Get the cake ready and put on your party hat, because Lucy & Yak has just turned 1!
It’s been an absolute whirlwind of a year for Chris and I, and after travelling New Zealand making tobacco pouches, we headed to India with so many ideas in our head to find a tailor who could bring our creations to life.
After finding Ismail, we headed back to the UK and established Lucy & Yak.
We’re absolutely astounded and so grateful for how our baby has taken off in the lasts 12 month, but let’s take you back to the start of this journey, and relive our journey…
The story of how Lucy & Yak began started in New Zealand, after Chris and I quit our jobs and decided to travel the world. We spent our days on the beach making tobacco pouches and selling these to travellers passing by, and our creations soon became a huge hit!
After spending a few years travelling around the globe, we then went back to the UK and bought our little ‘Yak’ van. We set up home in the Yak and made it into our little clothing hub, where we sold vintage clothing. This was something Chris and I loved doing and from this, we gained so many thoughts and ideas that we could potentially use as designs of our own. This was where we developed the idea of what we’re best known for, our dungarees!
Now that we had our idea, we decided to turn the creativeness that was inside our heads into a reality. After some time working with many different people, we travelled to India where we met Ismail. As soon as we met him, we knew he was the man for the job. He shared our values, his tailors are his friends and he wants the best for everyone. Ismail has since become a really good friend of ours who we trust completely, and he and Chris get on so well they’re almost like brothers!
Now we had found Ismail, it was time to get to work. Together, we made 30 pairs of our ‘Original’ style dungarees and set up a little photoshoot in the scorching hot Indian heat. I modelled and Chris took the photos, and although this was really fun to shoot, I will admit I’m not a fan of modelling and the 45 degree heat didn’t help!
However it all paid off, as our dungas sold out within just a few hours! So, we decided to make another batch and low and behold, the same thing happened again! We were delighted that our little idea had become such a huge success, so we decided to really make our mark and include the Lucy & Yak logo on the front.
Since then, we have also created a range of other fits and styles of dungarees, including our Umis, Lunas and our new Dungashorts, and we have even launched Lucy & Yak pini dresses and high waisted trousers! What’s also great is that we also developed a super soft organic dungaree range, which are sustainable and ethically made, using Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) Certified Organic cotton and GOTS approved dyes… Phew!
So now we’d got our dungarees ready and developed our own website, we went back to the UK to grab Lucy & Yak with both hands and prepare ourselves for the rollercoaster ride we were about to embark on. This started with us moving to a small warehouse, which we soon outgrew pretty quickly.
In the UK alone, we have 13 employees and 30 people helping to make our Lucy & Yaks in India. We always pay the ‘Living Wage’ to all of our staff, and whether it’s our friends across the pond or our friends in England, each and every one of them are treated equally and with respect, which is something we make our priority.
A lot has happened in just a short space of time for Lucy & Yak, and we are in the process of moving to a larger warehouse due to us being incredibly busy!
Our team in India will also be moving to a new factory that we have helped with which looks out onto the beautiful Indian desert and farmland. It is exceptionally clean and has air-conditioning, and to help even further with our green ethos, we’re even having solar panels installed onto the roof of the factory! Hopefully by the end of the year, we will also be able to up production!
However, we won’t stop there! There is still a long way to go and so much more to do, and we’re all so excited to see what the future holds for Lucy & Yak. We have so many plans for year two, I’ll let you in on few little secrets… We have been working on some new fabrics made from recycled plastic bottles, I know crazy right? Keep an eye out for those landing this Autumn/Winter. We also have a fun photo shoot planned which we will be asking for some of you guys to model for us, so keep an eye on your emails and our social media for how to apply, we did it in our first year, and it was amazing, we have big plans for the next one!
Love
Lucy, Chris & The Team
