If color was a person, it would be Pippa Holt. The stylist, designer and mother of three little people lights up every room, and not just because of her upbeat style and friendly demeanor, but because motherhood suits her. “I’m a very relaxed, easy going earth mother,” she says. “Perhaps too relaxed. I breastfeed all over the place and often forget my diaper bag.”

You can be forgiven for forgetting things occasionally when you’re as busy as Pippa. The British Vogue contributing editor runs her own kaftan business and travels everywhere from Morocco to New York, Paris, Istanbul and Spain.

“At the moment and for the last four years my children have come first and everything else works around that,” says Pippa of her children Bay, Thomas Balthazar and Oscar. “I have taken time out for these early years of my children’s upbringing. I think routine is key and then you are able to work around that with your other priorities like work.”

It’s a good formula for a happy and balanced lifestyle, especially when coupled with yoga and Pilates, both of which Pippa did right up until the birth of her third child.

“My baby is now eight months old and only now am I starting to watch what I eat with an effort to lose the extra baby pounds,” she admits. “I have just gone with the flow very much this year. To mine and my wonderful trainer’s dismay, with breastfeeding I gain a lot of weight and my body just goes all soft. Plus, I was exhausted for most of this year. So now I have to start all over again!”

Luckily Pippa knows what it is like to set aside well laid plans. Her first birth was an emergency C-section, which she admits was a bit frightening. “I’m glad I got to have some natural labor as going forward they were all planned sections,” she says. “Sometimes I regret not trying for a ‘VBAC’ (vaginal birth after cesarean) with my second pregnancy … but I just went with the flow and was very open to what might happen. Yoga in pregnancy can help with being ‘open’.”

Pippa’s relaxed attitude to parenting is complemented by her husband of five years, Irish businessman Conor Roche, who she says is hugely supportive. That’s not to say that things are not chaotic in the 200-year-old Georgian townhouse they share together in Dublin. “We have less time for one another now and ‘couple time’ needs to be booked in,” she says. “Three children under four is physically exhausting, not to mention sleep- robbing, and weekends which were once a relaxing joy are now like running up Mount Everest!”

But one imagines adapting to the surroundings is something Pippa takes in her stride. The Australian-born stylist moved to London when she was 23 and has lived and worked all over the globe, even moving to America six weeks after her second child was born.

“Living in Europe, and particularly in a country which lacks sun, I very much want for my children to still be able to run free in open spaces under the sun,” she says. “Exploring the outdoors, collecting shells on the beach – things I did and cherished growing up. Trips home to Australia will instill this I hope.”
One thing Pippa is having a little trouble with instilling on her children is discipline. “I am naturally not very good at it, which worries me. I have to have an outside advisor come in and give me some tips,” she says.

But Pippa has no trouble when it comes to imparting the values she wants her children to grow up with … “To be kind to others, curious to learn new things, interested about life, to treat their siblings well, to be happy individuals and to love.”

We’re sure Pippa’s little ones already have all of these things, and with a mom who loves children’s labels such as Bonpoint, Ouef, Caramel London, Bobo Chooses, Trotters on London’s Kings Road, Petite Bateaux, The Nursery Window, Antik Batik and Stella McCartney, we think they’ll grow up with pretty great wardrobes, too.