Founder of Lucy & Yak, Chris Renwick will judge the Sudocrem Pre-Loved Awards

Sudocrem, the multitasking skincare brand, are launching the first ever awards dedicated to celebrating the love of pre-loved!

They have enlisted the help of Chris Renwick, Founder of sustainable fashion brand Lucy & Yak, to judge the Sudocrem PreLoved Awards.

Sudocrem are searching for individuals and retailers who champion the win-win merits of thrifting. There are several categories to enter, and everyone who enters goes into a prize draw to win a £1,000 Airbnb voucher and Airbnb vouchers worth £200 will be presented to the category winners.

The competition launched on 5th June 2023 and remains open until 31st August 2023.

We had the opportunity to speak to Chris about the awards, and his love of sustainable fashion.

Firstly, you will be a judge on the panel of Sudocrem’s Great British Pre-Loved Awards where Sudocrem are searching for the individuals and retailers who champion the win-win merits of thrifting. What sort of things will you be looking out for in the judging process?

I’ll be looking out for someone offering something unique in the pre-loved space but also for those who are actively trying to pursue something that speaks to and benefits their community.

There are six categories in the competition. Which do you think is most interesting?

As a brand that is committed to reinvesting for good, and which often partners with charities, I think the Charity category is a great one for platforming some of the wonderful work that’s being done in that area.

You are the co-founder of Lucy&Yak, a well loved and sustainable clothing brand. What motivated you to create this business? Have you always loved clothes and fashion?

We’ve always had a good eye for vintage pieces, but I don’t think we ever thought we’d end up as a fashion brand. Early on, we were travelling and needed to earn a living to continue our travels so started upcycling preloved pieces into handmade pouches. Once back in the UK, we were selling vintage clothes online and saw that dungarees were always a massive hit. On our next trip we started searching for a manufacturer to make our now iconic Original Dungarees and that’s when the brand really took off!

Pre-loved fashion can consist of so many different things from thrifting secondhand clothes, to repurposing old garments. What excites you about the possibilities and creativity in sustainable fashion?

We love seeing people using their clothes to share a more authentic version of themselves. By choosing clothes which are made to last, or making them last longer with creative upcycling, you end up with pieces with a story to tell and that are more valued- that’s where the magic really happens. We’ve seen how circularity can foster creativity in people to make the most of their clothes - the possibilities really are endless here.

What is an item of clothing you either can’t live without, or think everyone should have in their wardrobe?

A good sturdy pair of Birkenstocks.

How can shoppers be more ethically conscious when they are buying clothes?

Looking for quality is a big one here; well-made clothes can last you a lifetime. Looking for fabrics that are durable and versatile whilst also having good sustainability credentials.

And what things can retailers be doing to be more sustainable?

We like to think of ourselves as a square label with a circular soul - we want to keep clothes on people and out of landfill and taking responsibility for the entire life cycle of products is something other retailers could be doing to help both people and planet. Moreover, initiatives like Sudocrem’s Pre-loved Awards, which encourages people to take more sustainable steps in their everyday lives, are really important in promoting a sustainable future.

Throughout the month of June, Lucy&Yak will be donating a portion of profits from rainbow products to charities supporting the LGBTQIA+ community. This is a wonderful initiative. How can clothes empower or encourage communities?

Part of Lucy & Yak’s mission has always been to create clothes that are comfortable for every body - this comfort can take different forms, including wearing clothes that make a literal statement about our identities. We think that using our platform to raise the voices of people from different communities has been a powerful way to raise awareness and start important discussions.

The Lucy&Yak Brighton store also hosts lots of events. Do you have anything coming up that you would like to tell us about?

We have regular Re:Yak upcycling workshops which are just one part of several circularity initiatives under the Re:Yak umbrella including Imperfect Sales and Buyback scheme. The workshops help customers to extend the lifespan of their clothes through things like embroidery, painting, mending and more, giving them the skills to continue to do so! We also have regular Makers Markets where other independent retailers can come together to sell their products all from our store and allows their communities to come together with ours which we love.

What other sustainable brands in Brighton do you love?

We recently collaborated with our Brighton neighbour, ethical and sustainable eyewear brand, Pala Eyewear, to create a range of sunglasses. We’re both independent brands with the same commitment to ethical practices, so they were a great partner for us. The collection includes two different styles, with one being created exclusively for the collaboration, each in three colourways and you can buy online.

To enter the Sudocrem PreLoved awards go to: www. sudocrem.co.uk/pre-loved/enter - open until 31 st August 2023.

While previous inhabitants of Leonardslee House & Gardens have brought together natural wonders from around the world, this breathtaking and historic estate now also offers works from the planet’s most exciting creators. Its beautiful woodland is now home to Anton Smit’s The Walk of Life, an art trail offering the largest collection of the artist’s work outside of his native South Africa.

When Penny Streeter OBE acquired the gardens, the entrepreneur originally envisaged the estates as a hospitality venue. But soon she realised it would be an ideal place to exhibit the work she’d acquired by Smit. “He wasn’t that well-known in the UK,” Veronica Olsson, Leonardslee’s Sculpture Park Curator, tells me. “It’s the first time his work has come here in any quantity. We brought over 120 works, of which about 80 are in the gardens, and about 30 or so smaller works inside the mansion house.”

Largely self-taught, Anton Smit’s work resonates with European and African influences, referencing South Africa’s rich cultural mix. He discovered art as teen, after seeing a book on Michelangelo‘s work. “He couldn’t quite believe that a man created these things. That sparked his interest, and he started to explore art more. He got involved with local drop-in studios, met other artists and started to learn about sculpture.” In 1977, he entered one of his early pieces in an art competition and won first prize. And it grew from there.

“You can see other artist’s influences in his work,” Olsson tells me. “Some of the abstract works you could link to Hepworth, the face figure could be compared to Gormley, but he still keeps his faith in his core subject matter of the adult human form and exploring that in many different ways.” The pieces on display at Leonardslee range from the elegant beauty of his reclining female figures beside the lake to the bombastic majesty of Faith, his 7m tall form which towers over the valley. Also notable is his Kungwini Head. Named after a Johannesburg suburb, it focuses on his homeland’s history and the need for unifying symbols in the future.

“It is a bit of a retrospective, as we’ve got works from the early 90s, right through to 2021. He’s chosen the works which came here himself, and decided where they should be exhibited in the gardens. He’s considered each space, and which work would complement that. It’s not a case of ‘We’ve got 80 works, where should we plonk them?’ It’s been a considered exercise.”

Recognised for overwhelming heads and monumental African sculptures, which evoke themes of suffering, reconciliation, glory and sublimation, Smit’s work often offers the illusion of movement or gesture; with bodies curling up or limbs reaching out. Alongside groundbreaking shows at NYC’s Grand Central Station to Singapore’s Sweeguan Art Gallery, and the South African Embassy in Bonn to the Youngblood Gallery in Cape Town, his works also grace public and private collections across the world.

“He has explored some areas of abstractions, but he primarily focuses on the human form, and using that to express emotion. He doesn’t shy away from some of the more difficult aspects of humanity. We’ve got some works which are quite sensitive in the way they’re made, but quite challenging. Burning Man effectively is a larger-than-life male figure, but in a very vulnerable situation. That’s not an easy subject to think about, but Smit has created the figure and overlaid it with rusting steel to convey flames.”

She describes her own role as the classic art curator job. “Obviously, this is a commercial enterprise, so the overall aim is to sell the sculptures. But it also involves the normal things that a curator does, like researching the artists’ works and their philosophy, negotiating with clients, helping them understand how to install and conserve work they’ve bought. In addition, part of my role is to offer free guided tours around some of the sculptures, to help people understand the work of the artist as part of our visitor offer.”

She tells me about Smit’s practice, and how he uses Bronze casting or glass fibre and polymer resin to create his figures. He runs two studios in south Africa. One near Pretoria has its own sculpture park, which will be one day left to the nation, and is where he works with and nurtures new artists.

His other studio is in Cape Town, the country’s manufacturing hub. Here, he collaborates with the metal workers who cast his larger bronze sculptures. “He spends quite a long time with the people at the foundries, working on the production of his pieces. Here, he develops new works and processes in conjunction with the metal casters’ expertise. “A lot of Anton’s work is coloured, because he works with patternmakers, who use chemical components, like a potter uses slip, to create different colours on the cast bronze. That chemical reaction requires quite a lot of skill.” The other thing he embraces is emerging technology, using 3D scanning to enable the creation of work in varying sizes.

Much of Olsson’s research and knowledge has been presented on an audio tour, which is available to Apple or Android for free via the Candide app. Partly narrated by her, this features in-depth information about a selection of the sculptures. It forms part of Leonardslee’s mission to make their art as accessible as possible. “We’ve also published a book to celebrate the exhibition, which features essays about the history of Leonardslee, along with three pieces about the artists – south African art historian’s view of the artist’s work.”

“Past owners of Leonardslee collected plants instead of art, so maybe we’re trying to change that a bit. The last owners, the Loder family, when they had the estate open prior to 2009, did have small sculptures exhibitions. I know they had the work of Phillip Jackson here at one point.” The focus now is on complimenting the heritage of this Grade I listed house and gardens with quality works of art. While Anton Smith is their primary artist, Fri 14 July – Sun 20 Aug sees the Surrey Sculpture Society returning for a third exhibition of work. This brings in over 100 works by various celebrated artists. A series of paintings by contemporary South African artists are also being installed in the house, joining its ten boutique hotel rooms, tea offerings and a Michlin starred restaurant. Moving forwards, there are various discussions behind the scenes about how far this new era for the estate could go.

“Every day when I’m in, I hearing people talking about the art. We get a lot of feedback about the pieces. We’ve got a lot of local and international artists here, but this is just the beginning of something. Our owner does want to develop what’s offered at Leonardslee. There is contemplation of a bespoke gallery which would be wonderful to have a properly designed space where we could have revolving exhibitions. It’s a living thing, this location. It’s not a sense of ‘Oh, this is old, and this is what we’re sticking with.’”

The Sculpture trail at Leonardslee Lake & Gardens is free to visitors. For tickets or more information, visit: