Lessons on balancing the business and home, from Anya Hindmarch

Get your children into the picture, says the British fashion designer, and keep anger out of the workplace

Anya Hindmarch

1. Why you should get children involved

“We are worrying about work and staring at our screens the whole time. We are seeing emails from Hong Kong or Tokyo, or seeing problems with production, or with HR. It is all incoming and if you are not careful, that can bleed into daily management with your family. There was a lovely time a few weeks ago when I was dealing with R&D issues over the phone and the children were listening too. “You need an afternoon off, I can see you have had a really tough day,” one of them told me at the end of the call. it. They were involved and understanding. Children are really smart and they get it. Share and involve them and don’t keep it to yourself.”

Also read:

Anya Hindmarch: ‘Emotion is a female superpower’

2. Always cut yourself some slack

“My mother used to make my school lunches with little details like chives with a tiny bow. Sometimes I feel bad that I can’t be that way. But we have to be kind to ourselves as we would to our friends. ‘You have just delivered a whole fashion show, cut yourself some slack,’ I’d tell a friend. But you don’t often tend to speak to yourself that way. We are part of this transition generation for women. I am now working as hard as my father worked for sure but I have the example of how my mother ran the family in my head. And it is unrealistic [to be good at both].”

3. Keep anger out of the workplace

“If anything upsets you, rather than act in the moment, park it and sleep on it. Revisit it in a more measured way. It’s amazing how many people don’t behave in that way and it can be very destructive in the workplace. I try very hard in my company to lead by example. Trust me, I’m far from perfect.”

The Pont Street store with hand-painted windows

4. Be creative with experiences

In 2012, Hindmarch sold part of her business and moved on from CEO to Chief Creative Officer. “I found several years later that I didn’t like not running the business. Long story short, I bought it back with a partner.” But it was 2019, and she was ready for change. “We had 60 stores and were planning to go to 80. It felt clear to me that it was no longer very modern,” she admits. The brand now has 15 stores. Perhaps the financial state of the company before she took over helped her arrive at this decision? According to a report in the Financial Times in 2019, company losses had gone from £11.9m to £28.3m in the year till December 2017. This May, Hindmarch introduced a new retail concept, The Village:

— The Village has five stores, a cafe and village hall (an ever-changing space). “It is where we channel our creativity and meet our customers. And there’s great cake.”

— The Plastic Store celebrates recycled accessories, and The Label Store is for those who like to be organised. The retro hair salon was introduced to cater to people coming out of the lockdown, with appointments limited to four

5. The good thing about retail

— “Admitting that it is a digital world is the first step. If you can get something online, there is no point in going to the store”

— “I still believe in retail as people want those touch points to go there and have the advice, but you’ve got to offer something different”

— “I believe that creativity will eat strategy for breakfast”