I (virtually) met Siobhan from H.Huna via an Instagram & Facebook community that we both belong to and her brand ethos and approach to fashion instantly chimed with me. H.Huna seeks to design simple seasonless clothing for those who treasure craftsmanship, impeccable detail and prefer to own things for life. Her capsule collection of beautifully made, easy to wear pieces are to die for and so I was intriguied to find out more about her story...
Hi Siobhan, can you tell me a bit more about your background and how you came to set up your business?
I think I was always intrigued with clothing from a young age seeing my Nan knit, sew clothes for myself and my cousins and in turn encouraging me to use the sewing machine (quite poorly!) from a young age to make up some Barbie clothes!
I met a friend of a friend who worked for Quiksilver (when it was big) when I was at school who lived what seemed like a dream travelling to factories and customers which got me onto the fashion career path but it was only once I started working in this career did I start to see the true colours of there being no relationship with the collections, the suppliers nor the purpose behind each garment except to sell as many as possible within the relevant quarter of trade to meet higher sales targets and make as much margin as possible.
I wanted to go back to my Nan’s mindset of making/buying and wearing with a purpose, to have faith in each garment owned and the potential longevity each piece offers encouraging dependence and love for that must have.
When and why did the concept of slow fashion become important to you?
Think it was when I started to see the change in the quality of each product produced in the fast fashion I worked across in order to meet the lead times and the target profits, when quality took a backseat and the creativity and talent that went into each piece was never acknowledged.
Alongside the change in my mindset when I started to identify with my own style, what I did and didn’t like instead of following everyone else’s lead on the key trends to follow and being swept up in the blindsighted-ness of it all.
How did you go about creating the capsule collection? I imagine it was hard to narrow down the pieces so what made you choose the pieces you did? Who are they aimed at?
There were several illustrations, cut outs and mock toiles to help envision how and if each piece could be worn with one another along with quite a lot of in-depth sourcing on the fabric side of things to be sure they not only offered functionality to each piece but were also suited to the goal of ‘seasonless’ fashion.