Jane & Harry's feature (final)
Jane & Harry's is a mother and daughter-run lifestyle gift shop that started after the creative duo both turned their passions into businesses. Now their shop is a platform for many local artists and designers in Northumberland.
Category
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CreativityTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:25 I started Just Harry about seven years ago and I was actually living down in London
00:30 working for Urban Outfitters and I decided to make a jacket for myself.
00:34 So I made it from pre-loved denim jeans, it was, yeah, all pre-loved denim jeans
00:39 I take apart and put back together. So my first ever jacket was a patchwork jacket
00:43 and I started wearing it to work, I started wearing it out and about
00:46 and I got loads of compliments on it. So I thought, oh do you know what,
00:49 maybe I have like an alleyway into something here.
00:53 And I got a few commissions as well, so a girl at work asked for one
00:56 and then somebody else I knew asked for one as well.
00:59 But then I was live on Asos Marketplace, I started doing markets and things like that
01:03 but I was finding that I was working full-time for Urban Outfitters
01:07 and then this is really time consuming on top of that
01:10 because it takes me around 30 hours per jacket to make.
01:13 Just with the process, because I sit in and pick all the jeans,
01:16 I then make up all the fabric, I cut out the pattern pieces
01:19 and then finally construct the garment.
01:22 So I went down to part-time, but living in London is really expensive
01:25 so they were offering me more hours and I needed the hours
01:28 but I really wanted to focus on this. So my mum said to me,
01:31 you need to figure out what you want to do.
01:34 She was like, you can stay down in London and you can work for somebody else
01:37 or do you want to come back up north and give your business a go?
01:40 And I was like, do you know what, I don't want to spend my life
01:43 wondering like, what if?
01:46 So my mum's always wanted a gift shop
01:49 and obviously with having the pub, she never really had the time to do it
01:53 and then during lockdown she started making candles, which are plain Jane candles
01:56 and she was sort of giving them to friends and family.
02:00 So the shop kind of started because we both had something that we could sell
02:05 and then throughout the years of doing markets and stuff for Just Harry
02:09 I'd met quite a lot of local artists and designers
02:12 so I wanted to give them a platform in which they could sell their products to
02:16 because I know it's really difficult to get into shops
02:19 and perhaps have your own premises and things like that
02:22 so I just wanted to give them something or a place for them to display their work.