A Preston mum has launched a sustainable children’s clothing brand after almost losing her newborn baby.

Michelle Carter gave birth to her son, Red, in 2016.

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Michelle said: “Red was very poorly and spent time in neonatal care. To this day he has allergies and a serious skin condition, which means he can only wear chemical free clothing.

“This inspired me to want to create a clothing brand using natural and organic materials, so I started designing Red Roux Rouge just after he was born.”

Red Roux Rouge has now been open for six months and employs six staff.

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At the heart of the operation is the desire to give back to the charities that helped Michelle and Red in their time of need. While the team takes a basic wage for their time, profit money will be donated annually as a lump sum to Project Linus UK, who provided Michelle with lactation hearts while Red was in neonatal care, and The PANDAS Foundation, who support and advise parents experiencing perinatal mental illness.

Michelle continued, “Ultimately we are a team of Mums and Grandmas raising money for really special charities that I benefited from at a horrendous time in my life, when I thought I was going to lose my son.

“Two of our knitters, Becky and Jenny, are a mother and daughter team based in Hampshire, and our oldest team member has just celebrated her 70th birthday! One of our seamstresses used to work for a high street store as a pattern maker and has a degree in fashion design.

“Although I am actually a psychotherapist, I am really hands on. I sew a lot of the wholesale orders and manage most of the business side of Red Roux Rouge from our workshop in Ashton-on-Ribble.”

In a world of fast fashion, Red Roux Rouge is also hoping to change the way parents buy clothing for their children with the motto, “buy better and buy less”. Their clothing is ethically handmade, and all fabrics and yarns hold full organic certification. In addition they operate a zero waste policy that sees any surplus fabric go to charity.

Read more: Preston mum launches children’s clothing range

After just six months, Michelle is already looking for bigger premises and to extend the team in order to better manage large wholesale orders.

Michelle said, “New seamstresses are in the pipeline, which will take a lot of pressure off me – I’m a busy mum of three children!

“Hopefully next year we will extend the age range of our products and create some mum and baby/child coordinated items. I’d like to stock other small sustainable brands’ accessories and baby footwear, plus have a shop area so that customers can call in and browse some of our pieces.

“Who knows what is around the corner, but so far the people of Preston have really got behind us, and we have many repeat customers. I’d really like to thank everybody for their support.”

You can shop the Red Roux Rouge range online, and follow them on Instagram @redrouxrouge.

Have you bought anything from Red Roux Rouge? What do you think of the idea? Let us know in the comments below.