Business in Shoreditch: Interview with Wild at Heart Founder Chrissy Bray

G: Tell us about your business

Wild at Heart is a fashion label that has created a new style of bag – the Leg & Arm bag. It is a beautiful small leather bag that straps around the leg or arm and attaches with press-studs, enabling people to carry their phone, keys, cash and cards while keeping both hands free for fun.

The concept of this gorgeous little bag has been brewing for a long time. My business partner and best friend, Rachael Moore and I spent years frolicking around at music festivals with our own little makeshift strap on bags – I had a purse I’d tie around my wrist with a sock (tres chic!) and Rachael had a bag she would attach around her boot with an elastic band. Meanwhile we’d see all these women dancing like teenagers around a pile of bags on the dirty ground and it just seemed ridiculous that there weren’t any beautifully made leather strap on bags available for festival goers and music lovers.

Once we began the process of creating the Leg & Arm bag, we decided to extend the line with our own modern take on the classic bum bag and backpack. We realized that hands free bags aren’t just for festivals, they’re for riding through the park, lazy walks with friends, drinks at the bar… no matter what you’re doing, life is better when you have both hands to do as you please.

G: What is innovative about what you do?

Freedom to move and to let go is what Wild at Heart is all about which is why every bag has been designed to strap comfortably onto the body. So we’re unique in that we’re the only fashion label in the world designing hands free bags for people who love the freedom to go exploring.

Rachael and I both have extensive experience both in front and behind the scenes at festivals – her career in event design has seen her head up large events at the Ace hotel in New York and now at various festivals in Australia including Splendour in the Grass. I am a singer and freestyle MC, performing alongside my DJ partner as, ‘We Go Bang Bang’ here in London. This experience has had a huge influence on our designs and the Wild at Heart ethos; we love the festival culture and bringing people together in a unified experience and we are passionate about creating designs that feel as good as they look.

G: What would you say has been your most memorable experience while developing your business? What were the most successful or unique projects?

We have spent the last two years developing the range working one-on-one with our incredible tailors in Bali and now we’re set to go into production on our first line, which we’re funding via Kickstarter.

Kickstarter is the world’s largest crowd funding site for creative projects and it’s a fantastic forum for to build a community of like-minded freedom seekers. So our most exciting project to date is happening right now and will continue up until our project deadline, which is Friday the 16^th August. The Wild at Heart Kickstarter campaign is spreading worldwide and it’s extremely exciting to finally be sharing our vision on a global scale. It’s also a great opportunity to get one of our bags at a discount – including our brand new Leg & Arm bag. Just go to the Kickstarter website and plug in Wild at Heart bags to pledge and choose from our range of rewards.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/475100329/kickstart-wild-at-heart-0?ref=live

G: Why do you choose Shoreditch to run your business?

I live in Shoreditch and work from home and I couldn’t think of a better place to be. I can feel the creative energy in the air whenever I venture out for my morning coffee, it’s so inspiring to be surrounded by so many incredible start up companies and small businesses. Also just around the corner in Kingsland Road is a specialist business incubator called Accelerator, which holds business development programs. I went to a ‘Business Bootcamp’ course they held there and it was an invaluable experience.

G: What are your favorite places in Shoreditch?

I love great coffee so you’ll often find me getting my morning fix at Allpress, Shutterbug, Present and Fix 126. As for cocktails you can’t go past Night Jar and for a quiet/loud drink with friends I love the new Crown and Shuttle. For a giant piece of meat Tramshed is amazing, for Vietnamese I love Viet Grill (Shoreditch does Vietnamese so well!) and I must confess I suffer from a keen addiction to Meat Mission.

G: What does the future has in store for your business?

At the moment our efforts are squarely on achieving our Kickstarter goal, which will enable us to go into production on our first line of bags. If we are successful we’ll begin selling our bags on our website worldwide and stock our range in a few key stores globally. We envisage that as more people switch from carry bags to strap on bags there will be a global shift and people will realise that being hands free is the only way to be!

Social Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildAtHeartBags

Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/475100329/kickstart-wild-at-heart-0

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WildAtHeartBags?ref=hl

Website: www.wildatheartbags.com