It all started with a van called Yak. The van we know and love and so often get asked about. Well that van Yak was where our two founders, Lucy & Chris lived and where Lucy & Yak began. Things started small, with them making and selling tobacco pouches from old clothes in New Zealand. Soon they moved on to selling vintage clothing, realising they had an eye for finding the treasured pieces. Eventually, they headed back to Yorkshire as something was clearly brewing… Based in Barnsley, they scoured charity shops in search of the best bits to sell on and breathe new life into. There was one thing they quickly noticed was far more popular than the rest…dungarees. The humble dungaree. Really a perfect piece when you think about it. Timeless and very, very comfy.
They travelled all over India in search of the perfect partners to create the first dungaree, the Original. Working with a small team of tailors, they made their first thirty pairs which sold in hours. They made one hundred more and the same thing happened and the rest, as they say, is history. Yak was soon too small to operate as a home, warehouse and office so they upgraded to the basement of Lucy’s parents house in Barnsley. With all the family on board, packages were on their way to the very first Lucy & Yak customers. Packaged on the kitchen table, a coaster or two might have accidentally made their way into them! While we no longer fit in the basement and have moved to new distribution locations, we’ve never strayed far. After all, Barnsley is home! Starting as an online brand, we soon wanted a physical space where we could connect with all of our customers. But where to open our very first little pink shop? Lucy & Chris visited Brighton and immediately fell in love with its openness and knew that that was the place. A hub of self expression, our first store opened, followed by our head office, nestled in the heart of bustling Brighton. Since then our network of little pink shops has continued to expand…because every city needs a little pop of pink!
It was never about starting a fashion brand that followed the latest trends. Instead, Lucy & Yak was created to inspire people to wear the things that make them feel like themselves, comfortable in who they are and that allow them to simply get on with life. Joyful prints, sustainable choices, circularity and bringing together a community of the kindest and most creative people is what we’re all about. For many years Lucy & Chris felt like they had no community to call their own. They had no idea that by founding Lucy & Yak they would create just that, a community made up of the best bunch of people, who have been at the core of everything we do ever since.