The Story of Herd & Healy
Herd & Healy was established in April/May 2020 in the heart of Kent by myself, Briony. During this time I was finishing off my second year of my Animal Science degree at Writtle University College but was based at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally, my main goal was to find a way to self fund a veterinary medicine degree as I was unable to receive funding due to it being a second degree and I was out of work due to the pandemic. I was due to apply to veterinary medicine degrees in the autumn, at the start of my third year of my degree and had to try and save up £40,000 whilst finishing my degree and getting work experience. I have always loved sewing and creating artwork so this is where I began! I had started to make scrunchies for myself and friends and thought I could look at selling them, so I did! I then had to think of a name, this was the hardest part! I knew I wanted it to be related to either cattle (my favourite animal) or bears (one of my nicknames!) so I set off looking and thinking of the perfect name! I came across the word Healy, which means ingenious (inventive) and thought Herd & Healy had a nice ring to it! So that was the beginning of Herd & Healy!
Since a young age, I have always dreamed of having my own clothing range (I even wrote about it in a keepsake journal which I later found 10+ years later, not long after I had released our clothing range!). I have a passion for the countryside and I wanted to create a range of practical, comfortable clothing suitable for this lifestyle, all whilst being size inclusive. When starting Herd & Healy I knew I wanted to create clothing so in January 2021, we released our first collection of burgundy clothing!
Unfortunately, I didn't receive any offers for the veterinary medicine degree so knew I was going to have to reapply. I graduated from my Animal Science degree in May 2021 and decided to take a gap year and not reapply in the autumn. Fast forward to May 2022, I am now running Herd & Healy alongside 3 part time jobs. And, I am planning to begin a part time masters degree in the autumn of 2022 instead of reapplying for a veterinary medicine degree. I may look at applying to a veterinary medicine degree in the future but for now, I do know that I can not wait to see what the future holds for Herd & Healy!
I hope you love and enjoy Herd & Healy as much as I do!
- Briony x