Before creating my own sustainable baby clothing brand Pop My Way, I spent spent 6 years in a senior position within Buying and Merchandising at Burberry. Before that, I spent 15 years in the fashion industry for some iconic brands. A tricky pregnancy and birth of my daughter prompted me to start thinking about ways to make the early days with new babies easier. Frustrated by nappy changes and feeds complicated by inflexible and impractical clothing, the idea of a simpler way was born. Curious about where and how my daughter’s clothes were produced, I began to weave my other passion, sustainability, into the concept.I was born in Durban, South Africa at the time the country was segregated under apartheid. As a child of colour, I got to hear all the stories about what my parents, grandparents and others had to endure. I noticed the injustices and the massive divide between those who were privileged and those who had nothing. Importantly, I noticed what everyday people did with the little that they had. I saw the informal housing settlements that people built by themselves from scraps of metal, plastic bags or other throwaway items that they found.Sustainability is a way of life in South Africa because people are forced to reuse and recycle as much as possible. Old clothes and leftover food are always welcomed by someone, and one man’s scrap is another man’s treasure. Bottles and cans are collected to be traded in for cash, and any usable material is used to build homes, toys, or ornamental items to be sold. This is so inspiring to see, and I want the world to know that my beautiful country is about so much more than violent crime – it is also about sustainability, ingenuity and innovation.I started Pop My Way with these ideas of sustainability and innovation at the forefront of my mind. Unlike other brands who claim to be ‘sustainable’ just by using organic fabrics, Pop My Way’s entire supply chain is fully GOTS-certified, so everything from energy and water use, to hazardous chemicals /use of non-chemical dyes, to the social responsibility and wages the factory workers get paid is monitored and audited regularly. Our factory in Peru is GOTS-certified by Control Union (Licence No 866191).The Pop My Way collection features ingenious mix-and-match baby essentials with interchangeable accessories that are designed to “pop” onto the garment. Add a splash of colour with a pastel collar, replace a messy bib or make lost socks a thing of the past thanks to the clever shoulder and ankle poppers.