HELLOFASHION.COM 109hfmLIFESTYLE
was about not just commerce, but being
at the forefront of sustainable business
practice and supporting young designers.
I learnt everything I needed to know there.”
Frieda, rather terrifyingly, left her job
in August 2010 and launched House of
Hackney the following April. “It has been
and continues to be a brilliant adventure,
and luckily what we identified as a trend
and a mood is a lifestyle people have really
gravitated towards. We’re slowly building a
nice little brand,” she says of the company,
which has a bricks-and-mortar store on
Shoreditch High Street and is stocked in
Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia.
Meanwhile, Javvy was working for
designers such as Alexander McQueen,
Hussein Chalayan and Markus Lupfer.
“I helped a lot of fashion designers with
their shows and also pattern-cutting,
during a really fun and a pivotal moment
[in British fashion]. But I also ran a product-
designer job alongside to pay my rent.”
Fittingly, the couple met at a warehouse
party in Hackney. “I had just bought this
house, which was divided into bedsits and it
didn’t look at all how it does now – it was all
yellow walls and blue carpets. So it was exactly
the right timing,” she says, looking at Javvy.
“Is he handy around the house?” we
joke. “Yes, very handy,” says Frieda, laughing.
“It comes from my childhood making
treehouses in Somerset,” Javvy smiles.
“But seriously, from day one we had a
shared vision and we became collaborative
from then onwards,” she adds.
Frieda’s interest in maximalist interiors
stems from a very young age. “I grew up in
a household that loved interiors, especially
my grandmother Peggy, who didn’t work
in the business professionally, but had an
eye. Her home was a subliminal inspiration
for the aesthetic of what we do today.
“The leopard prints and the textures,
the velvets and the antiques. Within that
it was also quite punk, which has come out
in a lot of House of Hackney,” she says, of
the creations that celebrate Victoriana
by reviving and modernising prints by
British masters such as William Morris –
albeit with a psychedelic twist. “We lookFROM TOP The
house’s eclectic
furniture is full of
surprising details
like this ornate side
table; the living
room showcases
paintings and
the family’s book
collection
f