About Us

About Posh Baby

When our son was born in the early 2000s, baby fashion looked a certain way: pastels, teddy bears, ducks. Timeless, yeah, but not particularly joyful. And here's the thing—your baby is an extension of you, at least for a while. So why shouldn't they feel that?

The Beginning: The Bum Rug

Someone gave me a baby changing mat. I liked the concept, but the execution was terrible—plastic, tiny, ugly. So I thought, why not make something better?

I designed an absorbent changing pad with beautiful Amy Butler fabric (if you know, you know) and absorbing material in the center. Machine washable. Something that actually solved a problem instead of creating one. No more baby pee puddles everywhere.

I put a handful of these "Bum Rugs" in a Harry and David tin, printed business cards on my home printer, hand-cut them out on photo paper, and walked into a local store to see if they'd carry them. They said yes. Then another store said yes. And another.

I wasn't trying to start a business. I was just looking for something creative to do. But somehow, it was actually working.

I'll never forget showing up to a family weekend with a laundry basket full of unfinished Bum Rugs. My aunt Rita and my mother-in-law Sandy just jumped in. They showed me how to finish the edges properly, helped me tie them off, put on hang tags—got everything ready for my first real store order. That moment meant everything. They believed in it when I wasn't even sure what "it" was yet.

The Second Product: Tiny Scrubs

Then came the scrubs. I wanted to make my son a pair to match his dad, Erik, who's a physician assistant. One problem: I had no idea how to sew.

Never stopped me before. I'd figure it out.

Those scrubs are hanging in my office. One leg is way wider than the other. I still have no idea how that happened. But they make me laugh every time I see them.

I knew pretty quick that sewing wasn't going to be my thing. I reached out to Roya, an incredible seamstress who was a refugee from Afghanistan. She became the backbone of everything we made in those early years. Her work was beautiful. She stayed with us for years, handcrafting our pieces.

Sarah, Alison, and Mike came into my life at exactly the right moment. Sarah was an amazing partner in all of this. Alison and Mike just showed up when I needed them. And so many others mentored me, advised me, believed in what we were building before I did. I wasn't doing this alone.

From Basement to Wholesale to Home

What started in our basement as a creative hobby turned into something we didn't plan for. We had zero business experience. No design background. No idea what we were doing with wholesale or retail. We just had stubbornness and a Chase credit card that we probably shouldn't have maxed out.

But retailers wanted the Bum Rugs. Boutiques around the world started carrying our stuff. We had to scale up—started producing in India and Peru to keep up. But Roya? She stayed with us, still making things by hand.

Then Erik got deployed to Afghanistan. I was trying to run wholesale, retail, manufacturing, distribution, design—all of it. I couldn't do it. So we made a decision. We stepped back from wholesale and focused on what felt right: curating a retail experience, both in our store and online.

Twenty Years Later

And now here we are. People still email or call asking if we're still making scrubs. If we can make a special pair for someone. It never gets old.

Posh Baby is still family-owned. Still hand-curated. We still believe that good design and functionality aren't luxuries. We still care about eco-friendly and sustainably made products because the world our kids inherit matters. We still believe parenthood should be joyful, not overwhelming.

Whether you shop with us online or come visit us in Portland, you're getting what you've gotten for twenty years: products we actually believe in. Things that celebrate who you are as a parent and who your kid is becoming.

We were lucky. But mostly, we were stubborn enough to keep going.

Thank you for being part of this.

— Natalie & Erik

A real thank you to Roya, whose hands helped build Posh Baby. To Rita and Sandy, who helped with sewing advice and packed orders. To Sarah, who was an amazing partner. To Alison and Mike, who were there when I needed them. And to everyone along the way whose mentorship, support, and belief in us made all the difference.