Adam Reed interviews Henry...

On Monday evening, Henry and some of the HoH team headed down to an event organised by The Coterie and sponsored by BaByliss Pro where an audience gathered on comfy sofas in a casual interview between long time friends Henry and Adam Reed (of Percy & Reed salons). Free wine and canopies accompanied a lovely, intimate chat about House of Holland and it’s growth as a fashion house and brand. We took some snaps and noted down some memorable quotes to share with you...

A few items were pulled out of the archive to showcase how HoH has progressed. Pretty good line-up, wouldn't you say?

 

Henry and Adam posing for some shots before their chat.

 

Free wine and elderflower! Lovely.

 

 

                                             Adam spruced up Henry's hair before the chat.

Henry gave a recount of the short but sweet history of House of Holland, we sure you know we have come from humble beginnings but here's what Henry had to say about how HoH got started...

“there was this kind of ongoing conversation between me and my friends and I always used to buy silly t-shirts with things written on them about famous people and I was like ‘I could do that, we should do it with some English people’ ... So, I made two, one about Lindsay Lohan and one about Coleen and I was so excited I bought about 250 of each one and I was like “oh my god this is going to be amazing” and I think I sold about 6, in total. And they were featured in Heat magazine with my mobile phone number as the stockist contact. So that didn’t really go very well and then I was having lunch with a friend of mine Gareth Pugh and he was taking the mick out of me because I had this failed t-shirt business that was a bit of a joke at this point and I turned round and was like “oh, well maybe I’ll make a t-shirt with your name on it and maybe that’ll sell”. And... it did.”

“I was at this show [Gareth Pugh’s SS06 show - above]... and I was sat with all his flatmates and they were like “oh Gareth’s wearing your t-shirt today” and I said “you’re kidding!” and then for the entire show I was absolutely petrified that he was going to come out in it and I was really nervous and really scared, and he did. Then, that night I got a phone call from Giles Deacon’s stylist Katie Grand... and she asked if she could have one for Giles to wear the next day and it was that, sort of, instantaneous really”

“I was in a meeting with my editor at Bliss and I got a phone call of an unknown number and she was like ‘Oh, hi Henry it’s Sarah Mower from American Vogue, have you got a second?’ and I was like, in this meeting with my editor and I just sort of stood up and walked out. So yeah, she wrote a piece for style.com and then that fashion week I did some for different designers... In hindsight it was basically like a genius PR strategy, but it just... wasn’t... and I think that’s why it worked, because it didn’t seem contrived, it didn’t seem pre-planned, it was literally that organic”

It was nice to watch the video and have a little flashback to House of Holland AW07...

“the review from that show, from Sarah Mower, said ‘this is all very funny, it’s very clever, it’s a great idea, but, the joke will last 5 minutes unless Holland can think of something else.’ So then, this season (SS08) we did shoes, we did jewelry with Katie Hillier, we did bags with Stuart Vevers, we did swimwear, we did eye wear with Linda Farrow, we did dresses, we did denim, we did leather... So, I thought of something new. But that comment really spurred me on and I think that was a really pivotal moment for me”
 

 

Thanks to BaByliss Pro for our amazing goodie bags!

We had a great night at the intimate event. It was a truly lovely evening!

HoH x