Meet the Maker
🖤 HEY, I'M MEGAN.
The person behind Alt Originals (formerly Babble & Bloom Clothing) & Alt Encore.
I'm a 30-something-year-old maker, seamstress, fabric hoarder, band-tee obsessive and general lover of all things a little bit different.
I live in Bristol with my soon-to-be husband, our little rocker-in-training (aka my son) and our Boxer dog, who is probably more punk than all of us put together.
And yes, I really do run all of this myself. 😅
💜 From Babble & Bloom to Alt Originals
If you've been around for a while, you might be wondering... “Hang on... wasn't this Babble & Bloom?” Yep. You remembered correctly. 😂
Alt Originals is formerly Babble & Bloom Clothing.
Babble & Bloom started as a small children's clothing business, born out of a frustration with the same old children's clothes everywhere. But somewhere along the way, things got a little... bigger. We grew into tween and adult clothing, accessories, made-to-order alternative pieces, DTF designs, licensed merchandise, pre-orders, and eventually upcycling through Alt Encore. The business had grown beyond what the Babble & Bloom name represented.
And when Alt Encore became a bigger part of what we do, it made even more sense to bring everything together under a name that reflected where the business was heading.
So in 2026, Babble & Bloom became Alt Originals. 🖤
The name changed. The maker didn't.
It's still me behind the sewing machine, answering your messages, choosing the fabrics, packing the orders and occasionally wondering why I thought running a business while working full-time was a sensible idea. 😂
Alt Originals and Alt Encore are now two sides of the same alternative clothing world.
🖤 Alt Originals – handmade, made-to-order clothing and accessories, created especially for you.
♻️ Alt Encore – upcycled, one-of-a-kind pieces, giving existing t-shirts a second life.
It's a rebrand because we've grown, not because we've changed who we are.
🖤 So, where did it all begin?
Back in 2021, I got increasingly fed up with seeing the same old children's clothes everywhere. You know the ones. Dinosaurs. Cars. More dinosaurs. Maybe a tractor if you're feeling adventurous. And I thought: Surely kids can have clothes with a bit more personality than that? I wanted my son to have clothes with a bit of personality and attitude, not just the same generic prints that seemed to be everywhere.
So I started Babble & Bloom. What began as a way of making alternative children's clothing grew into something much bigger, because apparently I'm not very good at leaving an idea alone once I've got one in my head.
Why should alternative clothing only come in a handful of styles? Why should you have to settle for whatever happens to be hanging on a shop rail? And why shouldn't you be able to find a print that feels like you?
So that's what we do. You choose your print. You choose your style. You choose your size. And I make it. From dresses and hoodies to harems, leggings, tops, accessories and all the wonderfully weird combinations in between, Alt Originals is made to order and made differently. There's no giant warehouse full of identical garments waiting to be sold.
You choose it. I make it. 🖤
♻️ And then came Alt Encore...
Alt Encore was originally a dream for 2024. Life had other ideas, and the launch eventually happened in 2025, but honestly? I'm glad it took the long way around because Alt Encore is where my upcycling obsession gets to run wild.
Alt Encore is about taking something that already exists. An old t-shirt, something forgotten, something that might otherwise have ended up unwanted, and turning it into something completely different. Something with attitude. Something wearable. Something that makes you go: “Wait... THAT used to be what?!”
That's the whole point of Alt Encore. We're not just making something new. We're giving something that already existed another chance to be brilliant.
♻️ A second life. A new identity. An encore.
And that's why Alt Originals and Alt Encore work so well together.
One is made especially for you. The other starts with something that already exists. Both are about refusing to settle for boring.
🖤 Why alternative?
Because I genuinely believe clothes should be allowed to be fun.
They should be loud if you want them loud. Weird if you want them weird. Pink, black, colourful, spooky, cute, gothic, punk, band-inspired, completely ridiculous or all of the above. And they definitely don't need to fit neatly into whatever box the high street has decided we're supposed to fit into this season.
I make the clothes I'd want to wear – and the clothes I want my kid to wear.
Turns out, quite a few other people want them too. 💜
💜 The person behind the parcels
Although the clothes might be fun, there's a serious amount of work that happens behind the scenes.
I run Alt Originals and Alt Encore solo.
That means everything from:
- sourcing fabrics
- choosing prints
- creating listings
- answering messages
- managing the website
- cutting fabric
- sewing
- ordering stock
- sourcing licensed merchandise
- pressing DTF designs
- photographing products
- packing orders
- posting orders
- social media
- and all the other random jobs nobody thinks about when they see the finished product
...is me.
And yes, I also work full-time alongside the business while dreaming of the day I can finally do this all day, every day. So when you buy from me, you're not buying from a giant company with a warehouse and a customer service department. You're buying from an actual person. Which is simultaneously lovely and occasionally terrifying. 😂
🖤 A few things about me
💜 I'm originally from the Midlands, although Bristol is home these days. Before that, I've lived in Norfolk and Suffolk too.
🖤 My happy place is Download Festival. I drag my partner along whenever I can. He's not quite as obsessed with the music as I am, but I'm working on him. 🤘
💜 I'm almost certainly wearing a band tee when I'm not covered in thread, fabric fluff or whatever I've managed to spill on myself.
🖤 Tattoos are my therapy. Much cheaper than pretending I'm going to become a calm, sensible adult.
💜 I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2024, which explained a lot about the way my brain works; particularly the approximately seventeen ideas I have before breakfast.
🖤 I really, really love making things.
What started as Babble & Bloom has grown far beyond where it started.
You'll now find:
🖤 Alt Originals – handmade, made-to-order alternative clothing and accessories.
♻️ Alt Encore – upcycled, one-of-a-kind pieces made from existing garments.
🖤 Licensed Merchandise – because sometimes you just need the official band tee.
They're all different, but they all have the same underlying idea:
You don't have to wear what everyone else is wearing.
🖤 Why buy from a small business?
Because your money matters. When you buy from a small independent business, you're helping a real person keep doing something they love. You're helping me turn an idea into an actual piece of clothing. And you're helping prove that there is still room for small, independent, slightly alternative businesses that do things differently.
So thank you.
Whether you've bought one item, followed us for years, shared a post, recommended us to a friend or simply stopped by to have a nosy... I genuinely appreciate you being here.
♻️ Made differently.
That's really what all of this comes down to.
Alt Originals are made to order. Alt Encore gives existing garments another chance.
And everything else exists because I refuse to believe clothes have to be boring.
Babble & Bloom was where we started. Alt Originals is where we've grown. Alt Encore is where we're giving things another life. And I'm still here, making the things. You make them yours.
Originals aren't made in factories. 🖤💜