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Hello and welcome to Fashion People. I'm Lauren Sherman, writer of Puck's Fashion and Beauty Memo Line Sheet, and today with me on the show is Georgiana Huttart, owner and creative director of swimwear line Hunza G. We're talking bathing suits as a fashion trend, how to outrun the knockoffs. We're talking reviving a beloved brand and so much more. Before we get going, I wanted to remind you that if you like this podcast, you'll definitely love Puck, where I send an email called Line Sheet. If you're a fashion person, you get that reference. It's an original look at what's really going on inside the fashion and beauty industries. Line Sheet is scoopy, analytical and above all, fun. Along with me, a subscription to Puck gains you access to an unmatched roster of experts Reporting on powerful people and companies in entertainment, media, sports, politics, finance, the art world and much more. If you're interested listeners of Fashion People get a discount. Just go to Puck News Fashion people to join Puck or start a free trial. Happy Friday everyone. I'm recording this early. As you know, I'm on a break. Thank you for all the, well, vacation wishes. It was very sweet. Yesterday online, she we had a guest columnist, the legendary fashion reporter Terry Agins. She is, as you all know, incredible. She's the OG I am so thrilled that she joined us. In Thursday's issue, Terry broke down how fast fashion has transformed the clothing industry at large and why we are still feeling the effects today maybe more than ever. Terry will be back on Monday too. Hopefully. When you listen to this Albiona beach or at the pool, I'm on the lookout for Puck Merch in the Wild. Report back if you see any and have a great weekend. Let's get going with Georgiana. Georgiana Huddart. Welcome to Fashion People.
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C
Thank you for having me.
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A
Lauren, what'd you have for breakfast this morning?
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C
Oh my gosh. I had avocado on toast. Like, very influencery of me.
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A
I think we're. You're a little younger than me, but I think we're of the same generation lifestyle wise. And you know, I have it almost every single day. It's a great meal.
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C
It's a really good meal. I'm really into a boiled egg and avocado on toast. I'm not really a cereal woman. I'm not really a sweet woman, so it really does the job.
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A
Yeah, I agree. I think I'm going to actually have it for lunch.
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C
I'm glad I've influenced you.
- [04:36]
A
Yes, well, you influence many people. So we're here because you own and run this brand, Hunza G, which I want. I. You and I met about a year ago or. Or maybe it was two years ago now.
- [04:50]
C
It was two years? Yeah.
- [04:51]
A
Oh my God. So crazy. But obviously I. I knew about the swimwear, which is this. You can talk more about the scrunchy material. But I actually got the idea to do this earlier this summer when I was at my friend's pool and was with a bunch of moms and kids and everyone had on Hunza G or Hanza G. Let's just say inspired swimwear. And I just realized it really has taken over as the sort of go to for a certain set of women. And I think even beyond that. It's just that texture is. Is now almost standardized in swimwear as. As part of it. And it, it is really because of you, because Hanzi G's been around for a long time and the material's been along for a. Around for a long time, but you modernized it. Tell me, tell me about yourself. How did you get into fashion and how did you end up running this brand?
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C
By the way, thank you for saying all of that. It's always like amazing to hear. Yeah, it's a bit of a. Kind of. It's a bit of a random story, but like, you know, an interesting one. I, I basically I went to. I went to university. I did history of art. I left and I worked for a menswear designer. Then I moved to New York to intern for Camilla Nickerson, who's a stylist. I learned so much from her, came back to the uk. But in this interim period, I had been thinking about the crinkle material because my mum was pregnant six times. I've got five younger brothers and sisters and she had some hunza in the 80s. So we had this dressing up box filled with old swimming costumes that she'd wear and I'd watch her wear it pregnant, wear it postpartum. There was a red dress that was like the Pretty Woman dress that Julia Roberts wears that we used to make my brother put on. We'd be like, put the red dress on. He had just sisters for like five years. So it was a really kind of seminal part of my childhood. The crinkle fabric. And then I never saw it again. Peter, who started Hansa in 1984, had sort of 10 years of success with it and then it sort of dwindled a bit and he thought that nobody wanted to buy it anymore. So he moved on to something else completely different and left the crinkle fabric completely dormant. So when I was, I think I must have been 20, I went to Berlin and I was in a charity shop, a vintage shop, and I found a whole rail of vintage crinkle. And it just like I hadn't thought about it for maybe 15 years and it just like massively triggered something in my brain and I couldn't believe that this product didn't exist. So I bought the whole rail. I think I bought it for like a hundred euros and it must have been 12 pieces, so like €8 a piece. And I started to wear it to festivals and on holidays and think about the composition of it and that it was a tubular fabric and that it fitted everybody and that it was sort of democratic, but it also had a performance element to it. And I just, I couldn't understand why no one was using the fabric or making product in it. So I tried to get the fabric made, reached out to a few factories from like 20, the age of 20, but nobody really responded because it was sort of like georgiana@yahoo. 1989. So wasn't taken very seriously. Um, and on. And you know, on the side also, you know, this was a side project that was like my sort of fantasy thing that I'd think about when I had a spare moment and I had a. I was doing other jobs at the time in the day. And then I really sat down one day and was like, I've got to make this happen. I'd bought everything at that point off ebay and depop that I could find.
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A
And.
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C
And I had been worried about reaching out to Peter because, you know, I didn't know who he was.
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A
Peter Meadows, right? That's his, exactly. Yes.
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C
The man who had the original Hunza. I wasn't sure how to get in touch with him. I wasn't sure whether he'd be interested. And eventually I was like, this is my, you know, it's my last port of call. And somebody, somebody had seen me at a party wearing Krinkle and said that they knew Peter and that they can introduce me. So it just felt like all these moments had aligned. And they looped me in an email with him and we met in a cafe a week later. This is in 2014. And I had my bag of ideas in a plastic bag and some drawings. And I said, I think there's a real market for this, that there isn't a brain brand that exists like this. What you did in the 80s was incredible. It was so iconic. But also we could have all different types of women wearing this product. And there is a performance element to it and it makes your body look amazing. And he gave me his blessing, said like that he was happy for me to kind of give it a go. He gave me a space in an office that he already had. He had a seamstress in the basement because he was making product in different fabrics for online wholesalers, like high street brands. And so I started a week later with a laptop and it sort of took off from there.
- [10:35]
A
So what was he doing in between? Was he mostly doing like third party white labeled stuff?
- [10:41]
C
Exactly. He was making like, very different stuff. He was making dresses for Phase eight, he was making T shirts. He's more of a kind of garment industry guy. And so he'd sort of left the. Left the crinkle behind and, you know, he was very much someone who followed trends. So if something felt like it was no longer a trend, he'd move on to something else. And I think. I think that that's what happened with the crinkle is that, you know, it was. It was incredibly powerful in the 80s, and he did these amazing colors. But then, you know, you go into the 90s, and everything becomes a bit more monochromatic, and everyone's kind of repulsed by the 80s and the fluoro and the high cuts and. Yeah, and Hunza didn't move forwards with that. You know, they had a very limited color palette of, like, bright orange, lime, and. And. And sort of fluoro purple. And it didn't feel maybe as relevant in the 90s as it had when it had begun. So he just thought no one was interested in it.
- [11:45]
A
So you relaunched it as Hanza G. Did you end up buying it from him, or does he still own it? You don't have to go into, like, super detail, but what's the sort of structure of it now?
- [11:55]
C
Yeah, it was really exciting. I fully bought it off him in October of this year or.
- [12:02]
A
Oh, my God. Congrats.
- [12:04]
C
Thank you.
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A
Wow. That's awesome.
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C
It was really intense. I went through a kind of long process of trying to work out what we. And with his blessing, like, we did it together. He had the majority equity, and when we had relaunched, you know, he. He had the majority. He gave me a huge chunk of equity, but, you know, I kind of led the business for the last 10 years. And then it got to the point where, you know, he wanted to sell. You know, he's. He's a different generation. He's in his late 70s, and he wanted to sell his. And I felt like that was the right step forward. And so we went through an investment process of trying to find people to buy his equity. And it began as a process where it actually began because somebody came to us, and the kind of model of it changed because in the end, I realized that I wanted to fully own it. So we said no to a bunch of private equity offers, and I did a management buyout and bought his equity off him. And then we got five minority investors to buy the rest.
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A
Amazing. Congratulations. That's so exciting.
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C
Really exciting.
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A
Okay, so, well, that's rewinding back to 2015, or whenever you ended up launching it, you renamed it Hanzaji, which no one would ever know. It was never always called that, but for Georgiana. So how did you do it? Did you connect? Did you go to a. What was the original concept when you relaunched. And B, what kind of stores did you mostly sell online? How did you distribute?
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C
It was super, super organic. So I started, I opened an Instagram account, I did a shoot, I, I picked kind of five styles that I thought were best, which felt like a move on from the 80s. And we just launched like that. And within the first six months, it definitely kind of like we ended up gaining huge momentum. It was really an Instagram first brand. You know, it costs nothing to open an Instagram account. And so many interesting people found us, I think, because Crinkle just didn't exist then. It really broke through the noise and as a category, it didn't exist. This, like, this category of swimwear didn't exist. But also there was really only high street or luxury. There wasn't this kind of mid level, democratic, aspirational brand. So within like a year we had Rihanna wearing it, Kim Kardashian, Rosie Huntington Whiteley was buying pieces. And this was all like, I think through stylists finding it online, I had a really great network of girls who wore it and supported me, but, like also wanted the product. People really were hungry for the product. We didn't pay anyone, we didn't use any influencers. Adua wore it, Clara Padgett wore it, Georgia Mae Jagger. And it sort of like took off very organically, which I think was a real blessing because I didn't sit down with a huge business plan which might not, which isn't necessarily my vibe or wasn't my vibe then, and it might have intimidated me. I was able to just very organically find my way with it. You know, I, I, I, I don't have any experience as a designer, but I'm still the designer of Hansa. I do all the design. Um, and so I just kind of was able to teach myself, whilst I'm sure making mistakes along the way. But there was no marketing budget, there was no pr, so there was kind of no pressure. I was able to just really follow my gut and people just really wanted that product. And the one size was just such a unique proposition for people shopping on a website. And then it was the performance element of the product. You know, women who'd maybe just had a baby or weren't feeling super confident about their body would put on this tubular product and it would kind of like suck in everything that they didn't want to feel vulnerable about. And the feedback was just amazing. So we very quickly got wholesalers coming to us. Our first wholesaler was Selfridges, then it was Net a Porter and that was, again, all organic. I didn't reach out to anyone. They found us and it just sort of snowballed from there.
- [16:45]
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- [17:23]
A
Early on. One of the things I think. And we'll talk about the. More about the material, but one of the things I think you did really well was color. And I know you're saying you worked on instinct, but I do think that is such an important part of the swimwear market of, like, having the right. It's almost like cars. Like every new year of a car, you see them tweak the colors a little and you're like, oh, I see that they use the Pantone color of the year for inspiration for this new color of the fleet of cars or whatever. But how much did color play into? Cause you mentioned it was a very limited color palette when it was big in the 80s. How much of that did you play with in terms of making sure the colors felt like right for the times? Because my first Hanzaji was like a lavender color that was like, really specifically of the year I bought it.
- [18:25]
C
I feel it's really interesting that you say that because I've never. I never looked at anything to do with, like, trend. I always felt like that would, you know, make my brain work backwards. I try not to look at kind of trend. But then color was a huge thing for me because I felt like that was like part of the missing piece. A. I don't think any brands in the 80s were truly diverse or inclusive. It just wasn't front of mind. And when I started Hunza, that was something that I. That I really wanted it to encapsulate. And that wasn't in a performative way. I was just like, I want as many different types of women wearing this product and feeling great in it because I know it has this performance element that makes people feel fabulous. So, like, it. It really was just a desire to find also color that worked on multiple skin tones. And there are lots of colors in swim that really don't work. You know, like, chartreuse kind of looks awful on most people, but it's an incredible color for silk, let's say. You know, it's like, it. It crinkle. And swimwear is very different, and it's a bit more like lingerie. It's like something that close to your body has to be flattering, and it has to work on multiple skin tones. So I really, like, took that away with me. I've got two sisters and a mother. We all have different body shapes, even though we're all from the same family. I really wanted to. I have lots of different friends from different backgrounds. I really wanted to think about, like, what colors would look good on a variety of people. And then I just thought Hunza was lacking these kind of neutrals. And when we did relaunch with a whole load of neutrals, me and Peter had a bet because he said that he thought that the colors that I'd picked were, like, quite gross. He was like, I don't think anyone's gonna buy these, because I did a sort of mango sorbet, an aubergine, and a forest green as, like, the second drop. Yeah. And the theme of the collection was Northern Soul. We had a playlist, and it was shot in the barbican, and it felt very 70s. And he was like, I just. I don't get it at all. Like, where's. Where's the bright pink? Where's the orange? Where's. You know? And it sold really, really well. So we always just try. I always try and find the best color of a version that I want to explore, and it goes through multiple lab dips. So, like, to get our moss green, I probably did 20 lab dips or something. You know, I'm very meticulous about the color.
- [20:54]
A
Wow, that's. It's so funny because the colors you just mentioned feel so good to me, and that. The fact. I understand what he's saying, but it's. It must have been really fun to work with him for the last 10 years. And it must have been amazing for him as, like, a real garment guy to see this thing he created just, like, have a second life, I think, 100%.
- [21:18]
C
And look, he was, like, super supportive because he also was, like, you know, I'm from a different generation. I had my version of it, and we had a very, like, a good relationship. As in all these conversations were kind of more like, oh, lol. I don't think I know what people want Anymore because that color, to me looks terrible. But let's see if anyone buys it. You know, like, it was. It was. It was more of a, like, fun, competitive conversation rather than anything else. And he was just, like, loving being on the ride as. As you say, like, it was really fun for him to see a second life. And, you know, he really did create something amazing. Like, he created this category in the 80s. It's a category defining swimwear brand. Like, he created that. He found the crinkle. He used it in swimwear. He had these iconic moments in the 80s that really set us apart from other swimwear brands and give us this a. The heritage, but also a feeling of less of a single product brand that has no energy or personality. Like, Hunza has such a personality, and that's what swimwear brands didn't really have before. Like, it. It gives you a feeling, and the imagery is different to other swimwear brands imagery. And of course, we've been copied a lot, so you do see more of it now. But when we launched in 2015, there was nothing like it. And in 1984, there was nothing like it.
- [22:46]
A
I want to talk about how you kind of manage the copying because it's rampant in a way that I feel like, especially because it is about this material. But before we get there, you jump in. Distribution comes fairly easily. People are into it. People like it. What did you learn about the market for swimwear? Because it reminds me of prom. There are certain categories in fashion that have, like, a whole other world. You could say, kids is like this swimwear, prom, activewear, that they like. All the big brands do. They do formal wear. They do bathing suits often. They'll do sporty stuff. But this is like, a whole other world. You can go to trade shows dedicated to this stuff. There are fashion weeks dedicated to swim. You. You kind of came at it to me as, like, more of a fashion proposition that happens to be. I'm interviewing Danielle Frankel, the bridal designer, a couple of. In a couple of weeks. And her. It's a similar thing to me that, like, yes, it's a bridal brand and she engages with the bridal community, but the reality is, like, she comes at it from, like, it's a fashion brand that happens to do bridal. But what did you think of the, like, swimwear community once you started doing this and, like. And saw it with your own eyes?
- [24:20]
C
Yeah, I think, like, you know, one of the phrases I always use, you've just, like, you've just said so it's like, really like, nice to hear that it comes across like, that is like, we are, like, product. If we're a swimwear brand, that's fashion led. Like, that we work like a fashion house. Like, I did stuff in Seasons and gave them playlists and gave them themes and gave them sets, you know, so it was very different to the swim world that we entered, where everything looked like it was shot on a white model with a six pack on a nameless beach in Australia. Like, that was how swim looked to me. And I think to most people in 2015, it looked like a catalog of things that you just don't remember. It didn't look like fashion shoots, it didn't look editorial, it didn't look inclusive, and it looked one dimensional. And we really wanted to go in having worked for Camilla and having worked for the menswear designer, and my mom had been Grace Coddington's assistant at Vogue. Like, oh, wow, that's so cool. Yeah. Like, I just had a different opinion of what this could be. And also we had done the Ready to wear in the 80s, so I didn't see us as just. And we had these iconic moments, and they were actually more in the Ready to Wear. That was Julia Roberts. It was Whitney Houston. So I had this already feeling that we were more than just a swimwear brand and that I didn't want it to be unrecognizable. So we entered and we did these shoots that did have themes, and we did one that was set in. It looked like it was set in Yves Saint Laurent's garden in Morocco, which is just for me. That's not even for anybody else. It's just. It's not even on a beach. And there was a whole playlist. No one hears the playlist. But everything fits together like a world. And I don't think people were creating kind of editorial worlds for swim. I think they do do that now because they know that there's a huge opportunity as a category. Like, when we started, swim wasn't a huge category, and neither was resort wear, to be honest. You had those incredible brands like Zimmerman, and then you had, like, Erez. And then that was kind of it. Like, you didn't really have anything else. And they're the top, top end. And then there was, like, High Street. So I felt like there was a place for us somewhere in the middle that felt aspirational, that created more of a feeling and an energy. And just going on holiday has turned into something that, with Instagram, has become the most performative part of people's Lives like when I went on holidays when I was younger with my parents or my parents friends, they nobody was posting pictures of themselves. People went in their like worst swimwear and ate the most amount of pasta they possibly could. It was not like an exhibitionist kind of adventure. It was like a switch off. That's not the case anymore. And you know that plays into swim's favor is that that is people's most photographed moment. Whether you're a normal person or a celebrity or you know, it's what people want to showcase. So I, I think I kind of realized that quite quickly as well. And we especially had that in Covid. You know, like we switched off our factory a week into Covid because we thought no one would want to buy swimwear. And we on day kind of 9 of lockdown, we'd never had more sales and people were buying Hunza because it made them feel good, it was colorful and they didn't know how long they were going to be in lockdown. But because of the one size they knew that the product could last them. Whether they like we're going to get pregnant, not get pregnant, go to the gym. Loads. You know, people had their own Covid journeys, but everybody took photos of themselves like leaning in a strip of sun on a balcony in London in their Hunza. It was wild. Like everybody wanted to show themselves kind of relaxing. So yeah, I feel like as a category it's changed like monumentally from when we began.
- [28:33]
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- [29:36]
A
So it's the crinkle in particular. Let's talk about the copies and how you've sort of managed that because so there's two things going on one is that there's a bigger trend in fashion of crinkly fabrics that are not all exactly like what you do. Like Mara Hoffman, for instance, a brand that doesn't exist anymore did a crinkle that was, like, chunkier than yours and just, like, a different approach to it, but, like, kind of textured fabrics have become a really big thing in fashion in the last decade. Your influence on that is very clear. So there's like, the greater sort of trend towards that kind of material, and then there are just, like, tons of knockoffs of. Of the material you do, in particular in swimwear and beyond. And look like this happens to every brand. I just did a story this past week about Quince, this retailer in the US that just. Their whole business is knocking people off. Like, this isn't a new thing. But how did you, man? How have you managed that? Is it about, like, imparting to the consumer that the high quality and the originality of the garments, Is it the fashion element? Like, how do you deal with the fact that everybody's just, like, literally copying your exact designs and concept?
- [31:03]
C
I think it's like multiple things. Firstly, like, you learn to get better at it as the more it happens, you. Like the first time, you know, when I was, like, super green, I was like, we should send a lawyer's letter. And, like, we weren't even big enough to think like that. But you also don't want it, to be honest. You don't want to waste any time and energy on it. Like, it is a natural thing, that if you're doing something right, people are going to copy you. Like, it's. It's as everyone says, it's frustrating, but it's really, really flattering. I think it becomes dangerous if it begins to cannibalize your own business or you feel like those customers are going to these other brands. And I think for. For us, what we've tried to do is always keep moving, and we are the original. Like, we have existed before anybody else. There isn't. That gives us a. A huge step ahead. We've also kind of, like, the fabric that we have worked on, we have reworked and reworked and reworked. And the feedback that we get is that it is the best out there in terms of performance. Like, when we were making it perfect so that it would stretch and recover and stretch and recover and have this performance element for women, you know, we reworked on it five years ago, and we rejected fabric for a whole year. You know, like, we really do take our proposition serious as being, like, the Best crinkle out there. So our fabric is different to other people's and then it is the fashion element. Like, I feel the designs that we have done in the last 10 years have really moved Hunsa on whether it's like hardware. We've been copied so much with the swim that Rosie wore, which was the first, you know, swim with the tortoiseshell hoops, the one that we do that has bows up the sides, you know that there's no swim that's ever had that design before. And it's trade mott, but it still gets copied. We just launched a really exciting thing for us was we just launched a gingham collection this summer, which performed outperformed itself. And it's not a predominantly crinkle collection. It kind of sits alongside crinkle and some of it is crinkle with gingham trim. But it's a new fabric that's UV protective and it's UV protective, fast drying. You can swim in all of the ready to wear. And it was just like a really exciting thing to do. The heads scarf, we're selling so well. Like, we can't keep it in stock. The whole of the black and white sold out. So I feel like it's about keeping, like, moving forwards constantly with these things that, that, that, that create the energy around the core product, which is crinkle. But other brands aren't doing that. They are just copying what we did two years ago and then, you know, waiting to see what we do next. And I do feel like it's, in a weird way, it really keeps my own momentum going. Like, as the designer, like, I'm. I am worried about it. I don't. I haven't got to a point ever where there's been a brand that I felt threatened by, but as a general concept, I'm constantly concerned by it, which constantly makes me try and think of new ways to make us move forward. So it's almost like a helpful but annoying cycle, but a necessary one for us to keep doing what we do best.
- [34:21]
A
Yeah, I mean, I worry all the time too. Like, that's what people who are, are ambitious and, and push themselves. So. I understand what you mean. And I think it reminds me of High Sport, which is a brand based here in the US that, yeah, I bet you've engaged with. But it's not as well known in, in London in particular. But Alyssa's pants have been knocked off a million times. And the thing is, like, yeah, she still sells the pants. And the reality of it is because of people copying you, more people know about you. So there's like a good thing about it. But then there is the thing of like, well, you can't be complacent. You gotta push forward. And I see that in, in the work you've done. And also I think like once people trust a brand, especially in Swim for instance, they just go back to that person and they think, okay, you know what, this is my person or my brand and it's the right one for me. But it is interesting to see you move beyond the crinkle into different materials and then also into ready to wear to a bit. How do you. Because Zimmerman at one point, 20 years ago was just a bathing suit brand or they started mostly bathing suit suits and now I don't even know if many of their customers know they make bathing suits. Do you, do you think? I mean, it's so hard to know. But like where do you see, see it evolving? Do you want to do more ready to wear? What. What would be sort of the next step? Because you already have, you know, this very robust swimwear roster or, or offering and then you also do kids, you have accessories. You have so many different things already. What would be the sort of, what do you think the path is as you move forward, especially now that you own the company?
- [36:19]
C
I think like I think we'll always be a swimwear first brand. I think that like, because we defined a category, it would, it wouldn't make sense for us to start trying to kind of move away from that. I, I love being the swimwear brand. Like I think swimwear is amazing and interesting and you know, you can go into other categories, but I don't see them as being bigger than our core business. But things like the gingham reinvigorate the core business. And also you're just creating great product that people can wear and use. And we've made like the UV protective swimwear that sold like crazily well this summer we had a article in the New York Times and then it all sold out in sort of a week. Like we. So people do want to buy non crinkle product from us, but I think the evergreen concept will always be that we are a crinkle first business. You know, we make like things like sunglasses cases in the crinkle. I think there's more to be done with it. I made myself a laptop case the other day and it was like. And it's like the best laptop case ever because it's like stretches over your computer. It looks really cool. And you can squidge it up really small. So I think there's like fun things to do with crinkles. Next year we've got some really, really exciting products, projects coming out. We've got some collaborations which I think will just like really, really put our stake in the ground again that we are a swimwear brand. But they're, you know, they're really exciting. I can't say what they are, but I can't wait for everyone to see them. But I do think there's a place for ready to wear as long as it's slightly technical and it goes with the swimwear. I think Zimmerman is, is different because they're, you know that their designs are so incredible and kind of like couture esque and that's definitely not our path. I see us as more of a kind of on running a sort of skims, a sort of Birkenstock, a Ray Ban. But I like, I think that we'll always be quite a product focused brand and then we'll do these interesting things because they're fun to do, people want to buy them, but they will just prop up crinkles.
- [38:31]
A
Yeah. What is, what is the top style of everything and has it changed over, over the time?
- [38:42]
C
No, it's the square neck. It's the classic square neck is like our best selling style and color wise it's like black or bubble gum and then that might change for a week here or there. But overall it's black and bubblegum square necks. And then we get, you know, when we launch the gingham, that's the, you know those products are at the top of the best selling list for like a couple of months. But as a general, the square neck, I redesigned the shape of it maybe two years into original, into Hanzi G. So in probably 2018, I redesigned the shape completely and it's been the top selling product since then. So it's never changed. It's amazing.
- [39:23]
A
That's amazing. Is it, has it been fun for you as a mother to see so many women wear them like pre during and post? Because that's when I first bought one was when I was pregnant and I was living in Los Angeles and had to be in a bathing suit while I was pregnant, which would have never happened if I lived in New York. But I and my friend said, oh, you should get one of those Hunza G swimsuits. They are like expandable essentially. And I was amazed. It was so fun.
- [39:53]
C
Yeah, I think it's just, I think it's just like getting the feedback from women about a shopping on a website where you're not having to like work out your size, which is like, you know, you eliminate size trauma whilst shopping for yourself, which is just like such a nice thing to do for people. And then actually a product that, you know, when you could be feeling vulnerable makes you feel really great. Like our sort of internal thing is like everyone feels like a supermodel in their hunza, even if you're not like, at my worst, I feel my best in a hunza, you know, if I had to wear a swimming costume, as you say. So I think it's just like that feedback from women daily is really inspiring and yeah, kind of makes it all make. Makes it all worth it. I love seeing people wear it pregnant. And then post pregnancy, I love seeing like I've got, I've become really cheesy. I didn't think I'd do kind of matching Mommy and me vibes and so certainly not myself, but I'm like, my daughter's going to have to have lots of therapy because she's constantly being asked to pose with me in hanzajis that match on holiday.
- [41:02]
A
You know, I, I mean, you look adorable. But also I have a son and I make, I match with him all the time. Like, I'm like, let's all, let's both wear pink today.
- [41:14]
C
Yeah, I think I've seen that. No, it's, it's crazy. The minute you become a parent, you know, all of your, like, ideas of how you're going to be go out the window and you just become really soppy in a really nice way.
- [41:26]
A
True. Well, if you make some Hanza G swimming trunks, Fritz will definitely wear them.
- [41:34]
C
You know, I actually, I so post, post Frank, who's my first child, you know, you're always a bit mad.
- [41:42]
A
Fritz and Frank, we discussed this. Great names.
- [41:45]
C
You're always a bit mad having just given birth and I was like, oh gosh, it's a boy. I must make something from Hunza for him. So I made the team make 500 little hot pants that I thought, I thought they'd sell like hotcakes. They were like skimpies for baby boys and I think we sold like two. It's the only bad decision, really bad kind of commercial decision I think I've ever made, but it was hilarious. So he's worn them.
- [42:14]
A
Oh my God, that's so cute. Well, I'm glad, I'm glad Frank was able, able to, to wear them. Even though sometimes the things you love the most. Anyway, this was so fun. Congratulations on everything.
- [42:28]
C
Thank you so much.
- [42:29]
A
It's such a cool brand and the story, there's just no stories like this in fashion. I love the story so much that you were obsessed with it as a kid and you met this guy, you met the guy and you were able to rebuild it with him and then now you own it. It's a really fun and also just coming from the uk, which no one thinks of as like, I guess they think of it as a swim bathing community, but probably not, not a beach. I mean every bath and there are places but, but it's not the place that you expect a swimwear brand to come out of. So it's such a unique story. It says so much about like the culture of the UK to manufacturing and all that.
- [43:17]
C
Thank you so much. Well, thank you so much for having me. It was really, it was really fun. It was such a pleasure.
- [43:24]
A
Fashion People is a presentation of Odyssey in partnership with Puck. This show was produced and edited by Molly New Nugent. Special thanks to our executive producers, Puck co founder John Kelly, executive editor Ben Landy and director of editorial operations Gabby Grossman. An additional thanks to the team at Odyssey, JD Crowley, Jenna Weiss Berman and Bob Tabador.
- [43:50]
G
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