He founded eponymous international menswear brand, Casely-Hayford, with his dad Joe when he was just 22. He talks to BSF about early beginnings and late rising.
GM: Hi Charlie! Please could you tell BSF members a bit about your label and how you got started?
CCH: Casely-Hayford is a modern tailoring brand based in London, with an emphasis on exquisitely crafted and elevated pieces, designed with a modular wardrobe in mind. We’re a family run business and I took over from my late father around 5 years ago, but have always worked alongside both my parents.
GM: You studied at the Courtauld and St Martin’s. How did you find your time there and do you think those years have influenced your career?
CCH: As well as growing up in a fashion family, I think both the Courtauld and St Martin’s really helped to cultivate something tangible for me to build my world from in my early twenties. The Courtauld still very much informs my design process today. I did them back-to-back and I think the extreme juxtaposition was a helpful backdrop.
GM: Your business, of course, grew from strong family roots. Did you always feel growing up that this might be your path?
CCH: It was my normal from a very young age; my sister and I didn’t really know anything else. We spent so much time in the studio and at our parents’ fashion shows. Whilst nearly all of it went over our heads, looking back it was next to impossible not to absorb some of it. The first time it really registered what my parents did for a living was when I was about 8 or 9; it was London Fashion Week, which was at the Natural History Museum back then. Their show was about to start when Princess Diana turned up – it was her first ever show. I think that was the first time the fashion world and the world that I knew outside of my parents’ bubble collided right in front of my eyes. I remember thinking oh okay, I get it now.
GM: How do you juggle being a parent with your job? When it’s your own thing, it’s hard to switch off.
CCH: Both my wife and I run our own creative businesses; Sophie is the founder of Interior Design brand Studio Ashby. We feed of each other’s energy. There’s not necessarily a clear divide, but I guess as culture plays such a prominent role in both our work, we just take the kids along for the ride when we go to art galleries, are listening to new music and (hopefully when they’re a bit older) reading and sharing the books that inform our creative sensibilities.
GM: You’ve collaborated with Sophie on the design of your shop. Any more projects in the pipeline?
CCH: We have a few things up our sleeve, but I wouldn’t want to jinx it.
GM: What do you do to wind down? Any tips for us?
CCH: Cooking is my downtime; I’m just starting to learn Japanese and Italian. And then, not that I’m any good, a bit of chess. Basically if something requires my complete attention, it weirdly allows me to wind down as my focus is there and there only. I had zero chill before I met Sophie, she’s been slowly and patiently showing me the way.
GM: Favourite places to hang out?
CCH: Lee Valley, Hannah Barry Gallery and Sir John Sloane Museum.
GM: Are you an early bird, or a night owl?
CCH: Much to my wife’s dismay, I’m strictly a night owl.
GM: And finally, what are your thoughts, hopes and dreams for 2024? Perhaps not having to answer questions like this?
CCH: That 2024 is the year I miraculously turn into an early bird.
March, 2024
