of my customers assume I hand make the leggings (like a lot of lovely brands do on Etsy), but I don’t. I design the prints myself, they are all mine and you can’t buy them anywhere else. I then create specifications for each design. The size, print scale, colour codes, material, everything. I have an agent that finds the factory and has the product printed and manufactured professionally.

I can’t just whip up a t-shirt or sleep suit for you. There’s a whole process involved including order minimums and a few thousand pounds! I’d love to offer you more product, and one day I will. It’s a shame I don’t have a money tree in my garden because I’d certainly use it to invest into my brand.

I’m a very impatient person and can’t help but want more product, more sales, right now, but it;s just not possible. I just have to keep doing what I’m doing. Promote on social media and hope people buy. Last month I sold my leggings at a Baby & Toddler show in Suffolk and it went really well. I’ve now signed up for another one in July and one in September. Fingers crossed the money I make from the show in July and any sales online will feed a new collection for the show in September.

I’m excited about the future of my brand & blog, it’s my new passion and i’m determined to make it successful (alongside chasing a 3 year old and soon to be night feeding a newborn!)

I’d love to know what you’d like to see next from Lamb & Bear?

Ax