Our Story

Where It Began

Where it began

Lucy & Yak began life down under in New Zealand, after Chris and I decided to quit our jobs and travel across the world. Here, we spent hours sewing on the beach, making tobacco pouches from old clothes which we sold to travellers. They loved them and we still get messages from people saying they met someone with one of our pouches.

One Rainy Night

Then

After traveling for a few years, we eventually went back to the UK. Here, we bought a van and we named it ‘Yak’. We lived in the Yak and sold vintage clothing from it to get by, which is when we realised we had an eye for fashion. So one rainy night, we decided our next trip would be to search for a manufacturer to create the designs we had in our heads…dungarees!

The Travels Continued

The Travels Continued

We visited China, Thailand and India in search of a small business to work with. We wanted to do things ethically, and help a family that really needed it. We eventually found the guy we were looking for in Rajasthan, India.

Ismail

We found Ismail

After searching for a long time, and working with a lot of people, we met Ismail. He was the right guy, we just knew it, we connected instantly and his values were our own. He already looked after the two tailors that he worked with, they were his friends. We have both never met anyone we trusted so much. He has become a really good friend of ours, Chris & Ismail are like brothers!

Making the Dungas

Making the dungas

So together we made 30 pairs of dungas. I modelled, Chris was the photographer and we took the photos in 45 degree Indian heat. We then sent the clothes back to my mum, who we couldn’t have done this without, and uploaded them to Depop. They were a sell out in hours, so we made 100 more dungarees and the same happened, this was when we decided to put the logo on the front pocket…if you have one of our first ever pairs you’ll know!

Time to make a website

Time to make a website

From here, we woke up one morning and thought, lets make a website. So we went to an Internet cafe in Rishkiesh and made our website. It’s not the easiest place to do it as the internet connection isn’t always the best, but we did it! And Lucy & Yak was born…

Time to go home...

Time to go home

Once our website was live, we flew back to the UK to fully establish the company Lucy & Yak. We began working out of my parents’ basement - they have been such a great help in all of this, thank you Julie and Pete! Our team in the beginning was me, Chris, my mum and my friend, Jenna, and we quickly moved to a small warehouse which we have already outgrown.

Ethical

Ethical

We have 13 employees in the UK now and we have pledged to always pay the ‘Living wage’. It’s so important that all of our staff are treated with respect, no matter how big or small their role is. Whatever country they are in, they will always be looked after.

If you want to read more about the story in depth check out the instagram hashtag #lucyandyakstory

Now

We are now onto an amazing chapter in the story of Lucy & Yak.

Our Team at Lucy & Yak HQ are amazing and we have recently moved into a new, much bigger warehouse.

The India team are also just moving into a new factory that we have been helping them with. We have built a factory that will house more than double the tailors we already have, so we hope that by the end of 2018 we should be able to up production.

We currently have 30 people helping to make Lucy & Yaks out in India, the new factory is very rural and over looks the beautiful desert and farmland of Rajasthan.

The new factory is clean, bright and has air-conditioning for those 45 degree summers. We are also having solar panels installed on the roof that should be able to power the factory 100% of the time. We haven’t gone completely off grid as we won’t know for sure if it will be enough until its up and running, but certainly a large percentage of our products will be made using renewable energy! Woohoo!

The journey is by no means over, we have done so much in this first year, but we have so much more to do and can’t wait to see where this next year takes us! We hope you will continue to follow our journey.