Your name and age? Katrine & Eilidh (first picture), we’d rather not divulge our ages…

Shop: Niddle Noddle {kids fashion, toys and a little bit of vintage}

Where do you live? We both live in Crouch End, a charming, leafy area in North London, full of beautiful parks, cafes and children shops. We love the village atmosphere in Crouch End it makes a nice contrast to the hectic centre of London.

What did you do before you started the shop?

Eilidh: I grew up in the beautiful historic city of Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital. After graduating from Drama College I packed my bags and headed for London where I worked professionally as an actress for many years, well until around the time my daughter Freya was born (almost 5 years ago). After Freya came along I decided I wanted to do something different. Last minute castings and young children can be extremely difficult and stressful to organise! Problem was, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I wasn’t qualified to do anything else! A chance meeting in a local park with another mum who had a daughter the same age planted the seeds of an idea into my head! The mum was Katrine, a Dane, my husband is from Denmark, so we got chatting and discovered that we shared a real love of children’s design new and old.

Katrine: I originally come from Denmark where I spend most of my childhood in Copenhagen. I was always really interested in design even from a very young age! However my main ambition has always been to have a family so most of my work life has been very sporadic with odd jobs doing everything from working in kindergartens to waitressing. My big move to London happened in 2001 when I was training as a chef at the Danish catering college and made sure my apprenticeship would be in London, where I had already met my then boyfriend (now husband). I managed to work as chef for 2 years but had to stop following an accident on my bicycle (nothing too serious just a badly broken leg that left me unable to do the long hours of standing cheffing requires). After that I worked in retail while I also did a photography course at the London College of Printing which I left with a distinction. Following my studies I dappled in freelance photography for a while until I had Emmie 4 years ago.

And how did you get the idea to open an online shop? Our girl’s would soon be off to school and we realised they wouldn’t be needing us in the same way anymore. So we thought it might be fun to launch our own children’s boutique. We both felt there was a real gap in the market, most of the other children’s boutiques, lovely as they are, all seemed to sell the same things. We wanted to offer something a little more original.

How do you choose the products and/or collections you sell?
The majority of our clothes and accessories are sourced from smaller labels that haven’t yet reached the broader market.
We have carefully selected each item because we think they are very special.
Created by designers and artists (most of them parents themselves) who appreciate how important good quality and design is.
Many of our items are handmade and therefore one-offs. We don’t believe in mass production and have chosen to stock only a few of each item, which adds to their exclusivity.

What is the most fun part of this adventure?
We enjoy almost all of it (except maybe not the accounts!) It’s been a steep learning curve as neither of us have any real kind of business background. But we love this experience especially the kind comments we’ve received about our whole selection which we have worked very hard to source.

What do you think will be the next trend?
We really love Good quality classic knitwear which can be worn all year round!