Marie-Claire Chappet
·5-min read
If you go to the countryside today, chances are, you’ll come across someone wearing Holland Cooper. Modish black roll neck sweaters, herringbone coats, and tailoring with distinctive gold buttons; it's an elevated take on country classics. The luxury lifestyle brand, which has its roots in rural living, was established in 2008 by the designer and entrepreneur Jade Holland Cooper.
“I think I saw a gap for what I'm doing now when I was going to events in in the country and I couldn't see or find anything that I wanted to wear,” she says, video-calling me from her brand’s latest campaign shoot in Cheltenham. “I was also looking at high-net-worth clients arriving at events with nothing really to wear for that sort of occasion. So that's what sparked the idea. The DNA has been very clear from the outset, which is helpful, because you need to be very clear as you get bigger – you're trying to download that vision to so many more people than you were at the beginning.”
That refined DNA is undoubtedly due to the fact that the Holland Cooper woman is Jade herself, I suggest. “Yes,” she agrees, nodding. “I am her, and she is me, in many ways. I think we're intrinsically linked, and I think that's why it's been very easy for me to see exactly who I want us to become and what I want the product mix to be.”
The ethos of the brand has never strayed far from the original premise: that of answering the needs of a woman with events to attend, who also wishes to look stylish in her day-to-day life in the country – be that walking the dog, going on a shoot, or simply meeting friends for lunch. “That’s why we always run products that I would deem as classics: investments and essentials,” Holland Cooper explains. “You will always need a cream jumper, or a good pair of jeans. There's that essential capsule wardrobe that all women need, regardless of what's in or out of fashion. I think that's why it's been so successful, because women see the brand and they can see themselves in it in so many different ways. It's not overwhelming, it's not difficult to understand.”
The brand began life as a small collection of pieces that the founder and a friend (the original entire team of the operation) took to trade shows across the country. “It was a real fast track lesson in retail and trading,” she remembers. “You are effectively on a market stall with the general public, and they are going to tell you exactly what they think of everything that you're doing, and you will quickly understand if something isn't going to sell. For me, there was no better way to understand my customers.”
Her deep understanding of the brand stems not only from having masterminded the concept, but from having taken on every role possible within the company. “For me, a successful business has to be both the creative and the commercial sides working together and I am very involved in both,” she says. “I understand the 360-degrees of the whole business because in the beginning I had to do everything. I have that understanding of doing the trade shows, doing the set-up, doing the product design, doing the web design, doing the social. I think hopefully that makes me a better manager, as I have experience in the many roles in my team.”
Indeed, the brand now has expanded to far more than its initial two employees. With it has developed Holland Cooper’s understanding of her own leadership style. “I think I've become more forgiving and more understanding that people are flawed, and that can be quite a challenge to begin with,” she says, with a wry laugh. “You have to understand that mistakes are going to happen – that’s start-up life.”
The complexity is, of course, that Holland Cooper is both CEO and founder – the brand is her baby. “Something I’ve come to terms with is that maybe no one is going to be as driven or as passionate as you. But if you can get them 70 per cent of the way there, that's great.” She rolls her eyes playfully when I ask how she copes with impatience – so often the poisoned chalice that accompanies passion. “Oh, I’m still impatient. I am demanding,” she smiles. “I want us to be a growth business, and I hire people who are excited by that. But I think you equally do have to understand what is possible and not set targets that are unrealistic so that your team is going to fail because it's just not possible. You must strike a balance. But I must admit, I think accepting that and slowing down are things I struggle with.”
Holland Cooper should be proud of her brand. It has grown enormously over its 16-plus years, going from 20 miniskirts on a two-metre stand, to 2,000 products sold globally. “I am enormously happy,” she says, conscious not to tempt fate. “We're on a 60 per cent growth rate year-on-year at the moment and I want us to keep that up.”
She is keen to keep expanding the business into different arenas – she now produces menswear and is branching out into more homeware. “I think in the next two years, swim and resort is an area that we're expanding in, as well as our waterproof categories,” she explains. “You can get beautiful waterproof coats now from us, and I'm really excited to be a leader in that sort of technical country product marketplace.”
But still, despite her grand plans, what keeps her motivated remains the customer she originally thought of: the woman, like her, with nothing fantastic to wear in the countryside. “The messages I get from people on Instagram are real connections – I really value that,” she says. “I reply to all my own messages. I read them every night. That, to me, is the intrinsic glue that I don't have anymore because I'm no longer on that trade-show stand every day. I love hearing from them. That’s why I do this.”
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