Review of Borrowed By Baby - Hiring My Baby's Capsule Wardrobe

Hello!

I have an exciting post to share today, which, as you can tell from the title, is all about baby capsule wardrobes!

As you’ll probably know if you’ve been reading for a while, I am a big fan of having a capsule wardrobe for myself, but have found it kind of difficult to implement the same streamlined approach to my kiddies wardrobe’s (they just grow so fast and it can be tricky planning out your purchases when you just don’t know how long they will be in a certain size!)

You can imagine my excitement when Stevie the owner of Borrowed by Baby contacted me and asked if I would like to try out a baby capsule wardrobe for Matteo! There could not be a more aligned collaboration and I’m so happy to be able to share this really awesome business with you!

The concept:

Babies grow out of their clothes so quickly, so the idea with Borrowed by Baby is that you hire a capsule collection (for a reasonable monthly fee) that you can use for as long as you need, and then return when they outgrow the clothes, the season changes, or when you get bored and would like to switch things up!

I think it is such a great idea as it saves money, time (especially now that I have two kiddies and getting to the shops feels like a mammoth task!) and is so much more sustainable and better for the planet (sustainability is one of their core aims and reasons why they started!)
It’s also great as you don’t need to store all those clothes away, so saves space in your home (and I am all for having more space and less clutter!)

How it works:

Like I touched on above, it works on a subscription basis. You pay a monthly fee and are able to keep the clothes for as long as you like.

There are two options to choose from - the “Everyday Essentials” capsule (approx. 12-14 pieces for around $45/month) which is their more basic option, designed to supplement your existing wardrobe (I’ll go more into what you get in this one later - you can also watch the video above to see exactly what we received!) and their “Daily Deluxe” capsule which is a more comprehensive collection of clothes (approx. 21-22 pieces for around $52/month).

They ask you to fill out a questionnaire to let them know your colour preferences, sizing requirements, etc, so that they can curate a capsule wardrobe to suit you and your baby!

The capsule wardrobe is then conveniently mailed to you. They are Perth based but ship Australia wide! When your baby outgrows the clothes, the season changes or you’d just like something new, you can send it back and they will send out a new one!

Babies can be rather messy, so my main question was how does it work if something happens to get stained. The subscription fee takes into account reasonable wear and tear (such as minor to small stains, some small holes, pulling, piling etc), but for items where the damage is more extensive or can’t be repaired, they charge a flat fee of $10 per item, which I thought was really reasonable.

What we received in Matteo’s capsule and my thoughts:

We received the “Everyday Essentials” capsule and it included 16 pieces:

3 x Onesies. Brands: Pure Baby, Goldie + Ace and Cuddly Monkeys.
6 x Tops: This included 4 bodysuits, a long sleeve top and a jumper. These were great basics and included brands - Pure Baby, Halo and Horns and Target.
4 x Bottoms: These included a pair of jeans, 2 trackie pants, and a pair of knitted shorts. Brands included were Halo and Horns and Osh Kosh B’Gosh (I feel a lot of nostalgia for that brand as I used to wear it myself and have actually passed down some of them to my kiddies!).
2 x Rompers/overalls. Both were from Pumpkin Patch (another brand I remember from when I was little!)
1 x Cardigan - a beautiful knitted grey one with a hood that I thought was SO cute!

*I go into more detail showing each of the pieces in the video above :)

My Thoughts:

Matteo’s capsule wardrobe included such lovely pieces and high quality brands (that would really add up price wise if you were to buy them all yourself) so I think it’s a really fair price that they charge, and I love that they have a focus mainly on stocking items from Australian brands and ones that are made from sustainable fabrics. I just love the concept of the shared wardrobe and that the pieces can be shared around and properly used, rather than just worn a handful of times!

In terms of the number and type of items in the capsule, I think it was a great mix of pieces and styles. As Matteo is still only 4 months, I tend to mainly dress him in onesies or comfy trackies for day to day, so those are the pieces that got the most use.

Before becoming a mum, I thought I would be all about dressing up my babies in cute outfits, but in reality, I am not that mum! I go for whatever is easiest and also what I think is going to be most comfortable for them - which is usually always onesies or trackie pants!

The onesies we received were all super soft and cute and I could really tell the difference in quality compared to some of the other onesies we dress him in!

I particularly loved the striped aqua coloured one on Matteo - it just fit him so well and the colour was so nice! The galah print one was also super sweet!

While I loved the beautiful neutral print of the Pure Baby onesie (and how super soft it felt!) it didn’t work quite as well on Mattie’s short but very chubby body shape (it was a bit too snug around the middle and the legs were really long!) so we didn’t get quite as much use out of that particular one, but now I know for next time and will just be able to request to not have that brand as a onesie! I actually remember now that we bought a Pure Baby onesie for Ruby too and it also didn’t work (I make short, chubby babies and the Pure Baby onesies are definitely made for taller, more slender bubs!)

I think this is another really great thing about hiring the clothes. You can get an idea of what brands work for your baby, in terms of their size and shape, so if you do want to buy some pieces, you can make the best choices and not waste money on something that isn’t right!

Another thing I want to note here, just to point out the value you are getting with the capsule is that one Pure Baby onesie usually costs $39.95. That is almost the cost of the one month subscription for the entire capsule! And when you think about how fast babies grown in those first few months and how many sizes of clothes you go through - it’s definitely great value.

For more “special” occasions when I did decide to dress him up in something a bit more “fancy”, I particularly loved the overalls and grey cardigan. They were just so adorable!

I think as he gets a bit older I will put him in these type of pieces more often, but because he’s still so young, I was sticking to the onesies and trackies the majority of the time.

That is the beauty of hiring the wardrobe though - you get access to a great selection of items and it’s okay if a few of them are only worn a handful of times! I love that the pieces can then be returned and shared around with other families so they be properly used and enjoyed, rather than just packed away in a box!

So overall, as you can tell by my rave, I am a big fan of Borrowed by Baby and this idea of hiring a capsule wardrobe for bub. It has been a great supplement to the clothes we already had, particularly as the way it worked with seasons and sizing, Matteo didn’t actually have a lot of clothes handed down from Ruby that were suitable for the winter months and the size he is right now.

The only thing I would maybe change about his capsule would be to include a few more onesies and a few less of the separates (tops and bottoms), but that is just a personal preference (and maybe because I’m a bit lazy!!)

I highly recommend checking them out if this sounds interesting to you. It really is such great value, particularly in those early weeks and months when they are growing so rapidly!!!

Thank you so much Borrowed by Baby for creating such a great service and giving me the opportunity to try out this capsule wardrobe for Matteo!

I hope you found this review helpful! Please let me know if you have any questions!
Leave a comment below or come say hi over on Instagram @laurennatalia.co

Lots of Love
Lauren
xxx