My girls are bigger now but I remember those zero to five years with mixed emotions like every mum.

One of the great pleasure was I confess the children’s clothes. And Jo Jo Mamam Bebe was where a lot came from.

I indulged my desire to shop and justified it a little bit with the B Corp status.

B Corporation status, established in the US to try and inform consumers more about ethical and sustainable practises is a series of hoops brands have to jump through in order to display the B Corporation badge, letting consumers know shopping with them is consciously doing less harm than maybe a company without the B Corp accreditation.

It is not easy to get. Especially for clothing where unethical manufacture is rife all a round the globe.

I loved shopping all the beautiful kids brands, le petit bateaux, catamimi, jacardi, tartine et Chocolat, it was a pleasure and most have been passed down or recycled and enjoyed by other family members and friends. Oilily the Dutch children’s brand I particularly loved founded by Willem and Marieke Olsthoorn in Alkmaar in the Netherlands and Jojo Maman Bebe has a similar fun but also luxury aesthetic.

The beauty of shopping B Corp is you can kind of take the credit too (with your spend) for all the good things the brands had to do in the first place to get it.

Sort of a pay it forward for a better world. Something I really like.

You can find out more at the B Corporation website and discover a whole world of brands prepared to go the extra mile to make things better for everyone.

I was inspired by Laura Tenison’s story and her inspiration watching children in France stylishly clad in fisherman’s overalls and stripy jumpers. She got PR when Catherine princess of wales wore and then rewore her maturity coat. Which obviously didn’t hurt the brand. I wanted to support when my kids were little. Like most things I am unsure now whether Simon’s Wolfsons vision for Next is steered by ethics first.

B corporation brands make a commitment to put the welfare and wellbeing of people above any strategy for profit.

And if you are looking for a gift for a Mum or Mum to be or have young kids and you haven’t visited it’s a haven of well curated practical stuff and some truly beautiful things too from around the world.

I shopped with them pre acquisition by Next in 2022. If you read about them even though Next own 44% of the company, the remaining 56% owned by a New York hedge fund since 2022 they have retained their ethical credentials.

Laura Tension did not stay with the business when she sold her controlling stake for an undisclosed amount. Not sure what happens with B Corp certification when a business like this gets purchased by a much larger group without the credential.

It states online because Jojo Maman Bebe still operate under their own brand identity and remain autonomous when it comes to strategy and hiring they have kept their B corp status for 10 years, even though their owners don’t adhere to the strict B corp guidelines within their own business.

It’s one of those nagging questions, can something not so good own and yet have no influence whatsoever on a business with strong ethics and principals? I am not sure whether B lab continue to require validation of standards or if once Jojo Maman Bebe jumped through all the hoops as a business they are set. If this is important to you I guess you’d have to check into it further for clarification. It does state online the brand undergoes more rigorous scrutiny from B lab because of the change in ownership but what that scrutiny entails would require a deep dive.