Hast is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year! 10 years of shirts, fashion, meetings, commitments, authenticity and style. 10 years also with you, who made the brand grow alongside us. For its anniversary, Hast invites you to look back on the key moments of recent years in the company of Samy, Emmanuel and Thomas, the three founders of the brand. They took part in the question/answer game. Looking back with emotion on Hast's 10th anniversary and looking ahead to all the years to come!
Hello to all three, to begin with, why did you found Hast 10 years ago and with what ambitions?
The 3 of us started the Hast adventure ten years ago. Originally, Hast was a single-product brand, focused on shirts. For us, the shirt is the central piece of the men's wardrobe and we couldn't find a model that met our expectations at the time. There was a missing in-between: between high-end brands with very high price offerings, and fast-fashion brands which offered clothes most often in low-quality materials and with very poorly crafted cuts.
Hast set out with the desire to create a quality shirt, at a fair and accessible price, without intermediaries. We immediately had a very honest and transparent discourse with our first customers. They are also the ones who have been at the heart of our development by giving us advice that we took pleasure in following, in order to imagine an offer adapted to their desires and needs.
We hear a lot about eco-responsibility today, but it was a more pioneering concept ten years ago. Why did you want to launch into more ethical and responsible production?
It is obvious that the fashion industry is not always the most exemplary in terms of eco-responsibility. By creating Hast, we wanted to make clothes as best as possible, with an eco-responsible dimension anchored in our DNA: 100% natural or recycled materials, fabrics and manufacturing mainly in Europe , always at the service of style, avoiding greenwashing as much as possible. . We were interested from the start in the traceability of our clothing: from the choice of fabrics to their production location. We were one of the first French brands to offer compostable packaging or to launch into upcycling, with our collection of underwear made from recycled fabrics.
Today, we are still aligned with this approach: we produce 95% in the European Union, with natural materials, fabrics from the biggest houses , we increase from year to year the share of even more responsible materials (GOTS ) in our collections and try to reduce CO2 emissions as much as possible, by producing as closely as possible to demand with ever more responsible methods. If you would like to know more, our carbon footprint can be downloaded from the site.
At the beginning there was the shirt... Why did you start the adventure with this piece?
For us, it is the fundamental piece of the wardrobe, the one from which we build a look. We wanted to free the shirt from its purely formal heritage and make it a piece suitable for everyday style. We found that the shirt was too often associated with a uniform, almost cliché, that we wear to the office or for special occasions. We launched Hast with a collection of ten “formal” shirts, in a totally uninhibited and more modern universe. For the record, the first Hast shirt in white poplin is still on sale on the site (it has barely changed today and we are still happy with it!)
Hast's collections quickly expanded to become a complete men's wardrobe. Why did you want to expand your offering?
For five years, we have developed our expertise in shirts, in order to offer ever more high-end pieces. The desire to expand our collection was built gradually, following requests from our customers. More and more of them liked the brand, recognized themselves in its positioning and shared its values. We then judged that we were legitimate to produce new pieces to dress men from head to toe. We would never have taken the plunge if we hadn't felt there was a real need. We never wanted to make a garment “for the sake of making a garment”. We believe in reasoned production that makes sense for us, but above all for the men we dress. This is why, even today, feedback is essential to move us forward: we regularly launch questionnaires and take into account each comment we receive.
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What is the spirit of the brand today?
Hast is a wardrobe that stands the test of time, both authentic and naturally stylish. The shirt is obviously the centerpiece, but it is twisted with other desirable clothing, such as the jacket, pleated pants or our iconic work jacket. At Hast, we want to give men back a taste for beautiful everyday clothes . We want to prove that formal style does not mean boring and that a simple and accessible look does not mean ordinary. We offer a wardrobe that combines high standards, nobility of materials, with great research into cuts, in colors that are always bright and timeless.
To mark the 10th anniversary, we have released a new version of our brand platform. This presents in an even more precise manner our identity, our directions, our values and the universe that we wish to continue to develop. We revised our logo, wrote a new manifesto and defined a more unique artistic direction which is already reflected in our new fall-winter collection.
Hast is 10 years old this year... Emmanuel, if you had to summarize Hast in 10 key dates?
There have been so many important moments for the brand that it is not an easy exercise. If I had to choose just 10…
1/ The first collection of ten formal shirts in double-twisted poplin: simple, effective, accessible.
2/ The first shirt sold outside the circle of family and friends, to a customer. I remember the exact date: September 10, 2012.
3/ A publication in “Comme un truck” which led to our first out of stock.
4/ Our first office.
5/ An article in GQ, where Hast was elected “best shirt of the PAF”.
6/ The moment when the team began to develop with our first intern, Louise.
7/ Obviously, our first store, rue d' Aboukir, in March 2016.
8/ The moment when our collection expanded with jackets, pants, over-shirts, t-shirts…
9/ The milestone of 10 employees , a human adventure above all.
10/ The signing of two new stores in Paris and Lyon.
I'll stop there, but there are so many more...
Thomas, tell us an anecdote about the brand…
I always remember with amusement our first shooting at the end of 2012 at the Museum of Shirtmaking and Masculine Elegance in Argenton-sur-Creuse in Indre! The staff kindly received us and let us take photos in this unique place in France.
Samy, we continue with the little game of 10… What are the 10 things that inspire you on a daily basis?
1/ Cuisine, pastry, the great chefs of today: Alain Ducasse, Pierre Gagnaire, Anne-Sophie Pic, the creations of Jacques Genin…
2/ The music , from rock from the 60s to electronic music from the 2000s!
3/ Paris
4/ Sports. The desire to surpass oneself, to share moments as a team, that fascinates me.
5/ Japan
6/ My parents, my family, my daughter.
7/ My wife, after having been a lawyer in a large firm, she is now creating her own business.
8/ In cinema, I like the aesthetic of Guy Ritchie and Wes Anderson's films. There is a tone, music, language and look that I find inspiring for our collections.
9/ The Hast team on a daily basis
10/ And of course the art of clothing, the art of tailoring, vintage…
What can you wish Hast for his birthday and for the next 10 years?
As for the last ten years, we wish Hast to always remain faithful to its values of honesty, authenticity and high standards. And perhaps within the next 10 years, 10 new stores!
In the coming months, Hast will release a capsule to mark its anniversary. Can you tell us about this project?
For the 10th anniversary, we decided to think big and give our customers a gift . The idea with this capsule is to release 10 ultra-premium pieces in a limited edition of 100 copies. These numbered pieces will be sold as always at a fair price. We can’t wait to tell you more…
See you in the first quarter of 2023!
