In her column for the Evening Standard, each month Wonderoom’s Mairead Cahill shines a spotlight on the UK’s most innovative sustainable brands.
This month, Cahill features Stay Wild, the premium swimwear brand for its pioneering attitude to building a sustainable and ethical swimwear brand with a fresh and different approach.
Here she sits down with co-founders Natalie Glaze and Zanna Van Dijk, to hear how they built Stay Wild with sustainability at the heart of the business, breaking norms within the fashion industry, and co-creating their designs and brand along with their community and social media audience.
What was the inspiration behind Stay Wild?
We were inspired to create Stay Wild because of our mutual love for the ocean and wanting to create a brand with purpose.
The name ‘Stay Wild’ reflects both the wildness of the ocean, and the feeling you have of being wild and free when you’re in the ocean and in our swim pieces.
Along with our focus on being a sustainable and ethical brand, we were also clear from the beginning that we wanted to serve all women and all body shapes.
How did you come together to create the brand?
We’ve been friends for years and it was at a brunch in spring 2018 that the idea for Stay Wild emerged through our joint passion for sustainability, the ocean, and swimwear.
We then launched the brand in October 2018.
How has your focus on your community shaped your business?
We took a community driven approach from the very beginning.
We see ourselves as a three-team brand – the two of us (Natalie and Zanna) and our social media community.
We make decisions along with our audience from our colourways, through to our designs, and the naming of our pieces.
We also weren’t scared of putting out our early concepts to market as a live test.
We went to market initially with two designs and two colourways, to get people’s feedback early on.
REFS
Published on standard.co.uk
Stay Wild: meet the London-based female co-founders turning ocean plastic into sustainable swimwear