Meet the owners

Meet Lucy

Independent sustainable clothing brand Lucy and Yak, which opened a Cambridge store in April, specialises in colourful, comfy clothes, designed to ‘give people joy’. Co-founder Lucy Greenwood shares the story of her planet-friendly brand.

We hear Lucy & Yak started with the sale of some pouches on a beach in New Zealand?

Myself and Lucy & Yak co-founder, Chris, set off on our travels back in 2014 heading down to New Zealand. Made from pre-loved clothes, the pouches were a way for us to get by, but we soon saw we needed another way to earn. On our return to the UK, we started selling vintage clothes on Depop – with dungarees proving a popular product – and realised we could do this for a living. Yak is the van where it all began! Not just a means of transport, but our office, workshop, and home, we had to honour our little Yak somehow and the brand name felt like the perfect fit.

Which was your first store launch in the UK?

We fell in love with Brighton – the people, the sea, and the fashion! It felt like the perfect home for our first store. We’ve been here four years now and still loving it!

Can you tell us about the ethos of Lucy & Yak?

While we made our name with dungarees, our community loves us for products that are consistently engineered for comfort for ALL bodies, but in playful, creative styles. Our community is at the heart of what we do and it’s our Yak community who have really built the brand into what it is today. Our other major focus is circularity – we like to think of ourselves as a square label with a circular soul. We’ve introduced several circularity initiatives under the Re:Yak umbrella including Imperfect Sales and our Buyback scheme.

What made you choose Cambridge for a store?

Cambridge is our fifth shop in the UK and we opened back in April on Green Street. We knew there was a community of people from Cambridge online who loved the brand, so it was nice to have somewhere physical for them to try on clothes and for us to host events such as our Re:Yak upcycling workshops.

Which clothing is selling best in Cambridge?

Cambridge loves a jumpsuit!

Can you share your hot product picks for summer?

Festival season is a big one for us – our bright, colourful, and above all comfortable products are often a huge hit for festival-goers. This year we have a dedicated Festival Edit – full of the comfiest and most fabulous clothes you need for your line up of festivals.

What do you love about being an indie in Cambridge?

Our stores are not just a bricks and mortar place for us to sell our products; they act like a hub where we can run community events such as our Makers Markets for local craftspeople. This helps to feed our wider circularity goals by giving customers a space to return their old items for money off a new pair or to repair or upcycle their pre-loved items with our workshops.

We’d love to know your dreams for Lucy & Yak?

We want to continue expanding our stores so we can serve more of our community around the UK and expand our circularity initiatives. As well as Cambridge, we’ve got stores in Bristol, Brighton, Norwich and Nottingham, with Manchester on the way this year!

Lucy & Yak is at 36 Green St, Cambridge. Find out more at lucyandyak.com