There's a Hairy Mary in all of us
What we can learn from the f*** it spirit of small brands
Open Hairy Mary’s website – a place for eclectic, one-of-a-kind slow fashion pieces and you’ll be hit by a pop up: looking to join a new cult? The Muff Eaters want YOU! With a space to write your email address and a CTA: F*ck it!
Click through the brand – founded Rosie Barton, not someone called Mary, she just liked the rhyme – and every bit of copy is more unhinged than the last. Instagram bio, about us, product description: it's got velvet ribbon ties, it's got metal eyelets, it's got beauty, it's got grace, it’s got Miss United States locked in its walk-in wardrobe back in its 10-bed mansion in Hampstead. Rosie is obviously hilarious. And it works.
The beauty of being a small brand is that you really can have fun with your personality. There are no investors or corporate stakeholders. It’s the founder and a few people who are all aligned. And there’s no death of creativity by feedback. The personality and voice can represent the founder at their most creative, be an alter-ego, or just exist as a concept – Monica Gellar meets Spongebob Squarepants.
But there are also big brands – brands like Ryan Air, Oatly, Gymshark, Duolingo – who have kept that f*ck it spirit alive. And while having more people – customers and team – does mean having more guidelines, feedback, and probably a lot more Karens in your customer service email, there are ways of keeping your personality strong as you grow.
Having someone own personality and voice internally that gets to call the shots. Agreeing where you’ll really dial up your personality and where you dial it down – Ryan Air’s social comments would not fly on a customer’s booking journey. Having a strand to your tone of voice that lets your weird flag fly. And creating a culture of creative freedom and willingness to fail. We hope no one got fired for Bumble’s celibacy ads.
The Advice
"The best advice I ever received was from our former CMO who is now retired: “you don’t know where the line is unless you cross it”.
– Zaria Parvez, Senior Global social media manager at Duolingo
The Interview
"If everybody is comfortable, you’re probably not pushing hard enough. You need to get the team to the point that you trust each other enough to take risks together: we’re clear with each other, we’re aligned in our ultimate goal, and now we’re gonna hold hands and we’re gonna jump. It’s a combination of showing them they can trust you to be honest and admitting none of us ever really know how something will turn out. Getting everyone comfortable with the idea that giving something a best effort is always worth it and that is not necessarily the same as the effort always working out."
The Brands
A shout out to some small brands with big personalities. Shope Delano’s Kind Regards built on the concept of garments and conversations for self-defined life with a cerebral, conceptual and extremely calming personality. Spencer Hoddeson’s “unabashedly queer” brand Gay Water with the tagline: gay means happy and an email CTA: fill my hole! And Brooklyn’s Tart vinegar, started by line cook Chris Crawford whose entire brand feels very un-brandy and personal and organic.
The Prompt
Be the most unhinged version of your personality in an Instagram post and post it. That’s the prompt.
The Vortex
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