Caitlin Crisp on Motherhood & Building Business

Caitlin Crisp on building New Zealand's most loved fashion label, life with Charlie, and why every day should be Mother's Day.

There is something quietly magnetic about Caitlin Crisp. She is warm and funny and honest in a way that makes you feel like you have known her for years. She also happens to have built one of New Zealand's most recognised fashion labels from scratch, sewing her first pieces at twelve years old with a dream that never wavered.

Today, she runs a studio and store on Ponsonby Road with a team of women she describes as beautiful, a toddler named Charlie who wakes her before 6am most mornings, a husband named Andrew, and a life that is, by any measure, very full. She is writing the interview answers from Hong Kong, during Charlie's nap. Of course she is.

The dream that did not change

Most of us spend our twenties figuring out what we want. Caitlin already knew. "I always knew I wanted to be a clothing designer," she says. "I have been sewing since the age of 12." She started her label in her early twenties, building it slowly, organically, without shortcuts. The Ponsonby store, the team, the reputation, all of it came from that same quiet certainty.

"I do know what I'm doing, I can trust my gut, nobody knows my business better than I do and I am proud of my abilities," she says now. It reads like confidence, but it is something harder-earned than that. It is the kind of self-knowledge that only comes from years of doing the work.

On becoming a mother

Charlie arrived and, as he does with most things, rearranged everything. "You THINK you know what it's going to be like but nothing can truly prepare you," Caitlin says. The biggest shift? Time. Or rather, the sudden and total absence of it. "I look back and cannot believe how much spare time I used to have."

Her approach to motherhood reflects the same philosophy she brings to her business: stay curious, stay flexible, and resist the illusion of control. Rather than leaning into rigid routine, she leans into change. "What works one day might not work the next so I do my best to read Charlie's cues as well as my own."

The one ritual she has kept sacred is presence. Every evening, without exception, the family slows down together. Dinner, bath, books, bottle, bed. "It makes for a very happy baby as well as a good time for myself and Andrew to switch off from our busy work day."

Hungry, always hungry

Breastfeeding, Caitlin laughs, was a revelation in appetite. "WOW that was a shock, I was hungry all the time." It was during this season that she discovered Betty Bars. Quick, nourishing, genuinely good protein that could be eaten on the go, between meetings, in the thirty-second window between one thing and the next. "Quick, easy meals and high protein snacks were my best friend."

It is the kind of endorsement that matters most: not a campaign, but a real woman in a genuinely demanding season of life, reaching for something that actually helped.

The myth of balance

Ask Caitlin about work-life balance and she will give you one of the most honest answers you will hear. "I believe one can only achieve true balance standing on one foot." The advice she has received consistently from other working mothers is that the balance is, essentially, impossible. And she has made peace with that.

"I'm present when I'm with my girls at work and I am present when I am with my son so they all get the best of me." Balance, for her, is not a state you arrive at. It is a decision you keep making, moment to moment. As long as she has something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to, she feels it. Even when life is full.

On ego and the real cost of building something

When asked for her best piece of business advice, Caitlin does not hesitate. Ego. Leave it at the door. "The worst business decisions are made when people let their ego get in the way."

She is also refreshingly clear-eyed about what it actually takes to build a business, the kind of thing most people will read, nod along to, and never act on. "It takes way more hard work, discipline, consistency, confidence, sacrifice, resilience than a lot of people are capable of." She does not say this unkindly. She says it as a fact. One she has lived.

Joy as a practice

Perhaps the most quietly radical thing Caitlin Crisp does is choose happiness, daily, deliberately. "I intentionally smile, I intentionally sing, I intentionally wake up each day and decide that I will bring joy and love and light to my household."

Since Charlie arrived, this has taken on new weight. Her mood is no longer just her own. It ripples. It shapes his world. And somehow, rather than feeling like pressure, she has turned it into purpose.

"The best thing about being Charlie's mum," she says, "is knowing that I am the reason for so much of his joy and happiness. It brings out the absolute best version of myself."

Quickfire Round

1. Morning person or night owl (pre-baby vs now)?

Morning! Both pre and post baby.

2. Current situationship with coffee?

I wish I could handle 5+ a day but can only do 1.. I LOVE coffee.

3. The one wellness habit you refuse to give up, no matter how chaotic life gets?

This is really bare minimum, because life really does get chaotic.. But my showers, morning and night, I need them to refresh, reset and clear the head as much as I need them to clean the body!

4. A product, book, or podcast you have been loving lately?

Anything by Freida McFadden! I am a big reader and I’m loving her thrillers.

5. Finish this sentence: "The best thing about being Charlie's mum is..."

Knowing that I am the reason for so much of his joy and happiness, it brings out the absolute best version of myself.

Caitlin wears her own label; Caitlin Crisp. Betty Bars are available online and at select stockists nationwide.