Building a Brand Based on Community

Fay Cannings, founder of Seekd talks to us about putting community first and what the future brings for sustainable fashion.

What made you want to set up Seekd?

I wanted to support small businesses and create a new way for customers to find beautiful and diverse collections of jewellery, especially from brands who want to create a positive impact. I want to encourage people to shop local and independent. My aim was to create a community for like-minded designers and provide them with a platform to reach more customers and connect with like-minded brands. With the umbrella company, I wanted to take a risk with a popup. I thought it would be a good idea to help designers access opportunities that they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do. 

Tell us about the designers you represent and what inspired their collections.

We represent Duxford Studios and Millie Marks, who use recycled materials.  Emma Anderson has a collection inspired by nature.

Both Doa and Quazi work with artisans in developing countries and support them to earn a livelihood, developing their businesses and providing jobs.

How do you put community at the forefront of what you do?

For a long time, I’d felt drawn to creating a marketplace to support small businesses and connect them to customers wanting to shop small, local and positive. I initially wanted to focus the marketplace on jewellery – it’s something I’ve always had a love of, collecting my own cherished pieces over the years. I spot interesting, unique and exciting brands through a mix of online research, developing partnerships, word of mouth, recommendations and a whole a lot of networking. It’s a lovely process of connecting with the brand and also often a personal connection with the founder. That’s the beautiful thing, it’s not a faceless online process or company, it’s a joyful reciprocal process of seeking out alignment and getting to understand what’s special about these businesses and designers. Brands and designers reach out to me directly having heard about Seekd and wanting to be part of the community – it’s really heartwarming when that happens.

What does sustainability mean to you?

Sustainability is preserving and investing in our planet for future generations. It’s mindful of the impact that the designing and making process has on people and the planet. But after that, it’s putting an end to that negative impact. It’s is a commitment to sourcing fair-trade, fair-minded and ecologically sustainable materials that aren’t harmful to the environment.

We commit to sustainability by:

• Recycling metal and other precious materials and gemstones

• Whenever using new materials, we ensure transparent sourcing and fair-trade and fair-pay. Making sure no one is in the process, and any environmental harm is mitigated.

• Remaining aware through the whole process, not just buying in mass-produced components. We produce pieces that are handmade with care in small batches and minimise waste.

We try not to damage the environment with the extraction materials. We don’t want to exploit people. On the flip side, we want to use materials that are already recycled or can be naturally replenished like sustainable plant alternatives. We also want to give back to the communities that extract materials. The key to making jewellery is mining metals and gemstones, so we want to ensure that work is fair-trade. We work with organisations that ensure local people and businesses are paid daily and invested in. We also work with social partnerships that provide local artists with more trading and upskill opportunities. 

What does the future of sustainable fashion look like?

Change is in the air. There are more and more people asking questions about where their goods come from and what conditions they were produced in. 

Consumers and makers are beginning to understand every aspect of the inequality of material production, and they want reassurance that they’re buying something which is sustainably produced and ethically sound. People are now incorporating these factors into their decision to purchase. The 2019 Ethical Consumer Report stated that the number of consumers seeking ethical goods in the UK had risen four-fold since 1999. This increase is seen the most in the millennial consumer, a key demographic for jewellery brands.

Within larger organisations, sustainability will come from adhering to ESG (Environmental Standards and Governance) frameworks. For smaller brands, it will come from their desire to fully understand how materials are made and the stories behind them. I hope they will begin to look for accreditation standards, responsible sourcing links etc.

Towards the end of 2019, The World Gold Council Consumer Research Report highlighted that the next generation of gold buyers would demand to know more about the ethical credentials of the industry. People looking for investment pieces - people with a “buy less, buy better” mentality will be able to justify a higher price due to the investment worth of what they buy. Something that will last instead of many cheaper alternatives.

Works by Beho, Emma Andersen, Sarah Ruddock and Orchesa.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced as an entrepreneur?

You have to learn as you go along; starting a business from scratch with no manual or model for best practice for this type of business is hard. Investment can be chicken and egg because businesses need a certain amount of traction to get financial investment. You end up doing everything, so you run out of energy for some of the bigger picture aspects and the things you need to do to raise investment. You are being pulled in so many different directions. 

What advice would you give to anyone who is thinking of building a brand?

Try and really distil down why you’re doing it, and is the reason strong enough. There’s so much risk, blood, sweat and tears. 

Your business plan needs to be simple and clear in terms of goals. Is the business scalable and relevant? Do you have the right people around you and also the financial backing you need? 

What have you got coming up for the rest of 2021? 

We’re kicking off with some small scale pop and event, and then we’re looking forward to some longer-term pop-ups and retail partnerships later on in the year, in locations both in London and other cities across the UK. I’m looking forward to collaborating with designers and makers in different parts of the country. At the moment we have a beautiful, curated collection of designers on at our pop up at the London Lighthouse Gallery on London City Island which is ongoing until the Summer and we ran a pop-up event on Oxford Street just last week (May 14th) which was fantastic to do!

I’m also now looking to collaborate with other arts and creative organisations as there’s such a fitting link with Seekd and what we’re about with the collectives focus on interesting and considered design, often very concept lead and linked with designers heritage or cultural inspirations. I’m hosting a range of talks to showcase our work and ethos around sustainability and design, please join us for our upcoming event on 3rd July with leading industry brands - a fresh look at sustainability in the jewellery industry. Stay tuned for more retail partnership announcements and other events.

Learn more about the jewellery brands that Seekd represent here. Check out the blogs we’ve written for Seekd here, here and here.