Rad Livin’: Meet Lauren & Alex Founders of Will and Bear

Thursday // January 5 // 2017

As soon as I saw Will and Bear, I felt transported into a nostalgic adventure. Growing up in Portland, OR I loved the smell of trees and the sound of the music coming on in a car full of friends. Will and Bear is an Australian hat brand created for ‘the wanders and the authentic’. Each hat is handmade and for every hat purchased, 10 trees are planted. We sat down with ‘Chief Will’, Lauren Williams, to chat all things adventure, launching a brand and doing what you love now.

Meet Will & Bear…

Where are you in the world?

Melbourne, Australia.

How do you follow your bliss?

Jump in the van, hit the road and see where it takes us.

Could you tell us the story of Will & Bear and how it first came about?

The inspiration for our brand came from life on the road (most of our good ideas come to us when we’re in our van!). We are both nature lovers and wanted to build a community that helps give back to the places we play.

As a male & female team we saw a void for a unisex hat brand that catered for all types and tried to build our range to be accessible for everyone.

What steps did you need to take to go from having an idea to launching a brand?

A lot of coffee and late nights! Haha. We spent a good year sampling styles, visiting our factories, working on our brand story and building our community.

The most instrumental part of this was the community we built online before launching, we learnt so much from everyone that jumped on board and they have helped shape Will & Bear to what it is today more than they probably know.

If fear ever shows up in your life, how do you move past it?

We made a rule very early on at Will & Bear to take everything as a learning experience and not to pretend to be experts. We are constantly learning and making mistakes, this rule has given us the confidence to give things ago and not let fear be the reason for failure. We also learnt to leverage the networks around us when it comes to things we need guidance on.

Why do you love what you do?

Will & Bear gives us the opportunity to meet so many new people and this is by far our favourite part of the adventure. We love that we might meet someone through Will & Bear one week that could take our lives in a different direction the next.

What do you think has been the key to your success so far?

We believe success is a personal thing and as long as we’re enjoying the journey we feel successful (and thankful!). A few key points would be, listening to our customers and people around us, surrounding ourselves with people that inspire us to build a better future and trusting our gut.

What advice could you give to someone who knows what they would love to do, but haven’t gone for it.

Be willing to grow and learn on the fly. Be flexible and willing to not have all the answers. Don’t let the little things get to you down. Find your community early and get involved.

Follow their journey on Instagram x

New Year’s, New Friends and Trusting in The Magic Of An Unknown Adventure

Monday // January 2 // 2017

It was 10:30pm. Drink in hand, friend sitting across from me. Happily surrendering to the fact that this bar and this table is where we would most likely be ringing in the New Year.

10 Hours earlier…

I wanted to go out on an adventure and see how it would all unfold. I wanted to let life lead the way and show me the adventure that was meant for me, just as I wished for the new year to come. In true aligned luck, my friend had similar ideas. We agreed to meet at her house in Bondi, have some champagne and see where the night would lead.

Maybe it’s the romantic in me, but I love the magic of New Year’s. It’s this unique space in time where one chapter is closing and a new one is beginning. It feels like we’re suspended and that within the unknown of the year to come, anything is possible.

As I arrived at her house, we drank champagne, danced to Missy Elliot and my friend read out our tarot cards for the year. We only got through to March when our eagerness to get out and explore was calling. We put on our shoes, headed out the door and into the night of the unknown. With the majority of the city out near the harbour, we had Bondi to ourselves. We walked around, past the beach, looking up at the ocean and stars. We headed to one of our local bars to find that it had reached capacity. We shrugged it off, continued on and tried our luck at the second bar. This time I was starved, and the second bar didn’t have any food. We walked around the corner to the third bar.

Which brings us to 10:30pm.

Drinks in hand, table situated. This is where we could be ringing in the New Year. But not so fast, we still had that magic feeling in our bellies. The feeling of the unknown, the feeling of adventure. We walked out of two different bars in order to be at that bar, at that table, at that time.

Just as we started to settle in, a guy walked into the front of the bar and stood next to us. He made small talk about the food there and asked us if we would be counting down to Midnight there. We told him that it was a possibility, but that chances are we’d end up at the beach. He told us that him and his friends decided to have a last-minute party at his new apartment and that they were each sent out to find people to attend. He said they had met the most amazing, random people throughout the night; people from London, New York, and Sydney. He told us that it was his turn to invite people to the party, and asked if we wanted to go.

A random person that we had never met before? Asking us to go to a random house party full of people we’ve never met? My friend and I looked at each other; our eyes told each other that were in.

We finished our drinks slowly, subtly (not so subtly), interrogating the guy.

It was close to 11:30pm by then and we walked to the party. In my head it was going to be like a random college party. Pretty cramped, red cups, watching the fireworks on TV. I was ready for anything.

We walked through the door of the party, and walked into a penthouse. On one side was the ocean and on the other side you could see the harbour where the fireworks would go off in just 10, 9, 8, 7… we screamed and ran outside. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 1! The Sydney fireworks went off and we had the perfect view point.

We cheered and hugged the other guests. Almost every guest there had never met as they too were recruited to come to ‘The most random NYE party ever’. As I looked out into the fireworks, I smiled. I had trusted in the adventure of the unknown, and that’s what we were given.

Travels: DontTellSummer in Bali

Saturday // December 24 // 2016

I’ve learned that when your desires and energy match up to something that’s already meant for you, you attract it like a magnet.

One day I was sitting in bed, going through Instagram (as you do), and I saw a photo of someone in Bali. I had seen photos of Bali and thought about potentially going there ever since I first arrived in Australia but, I had never been. There was something about the photo that lit a spark in me; it drew me in and felt like magic.

I went on with my day and made plans to see my friend Mel for lunch. We sat down at one of our favourite lunch spots, Jackie’s in Paddington, and she started talking about her upcoming trip to Bali. She mentioned that she would be staying at a villa in Canggu, a place I had never heard of before, and went to show me a picture. It was one of the exact photos I was looking at on Instagram just hours before meeting with her. She invited me to go.

I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it happen with my schedule and finances and so I kept telling myself, if it’s meant to be it would be.

What’s meant for you is sitting there, waiting for you to become aligned with it and to desire it. Bali was waiting and I was ready.

A few weeks later, I was on a plane getting ready to meet Mel in what would be one of the most memorable adventures yet.

I decided to completely let go and be lead by mel, life and Bali.

The first stop on the trip was Ubud. We explored the rice paddies, had a water-blessing and stayed at the eco-village Bambu Indah.

After a day in Ubud, we went over to Canggu and stayed at Jungle Room Bali. It was MAGIC. The rooms were literally tree-houses. There was a pool, coconuts, tasty snacks… what more could two gals want. It was about a 5 minute scooter ride into the main area where Deus is.

Travels: DontTellSummer in Byron

Saturday // December 10 // 2016

Byron had been calling my Mom and I. We flew from Sydney to Ballina and rented a car to drive to Byron. We stayed at a rad little Airbnb right up the street from Top Shop Byron Bay. (SUCH delicious Acai Bowls) – probably the best I’ve had in Australia so far, had relaxing time at the beach and checked out the local restaurants and bars.

Find your Muse

Tuesday // October 4 // 2016

When I was a little girl, I tapped into my muse.

What I mean by that is that I tapped into an energy that excited me that I hadn’t been fully aware of yet.

I felt electric, fearless, inspired and connected. It felt like the magic of everything I was feeling as a little girl was a reality.

Growing up, my grandparents went to Maui every year. My parents and I would make a trip out to visit them during my spring break and it became a tradition that I fell in love with. Coming from Oregon, I had never really seen surfing before but the moment I felt the culture of it, I was in love. Everything from the palm trees, to the ocean, to the style, it all felt like magic. Then after seeing surfers standing on the boards, gliding with the waves, it felt like they knew a secret that the rest of us weren’t in on; it’s possible to walk on water.

Every year in Hawaii, I would get sparks of creative inspiration – when I was eight I wrote an entire album worth of songs for my hypothetical girl band (the Spice girls were big then and I wanted to start the 3rd grade version called the Sugar girls). I had never sang before, but songs were pouring out of me faster than I could write.

Each year we would be driving around, with salt water in the air, and I would get creative inspiration. I would visualise dreams and incredible scenarios that my mind had never entertained before.

When I got back home to Oregon one year, I decided that I would make my room ‘surf’ themed. My parents helped me to deck out my entire room with all things surfboards, palm trees and Hawaii. I wanted to be surrounded by something that gave me feelings of such aliveness. When picking colleges, it’s no surprise looking back that I selected a college that was 15 minutes away from the hub of surf culture: Newport Beach.

The freedom and aliveness that I feel when I’m around surf culture is my muse. I feel that energy and I create dreams, visions and new projects that have little to do with surfing, but everything to do with that incredible fearlessness and imagination I feel when I’m around it.

I thought that it was just surf culture that gave me that feeling, but after going to Europe last year and traveling around in Greece, I felt so free. I met other young people who were out in the world exploring where their hearts lead, and I felt that raw fearlessness again. That energy helped me to go forward with creating the #RadLivin festival and I am so grateful for that.

If you’re stuck and not sure where to go or turn next, tap into your muse.

Think of a time that just felt different; magic – where you were experiencing new feelings of aliveness or inspiration than you may have had before.

Once you feel or remember your muse, close your eyes and feel what it felt like to be in that scenario. In order to tap into the energy of your muse to help you in the present, you don’t need to be surrounded by it or in that scenario in order for you to receive the inspiration of it.