Hai started with silk, and our early pieces were about experimenting with, and stretching, the possibilities of the fabric. In time, this focus on silk has broadened to encompass a whole palette of finely crafted materials including velvet, lace and pearls. This widening approach to materials has happened hand-in-hand with us expanding from our bags, to shoes, dresses, shirts, skirts: a whole Hai wardrobe. In our designs, we tend to strive to create the platonic ideal of a wardrobe staple, or the unexpected piece you didn’t know you needed.

Over five years Hai has blossomed into a team, now based out of our Islington studio, and with a presence for our international community too; including our store in Seoul, Korea, and recent pop-ups in New York, Tokyo and at home in London. Always collaborative, from Tessa giving out the first bamboo bags to friends to test wear, we are proud to work with a close-knit community of artists, photographers, stylists, and creatives.

Though we bring out a new collection with each season, it’s important to us that we still carry some of our very earliest designs. Each season’s pieces are not created as part of a standalone collection, but instead follow the logic of our own wardrobes: garments that we know we will wear again and again, and that are durable enough to stand the test of time. If there is a guiding ethos for Hai, it’s to create designs that you will keep returning to.