This week, we saw our very own co-founders Chris and Lucy answer some questions from the community!
Hosted from our shiny new shop in Brighton, the dynamic duo waxed lyrical on everything from their favourite designs from past collections, the best spots to hang out in the UK, and just who —and what— is Yak!
We always try to be as transparent as possible as a brand, so it was an extra special treat to be able to share a more personal side to the wonderful people who make it all happen. We’ve rounded up some of our favourite questions & answers below!
And if you missed out on the Live, never fear! You can watch it on our IGTV here.
How do you maintain a good work/life balance?
Admittedly, we’re not always the best at this (does anyone else have a mini work meeting during a morning jog!?) but we are getting better! When we’re not working, we like to keep active and spend time outdoors, from yoga and meditation to paddle boarding! We’re super excited to take the opportunity to announce that we have recently rolled out a 30-hour working week across our entire business, without impacting on anybody’s pay. This came about after our wonderful warehouse team returned to work after lockdown; due to social distancing, it was necessary for them to come in on reduced hours. We soon found that despite working less, the team’s productivity was as high as ever, and so we decided to implement a 30-hour working week across all our other teams. This has since been rolled out across the entire business; everyone is working the equivalent of 30 hours per week, for 40 hours’ pay! This means that the entire team has more time to spend on the extra-curricular activities they enjoy, with the people they love, and that when they do come back to work they’re refreshed and bursting with creative ideas.
Will you ever open more shops?
At the moment we have our online store as well as our beautiful new brick-and-mortar store in sunny Brighton! We’d love to say that we’re planning to open more in the near future, however the impact of COVID-19 has left the UK high street looking rather shaky. Fingers crossed that the world (and retail) has healed sooner rather than later so we can get back to making some exciting plans!
Why did you choose to open a shop in Brighton?
As self-confessed nomads, we’ve never found it easy to settle down in one place — but when we arrived in Brighton, we fell in love! We initially came down to visit a pal, and found that it was the first place we’d visited in the UK that made us think “yep, we could totally settle down here”. If you’ve never been, you should totally come and visit us there! It’s like a constant holiday, with beautiful weather, and personally we all much prefer a pebble beach to a sandy beach (who wants sand in their bed for weeks after? Not us!) One of Chris’ top tips is to rent yourself a camper van and park up on the seafront for a mere £6 a day — cheapest holiday ever!
I love hearing about your factory in India, please tell us about your factory in Turkey!
We were so glad to be asked this question, as we have a special place in our hearts for the incredible Turkish factory that we work with. It’s a family-run business of three brothers and their father, and they share our values of ethics and sustainability. The working conditions in the factory are next level; not only do they serve up fresh food to their staff every day in their on-site canteen, but they have their own mini fleet of buses that transport staff to and from work for free! You can read more about the wonderful HC Organize team here and here.
What’s your favourite ever Lucy & Yak print, and would you consider bringing it back as an anniversary drop?
Our favourite ever piece is a no-brainer; who remembers our beautiful Oko eye print dungarees? Chris designed these in Turkey, back in the day, and we’re excited to share that we plan on re-releasing these in the future! Keep your eyes peeled on our social channels and make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter to be first in the know when they drop.
Well, that’s all we have time for today folks. We hope you enjoyed getting to know our founders a little better, whether you’re a fan from way back or whether you’ve recently joined us on our journey! And if your question wasn’t answered this time, don’t fret, we’re sure there’ll be other opportunities to open the floor up again in the future.