Fairytale for Claire as new children’s store opens in Alcester
A MUM-OF-FOUR is sprinkling fairy dust over Alcester with her newly opened children’s store.
The gold and silver crowns, magic wands, starlight capes, top hats and jaunty circus jackets in Fable Heart are all designed and hand-made by owner Claire Pérez and her small team.
Inspired by fairytales and folklore, they’re also stocked by luxury department stores Harrods and Fortnum & Mason and sold online through Not on The High Street and more than 40 boutiques in the UK, Paris, New York and Tokyo.
The imaginative outfits and accessories have also been a hit with the children of celebrity parents such as TV and radio presenter Fern Cotton, and singer-actress Giovanna Fletcher and her husband, Tom of boyband McFly.
Fable Heart, which is in the town’s high street, also stocks a selection of traditional toys and games such as marbles, battleships, chess sets, jigsaw puzzles, doll’s house furniture plus bedside night lamps, backpacks, children’s crockery and books.
Although this is Claire’s first bricks and mortar shop, she’s been trading for almost 10 years.
After her grandmother taught her to sew and pattern-cut, she tarted making capes and crowns out of old curtains and bits of fabric to play dressing up with her daughters, now aged four, six, eight and 11.
People started to ask her to make special costumes for their children so she began buying in fabrics and designing outfits inspired by books and fairytales from her own childhood.
As the business expanded, she took on local seamstresses to help her out, firstly based in Ireland where she then lived, and now in Birmingham.
The clothing has attracted a lot of praise on social media, especially with influencers on Instagram, and has been featured in many national newspapers and magazines including The Times, The Sunday Telegraph and Good Housekeeping.
When the Telegraph featured Fable Heart’s capes, crowns and wands and dubbed them ‘Insta Nirvana’, it triggered orders from celebrities and got the brand noticed by Harrods and Fortnum & Mason.
Claire grew up in Redditch before moving to Ireland but is now happily settled in the Alcester area.
From the beginning, she chose quality fabrics with the aim of making clothing and accessories that would last and could be handed down through the generations.
She said: “I work closely with three women who are incredibly talented seamstresses, and we all support each other.
“And when buying in toys and games, I look for things that feel enchanting and will last, so mainly made from wood.
“There are so many toys that do everything for a child whereas when we were kids, we used our imaginations to make our own play and it’s that enchantment we’re trying to bring with Fable Heart.”
Claire plans to run Saturday story time sessions in the Alcester Fable Heart shop.
She added: “I’ve always wanted my own shop and I really enjoy the sense of community – we have the girls’ school friends and their parents popping in.
“Alcester is a lovely high street with some great indie shops already here that are doing really well.”
