About Us: Henkaa is Relaunching Fall 2023

Hey, it's Sonia here from Henkaa. It's been a while since I've done one of these. Welcome everybody, it's September 1st already and we're transitioning to a new school year. Some people are already back in school, some are getting ready and it's the last long weekend of summer.

Welcome everybody, I wanted to hop on here and I hope that you all had a great summer and I had a really good one. I spent a lot of time with my family. I also took the time to reflect on the next steps for Henkaa's journey. And although things were pretty quiet in the public sphere, we weren't really on Instagram or social media too much. We've been actively digging deep and trying to create a renewed vision for Henkaa since we hit that pause button in June.

Thanks everybody for joining and I just wanted to give a quick recap of if you saw my last video, which was way back in April - I can't believe it was back in April. I was feeling really stuck and I was thinking Henkaa is not thriving, we're just surviving. And we ended up closing the online store and in person events temporarily so that we could step back and look at the big picture. And fast forward a few months and we're here at the beginning of September - and stepping back has really allowed us, and allowed me, to recognize what's most important to us, as people, and also as a brand.

Thanks for your patience as I go through this exciting news that we have. As you know, on the surface, when people first find out about us, we've been known as the convertible dress company for bridesmaids for a really long time; since we started in about 2010. And I'm not going to lie, we have been, and still are, an amazing choice for bridesmaids dresses. We have lots of testimonials and pictures and we love being able to serve brides and bridesmaids.

But the thing is that we haven't really been communicating very well that the reason brides and bridesmaids love us are also the same reasons that moms love us, and why teens love us, and kids and girls. Why professionals love us, why frequent travelers love us, why minimalists love us, why choirs and performing artists love us. When you think about all these different groups, you might think they're all from different backgrounds. There might be different life paths, different focus areas of their lives, but really they have the same reason for coming to Henkaa and wearing Henkaa.

If you're someone who wants to save time and money, trying to find something to wear to your social occasions. If you don't want a closet full of dresses you'll only wear once or won't fit in a couple of months. You want something that's comfortable, versatile and timeless. You'll love Henkaa. And can be your go to uniform for so many different social occasions, special days, life events. And what's so special and magical about it is that the dresses and tops are adaptable to the changes in your body, and your lifestyle, and your own personal style, and to the trends of the day. If you want something in your closet that's fashionable, and functional, pretty, but also super practical - that's us, that's Henkaa. And it doesn't really matter if you're getting married or not. It can apply to anyone at any age stage or life path who has the same kind of goals around what they want to wear, how they want to wear it, how they want to show up in life.

We want to be able to communicate that better to you and to the public. I know that our loyal Henkaanistas know that this is true and that's why they connect with us and have been connecting with us for so long, why you've been connecting with us. But now we need to also show the world the same thing. That we're not here as, one aspect is kind of like an onion, I don't know, that onion analogy where you're saying the outside is like this but as you peel back the layers you find more, and there is so much more for us and for us to say, undo in this world. And that's what is exciting about our move forward and how we're going to communicate. While we're leaning into clarifying who we are here to serve. We have also another major area of focus that we feel is an absolute must that will bring us into alignment with our core values and the future of fashion really.

What we believe in order for Henkaa to thrive, we need to be sustainable. The fashion industry is one of the biggest contributors to climate change and Henkaa cannot and will not stand idly by. You might not know this about me but my life before Henkaa was in the environmental nonprofit sector. And I'll tell you more about that another day and how I came to Henkaa. But what I wanted you to know is that focusing on creating a more sustainable brand has been brewing within me since the day I joined Henkaa. In fact, that's one of the reasons Jo knew I'd want to join because our clothing is rewearable and shareable. And that means that I can contribute to a more sustainable world because I'm reducing fashion waste of one time use garments. And as a Henkaa supporter, you're doing the same. So of course, this is only one aspect of sustainability. We know fully well that our dresses are made from human made materials: polyester and spandex. And that's definitely an area we're exploring to improve: our carbon footprint. That's more sustainable fabrics. But we also know that the changes aren't going to happen overnight. There's going to be challenges, there's gonna be step by step things. There's definitely work to be done.

And the reason behind why we use the fabric that we do is because it is what gives us that versatility in that size, flexibility, comfort and convertible dress. That's why we use the fabric that we do. At the same time with our sustainability goals, we want to move towards more sustainable fabrics. But it's not the only aspect of sustainability that we're exploring. You may or may not know there are seven Rs to sustainable fashion and that's Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Repair, Recycle, Rent and Resell. And we're using this framework as a guide to help us reach our sustainability goals and to incrementally improve our sustainability over the next three years and beyond. So that's what's exciting. And that's what's going on.

I know that you probably have a lot of questions.
How does this affect our collection when we're actually relaunching?
What are the next steps?
How do I find more information?
And I see a question about would bamboo work well? We are exploring different types of more sustainable or eco-friendly fabrics. And so we have to do a lot of testing and we have to do a lot of seeing if is it going to work, but also is it going to be accessible in terms of budget for our customers as well? So there's a lot of things that go into it. And definitely we are exploring a number of different types of fabrics.

But what I wanted to tell you today and I don't want to keep you on for too long because I know it's a long weekend. For now, what I can tell you what's happening in 2023. We are launching in late October. Relaunching in late October and the collection will be focused on what you love most about us: our most beloved dress styles and colours. So it will be a smaller, more curated collection of our timeless dresses that will be available, of course, still made in Canada, still made in small batches.

Secondly, we are discontinuing all the rest. So we are also clearing out our warehouse of overstock from previous years. These products will never come back in their present form. Whether that's the design, the fabric, the colours, we're going to be having a huge Henkaa Vault Sale, starting next week. So you can get these dresses before they're gone forever, in their present form. We really want to be able to provide this opportunity for you to be able to get these dresses and as we move forward with our goals, which I'll tell you more about.

The third thing that I wanted to tell you today is that we will be sharing more about our three year plan with you in the coming weeks. Because we want to be clear with you what our values are, where we're headed as a company and why we're doing all of this. And we want you to be on the journey with us.

So, that's about it for now. I'm really excited. I hope you are too. You know, if you have any questions, you can DM us or email us as we move forward, I want to be as transparent as possible.

And I'll be providing more information soon and if you want to be the first to know about our new collection when it's going to drop and about the how to access the Vault Sale - make sure you're on the mailing list because everybody who's on the mailing list will get first dibs on the Vault Sale. There's going to be a specific way to order these dresses because they aren't listed online because they are from the vault and we will be posting them also to Instagram stories as well. But that will be after the email. So the email will have everything and then our Instagram stories will also post the sale as well. So that's all.

And again, DM or email us at info@henkaa.com if you have questions. Thank you so much. I also want to say that while we're taking this pause and working sort of behind the scenes on our next steps in our strategic direction. It really helped that we had the Henkaa community around us and you were DMing us. You were emailing us and that just really helped provide that motivation and that understanding that we're still providing value to you after all these years. So, thank you.

At this time, we are temporarily closing the online store.

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