From founding a brand while at uni, to sitting on the Board of Directors by the age of 30 - I sat down with founder of Sacred Hawk, Rebecca Hyde, who left it all to focus on the launch of her own vintage brand. We discussed the importance of doing what you love, the trials and tribulations of launching a brand during a pandemic and the pressures of representation in an ever evolving world of sustainability.

Vintage fashion was once arguably an acquired taste but now, seems to be one that is ever increasing. In a world of fast fashion and mass production, second hand and vintage shopping is set to thrive according to thredup.com; with the second hand market projected to double by 2025. Of course, with a special thanks to 33M consumers turning to thrifting for the first time during the pandemic . A love of vintage fashion and creating clothing was ingrained in Rebecca from a young age, through her mum who would teach her and Rebecca’s siblings to sew, in order to make what they wanted instead of spend money on it. “I always made things I couldn't find,” shares Rebecca. “That was where my passion really was.” And finding what she liked through vintage clothing was where her journey to Sacred Hawk began.

While studying at university, Rebecca worked at a vintage store where she launched the brand The Ragged Priest as a side passion project. Based on re-working the vintage pieces the store held, she went on to create multiple small brands for them. From here she went on to work for a supplier, who ultimately wanted to invest in her and create a brand. It was then that Sacred Hawk was born. Sold exclusively on ASOS, the brand was a fast fashion, high street line inspired by vintage style. However after working for factories all over the world, and having her brand governed by the large corporate companies that sit above retailers such as ASOS, Rebecca found somewhere along the way, she “lost her soul.” Discussing her decision to leave, Rebecca commented that she, “was really unhappy with the direction Sacred was going in and it’s really tough to stand your ground with what you want when the big companies are such a force. It's hard not to dilute what you want that to be. So I decided to leave, to go out on my own, to go freelance as a creative director and stylist. I had such a lovely relationship with the company, they let me take sacred with me.”

But fast forward six months and the pandemic hit. What was a move into the freelance world of styling, with her passion project of taking Sacred Hawk from vintage inspired clothing to a real vintage brand, mulling over in her mind, soon turned into a fully fledged business more or less overnight.

How did you go about leaving? And how did it make you feel, leaving something you’d worked hard at building? The first step was to pull out of all high street retailers, so we pulled out of topshop, out of ASOS… and it didn’t happen straight away. I had a lot of personal moments of ‘what have I just done?!’ I left my exceptionally well paid job, I'd made the board of directors at 30 years old, I was the youngest person they’d ever had as director, and I left it all. Then when the pandemic hit, obviously all my freelance work stopped overnight. I hadn’t figured out what I wanted Sacred Hawk to be yet. I was at a real personal change in discovering myself before knowing what the brand was going to be.

“The newly emerged sacred was built on a hustle.” After struggling to sit at home and not do anything during the first lockdown, Rebecca launched the new Sacred Hawk through Instagram. “I thought let's just start putting things out there and see how people react to it. I’ve got this platform, let's give vintage a go. And it was crazy. It was a real shift change, to go from high street vintage inspired to pure vintage. I only did instagram story sales, and pretty much every drop sold out. I was doing a drop a week, on my phone, in bed, thinking this is insane!”

While it sounds like the dream, a business taking off from the comfort of your home and the gamble of leaving a well paid job, Rebecca is the first to admit that it wasn’t easy. Once the instagram community caught hold of what she was doing, she honestly stated that, “it then just got too big.” She is refreshingly open about the difficulties of running a business alone, pointing out the fact that none of us are good at everything. “I’ve got my skills but admin, bookkeeping, finance, they’re not them. I found it harder and harder to keep a grip on the other areas.” Luckily, the close bond she has with her sister and the divine timing of her also going freelance, led to the expansion of the brand, with Emily eventually joining as partner. A growing team allowed for the development of the brands core values to come into fruition and the team began strategising. The main, core value of Sacred Hawk is to help people. “I think fashion has got a really bad rep for the last few years on how much it affects your mental health, consumerism, sustainability, all those things which are completely true, but it can also be really empowering,” comments Rebecca. “What you choose to wear and how it makes you feel can be a total mood changer. It can be such an empowering thing… So we really wanted to educate and help people with styling, to help them feel more comfortable. We have this saying between us ‘do no harm but take no shit’. We are a strong female lead brand and we are really passionate about that, but we also don’t want to cause any further damage with what is happening already in the industry.”

Sisters and partners of Sacred Hawk, Rebecca and Emily

Having had their best trading month in December 2021, sisters Rebecca and Emily feel it’s time to make positive changes within the brand and open new doors. Accepting that not everyone is an avid vintage buyer, Rebecca makes clear how she feels the idea of having various options and alternatives within the brand will attract a number of different people. “If you don’t like buying vintage, or you’re worried about the fit of pieces, there is still something new but sustainable for you.” Inclusivity is a key area of development for the brand. Delving into the sometimes problematic sizing within vintage, Rebecca explains, “We have the vintage, which I’m really passionate about and we will always have that there. But we are also introducing these reworked collections which can be a bit more inclusive. Things like our power play collection is all around suiting. They’re mens suits re-tailored. So all the bottoms have a draw cord waist which will fit from a 24 to a 36 waist, meaning we’re opening the door to a broader range of customers to wear Sacred Hawk as they want to.”

We discuss the fact that a lot of ‘plus size’ or size inclusive lines look different to main line collections, Rebecca comments on how this doesn’t resonate with her, “I wouldn't see it on myself and I think that is really key.” The brand's aim is to have the collection available and attractive to people of all body sizes, rather than offering something different that’s size dependent. “I also really want it to have integrity. I want it to feel really true and honest - I don't want anything to feel contrived, so we just don’t force it,” Rebecca continued.

Inclusivity was something that Rebecca openly mentions was a difficulty in the beginning. While she appreciates that without social media she wouldn't have a business, when asked if it is also problematic for her, she simply comments, “100% yes. I’ve been called out for not being body positive,” when using herself as the model. “That was hard because I’m stuck in my house, I don't have access to anyone else. To them it’s a little comment that’s happened quickly, they’ve carried on with their day and not given it a second thought, but then I’ve cried about it for three days.”

Inclusivity has always been important at Sacred Hawk and this is something that the brand aims to show through the content they produce now too. “You’ll see things on me, on my sister and we’re trying to broaden the models we use as well, so you’re seeing different body types,” Rebecca explains. “When we come across amazing models who have something to talk about or something to say we try to use people who have a voice, or who are doing amazing things.”

As well as their re-worked collection, the brand is also working on their own, fully made, capsule collection. The goal is for the collection to be made completely from end of line fabrics, but ever the realists, Rebecca ensures that if they are not end of line the collection will be made from more eco-friendly, sustainable fabrics such as viscos which degrades quicker. With the idea in mind that if a piece is versatile you’ll wear it more, the duo are ‘pro buying less but buying better’. However Sacred Hawk doesn't claim to be fully sustainable, “we call ourselves a conscious business. We are trying to make as many conscious decisions that have a positive impact. Are we flawless? No. Do we need more education on certain things? Yes. But we want to learn and we want to keep fighting the good fight without people feeling like it’s so unrelatable that they feel guilty, which is not what I want to do either.”

Rebecca also makes it clear that she understands people don’t always want to let go of their style for sustainability. “They want to get what they want but do it in a good way,” she explains. As mentioned previously, it’s clear Sacred Hawk’s aim is to educate people that this is the future of the industry. “We all care about what our money is doing, or should care more than we do,” details Rebecca. “It’s about bridging those gaps and educating people into making different choices.”

For a week or two over Christmas, Sacred Hawk launched Small Business Saturdays where they highlighted small, independent companies around them - something that they are very passionate about. As an owner, along with her husband who is also an owner of a local gym, Rebecca feels rooted in her local community and through Sacred Hawk, has got to know some incredible small businesses. With this, she strives to always make conscious decisions to include them when producing for themselves. “One company we spoke about over Christmas was the small business that creates our backdrops,” Rebecca mentions, whilst speaking on the topic of community collaboration. “It’s one lady with her sister and best friend helping out. They travel all over the world, take the images themselves, have them printed. It’s those sorts of stories and relationships, real person contact, that helps you get to know people and your customers. When you spend money in local businesses it benefits you, because it benefits your local community. You are all building each other up. So something we continue to do is talk about small businesses that we work with.”

Do you think social media has helped you open this discussion? Definitely. Without social media I wouldn’t have a business now. Social media is a platform that allows you to get into peoples homes that you wouldn't be able to otherwise. It used to be before that, the only way to get your brand out there would be to go to these big retailers. And we have grown more not being with those big retailers over the past two years, which is incredible and solely down to social media. Does it have its problems? 100%. Has being a business on social media for two years during a pandemic affected my mental health? 100%. That is unfortunately the other side to it. But it is an incredible tool if we can learn to harness it in the right way.

What sort of advice would you give to someone trying to start a business now in fashion? I actually get asked this quite a lot. Especially if I ever post about my history because a lot of people don’t know my background. I always say what’s the worst that could happen. Don’t suddenly quit your job but just start creating a brand. Don’t try to conform to something that you think is good. Don’t try to be someone else because you think their business model is working, or their brand is really cool, because you’ll never pull it off. A brand to me is only really good when its got integrity and you can see where it’s come from, you can see it is an extension of that person, be 100% true to yourself and just start putting it out there. Start posting content on social that you like even if you haven't created it yet. People will come if its got integrity and a uniqueness to it.

What do you think your favourite part of having a brand is? I absolutely love doing shoots. Especially now we are not locked in my house and we’re using other people. Because you can just access so much amazing talent. Those shoot days are it for me, when you can see that vision coming to life. It's not just on me, it's on someone else too. I get to style it and do the creative direction on the shoot and you see the magic come alive with other people’s input as well. That's the best part for me. Not the sales but the creation.

Shop Sacred Hawk here: sacredhawk.com

Meet Sacred Hawk: The vintage brand making waves in the fashion industry