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Was it scary to quit your day job to start your own company?
It was petrifying and I held off for as long as I possibly could. I was working weekends and nights on my T-shirts while I was working 9-5 at magazines. I had a mortgage so I was very nervous about giving up, but I just knew there was an opportunity there and I'd regret it if I didn’t try take advantage of the opportunities being presented to me. I went into the fashion world with the idea that I would give it a go and try it for a year or two, but then go back to being a journalist if it didn’t work out.
How did it feel to celebrate ten years of House of Holland?
It felt good. It was a very proud moment that we had achieved that milestone. It's also a very real motivation for me as well because there is still so much I want to do.
As well as your main collections, you also collaborate regularly with other brands, such as your Habitat collection. What made you go into homewear?
It's a funny story – I met the PR director of Habitat on the dance floor at a wedding and we drunkenly decided to do a collection together! I think there's a real synergy between home wear and fashion, and even more so now that people treat their homes in a similar way as they treat their wardrobes. People dress their homes to reflect themselves and reflect their personalities. It’s a form of expression so I see a real connection. There's a lot of synergy between my brand's DNA and aesthetic which were very easy to translate into a home wear collection. We work a lot in print and we work a lot in colour – all of those type of things transfer very easily into home wear.
What can we expect from your next collection? Are you excited for fashion week?
You can expect an extravaganza and you can expect a very exciting show, but I can't tell you any more than that. The one secret we keep as fashion designers is that big reveal at the beginning of every fashion show. We overshare on everything else, but the big reveal is the only secret I can't divulge – literally the only one!
Henry Holland was speaking on behalf of online job boards totaljobs and Milkround in their latest campaign around achieving a healthier work-life balance