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The New Language of Parenthood with Phoebe Simmonds, co-founder of The Memo
Phoebe Simmonds opens the door with an ease that immediately sets the tone. There’s no sense of performance, just warmth. She welcomes the team into her beautiful home as if it were an extension of herself: open, thoughtful, quietly assured. Designed to accommodate a full life with her husband, two growing boys, and an affectionate golden retriever, Zeus, the space carries what she describes as a “sense of calm”, a feeling that settles in with visitors quickly and stays, even alongside the busy energy of the photo shoot.
Light moves easily through the rooms, catching on shelves of books and layers of art, much of it by female artists she’s collected over time. There’s texture and memory everywhere, alongside the unmistakable signs of family life, yet it remains uncluttered and serene. It’s a home that has exactly what it needs.
“Storage is key,” she laughs, almost in passing, but the comment lingers. Because beneath the ease, there’s intention. A clear understanding of how space, life and family function, of what’s needed and what isn’t. It’s the same instinct that underpins The Memo.
As a former marketing executive and founder of The Blow, Simmonds wasn’t initially setting out to create a baby retailer. The idea began with her co-founder, Kate Casey, and a moment that felt all too familiar.
Pregnant with her first child, Casey walked into a traditional baby store and just as quickly walked out. Overwhelmed by the volume of product and underwhelmed by the experience, she was left asking a simple question: what do I actually need, and what’s the best version of it?
Parents deserved better,” Simmonds says. “Kate realised you don’t need all of the things. You just need the right things.
She brought that thinking to Simmonds, and together they shaped something entirely different in The Memo, a space grounded in curation and connection, where parents feel supported, informed and understood. That thinking runs through everything, from product selection to how the brand communicates, with content designed to guide and reassure in sharing thoughtful information about pregnancy and early parenthood rather than just being a push to purchase.
While much of the category has traditionally centred the baby, Simmonds shifts the focus back to the parent; their experience, their identity, their sense of self within a moment that can feel both expansive and disorienting.
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Parenting is only part of your identity,” she says. “You still want to feel like yourself.
There’s a clarity in that thinking, and it shapes everything. The edit is tight, deliberately so, with each product chosen for a real, tangible purpose. It’s not about filling a space, but about solving something by making a moment easier, more manageable, and more intuitive.
Sometimes that looks like the bigger pieces: a carrier that supports your body and travels easily, a white noise machine, a pram attachment that helps restore rhythm to sleeping on the move. Other times, it’s the smaller, more specific details; the things you don’t realise you need until you’re in it, and then rely on completely.
The best gift you can give a parent,” Simmonds says, “is one that gives them more sleep, their confidence, their sanity, their hands back.
There’s a directness to it, but also a real depth of understanding and an awareness of what early parenthood actually feels like, beyond the surface.
Spending some time with Simmonds makes it clear that The Memo was never just about the product. She speaks with passion and empathy about her ambition to advocate for new parents and the societal changes she would love to see for new mothers at every stage, from empowerment in the birthing suite to better resourcing of paid parental leave.
There’s a genuine, deeply felt commitment to supporting women in their unique, yet collective experience of motherhood and in how they’re gently guided through one of the most significant transitions of their lives. She talks openly about the difficulties of postpartum, mental health impacts, guilt around formula feeding, the need for better workplace systems and having more honest conversations and creating space for women to navigate this in their own way.
It’s not framed as ambition so much as responsibility. “We want to change the way parenthood is experienced and discussed,” she says.
That thinking carries through into how she leads. Becoming a mother has shaped her approach in practical ways, as well as in how she builds her team and community. There’s an empathy that feels embedded in the company, and the result is a brand that operates as much as a community as a retailer, grounded in shared experience, where connection isn’t an afterthought but the foundation.
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The partnership with Country Road feels like a natural extension of that perspective.
”We have so much respect for how Country Road thinks about their customer at every stage,” Simmonds says.
There’s a clear alignment between the two brands, an understanding that design should be both considered and lived with, that what people bring into their homes should feel both intentional and enduring.
Within the curated marketplace, The Memo introduces a selection of its most trusted essentials to the Country Road world, with an edit chosen to feel thoughtful rather than excessive. There’s a balance to it, in pieces that sit comfortably within the aesthetic, alongside products that bring a new kind of practicality.
There are, of course, beautiful things: gifting ideas that feel elevated, thoughtful and easy. But just as importantly, there are the items that serve a real function in the day-to-day, the ones you don’t realise you need until you do.
That was really important to us,” she says. “To bring both.
There’s a consistency between the way Phoebe lives and the way she works that feels hard to separate. A focus on what matters, an instinct for editing, an ability to hold both beauty and function without compromising either.
The thoughtful edit from The Memo for Country Road’s marketplace carries that thinking forward in a way that feels both natural and necessary. Because in the end, it isn’t about having more. It’s about having what works; thoughtfully chosen, practically considered, and cleverly designed to support the life happening around it. And Phoebe Simmonds knows more than most about living a big, busy, yet beautifully curated life.
The Memo edit is available now online at countryroad.com.au
