Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nicole Reilly. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Nicole, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
The idea for Dear Hayden was born deep in the newborn phase with my second child, Julien. I loved shopping for and dressing both him and my daughter and was drawn to adorable knit outfits like overalls, sweater rompers, and little sets, however, I found all my favorite outfits to be extremely impractical for the frequent diaper changes that are synonymous with the newborn period. I loved the convenience of zip and magnetic footy pajamas that he would wear for sleep and felt that there should be something equally as convenient, while still looking elevated, for daytime. Plenty of parents will keep their newborns in sleepers all day long for this reason. I came up with the idea to take a few of my favorite designs and swap out the buttons or snaps for magnetic closures to create pieces that were equally functional and stylish. I felt confident that there was a need in the market for this type of product because there was only one major company in the US making baby clothing with magnetic closures and their focus was primarily on sleepwear and using different fabrics and materials than I was hoping to use. Also, being a mom to two little ones and having lots of friends in a similar life stage, I was my own target customer and had a ton of people I could tap to get insights, ask questions, and receive feedback. While the functionality element of the designs was the top priority, it was also important to me to make clothes that were extremely sustainable to minimize environmental impact and also to create pieces that are gentle and safe on delicate baby skin. While this is the direction that many businesses are headed in, there are still many in the baby and children’s industry that are not manufacturing ethically or sustainably and that use fabrics that have been treated with toxic chemicals. This was another way that we decided to differentiate our brand from competitors.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Nicole Reilly. I live in Chicago and was a Chicago Public School elementary teacher for most of my career. I am a wife and mom to two little ones, ages 3 and 5. I am the founder and creative director of a new baby and children’s apparel brand called Dear Hayden. We make beautiful, sustainable pieces that are also extremely functional. We swap traditional buttons and snaps for magnetic closures for quick and struggle-free changing. As a mom to two under two, I was fed up with the tedious buttons and snaps that covered my favorite pieces for my little ones. I loved the convenience of sleepers but didn’t want to dress my littles in sleepwear all day long. I felt there was a need for beautiful, elevated pieces that were equally functional. As a brand, we also focus on working with sustainable fabrics and are extremely picky about the factories we choose to partner with. Our suppliers are committed to ethical practices and share our same values of sustainable production. We carefully select the fabrics we use to make sure they are both earth-friendly and soft and gentle on delicate baby skin. We hear again and again that people are blown away by the quality of our pieces as well as the feel of the fabrics.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
Yes, we do! When I first got started, I knew nothing about manufacturing, e-commerce, fashion, brand-building, entrepreneurship, etc. I had been an elementary school teacher for my entire career. I did know how to find people who had the expertise to point me in the right direction, though. I hired a woman from Upwork to do some consulting for me who had had her own women’s fashion brand previously and had worked with manufacturers. I simultaneously found a designer out of Spain with an expertise in children’s clothing design who had worked for major international labels and also was able to point me in a direction as far as manufacturing was concerned. I knew that I wanted to work with factories with a commitment to sustainability and ethical practices so I was seeking factories that had earned GOTS certification. GOTS actually has a database on their website of factories that have been 3rd party test and earned accreditation. You can filter their database by country as well as type of manufacturing so that was a great place for me to start. I found a bunch of factories to get in touch with that way. I also thought about some of my favorite brands in terms of quality of product and fabrics and did some old fashioned google detective work to try to find their suppliers. There was a lot of back and forth with many different factories in order to find the ones that were willing to take on a new brand and could accommodate the smaller quantities we would need at the start. Once I had decided on my suppliers, the next big hurdle was figuring out how to manufacture with the magnets. Both of the factories I started with had never used magnets before so there was a huge learning curve for all of us. I even deconstructed some of my kids’ pieces and took them to my local dry cleaners and had them stitch some magnets for me to try things out small scale before giving instructions to the factories. It is still more time-consuming for them to manufacture with magnets but they are way more efficient now and have created some methods and processes to make it easier. We are constantly experimenting and trying new things to make our pieces as functional as possible. We are currently expanding our network of suppliers and trying out a few new manufacturing partners. We found one in Peru that specializes in organic Pima cotton which will be a new fabric for us. We are excited for this new partnership and to offer more amazing fabrics to our customers.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
In person events have been really successful for us. We’ve done craft fairs, pop ups/trunk shows and those have all went really well. I think people like getting to meet the founder and see who is behind the brand, but also our pieces, while they photograph beautifully, are ten times better in person. When people see how the magnets function in person, touch the fabrics, feel the quality of the knits, they fall in love. Many of our customers who find us in person turn into repeat customers.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dearhayden.com
- Instagram: @shopdearhayden
- Facebook: @shopdearhayden
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-reilly-7a214535
- Other: tiktok: @shopdearhayden
Image Credits
Julianna Pressley Photography
Nicole Defilippis Photography