EP Business in Hospitality Issue 49 - April 2014

ESTABLISHED IN 2010, THE LUXURY
ATHLETIC CLOTHING BRAND
“LUCAS HUGH” IS RENOWNED FOR
INCORPORATING HIGH FASHION
INTO TECHNICAL ATHLETIC WEAR.
FOUNDER ANJHE MULES MET WITH
SARA STEWART TO TALK ABOUT THE
JOURNEY FROM SPORTS CLOTHING
ENTREPRENEUR TO DESIGNING AN
ENTIRE WARDROBE FOR THE HOLLYWOOD
BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE THE HUNGER GAMES
The hunger
for
Lucas Hugh
Growing up in her native
New Zealand Anjhe was,
by her own admission,
an ‘outdoorsy’ child and
being athletic was simply
a way of life. However, from the tender
age of eight she had wanted to be a
fashion designer. Going on to graduate
in Fashion and Design from Massey
University, sports would still remain
a strong influence on her and following
graduation she designed and set up
a swimwear brand called Anjhe Mules
Swimwear. The business was a roaring
success and Anjhe soon found herself
faced with the next challenge – expand
or move internationally.
Opting for the latter she packed
her bags and moved to the Big Apple,
looking for work in the industry. By
a stroke of luck she happened upon
Marc Jacobs walking down 62nd Street.
Plucking up the courage to speak to
him, she approached him there and
then and asked to join his team – a
week later she began an internship.
Throwing herself into the experience
wholeheartedly, a mere three weeks
after she was Paris-bound for a show
when she stopped off in London
for a few days and once again fate
stepped in. While lunching with a
friend in town she spotted the late
Alexander McQueen alighting from
a taxi – not in the habit of holding
back, she approached him for a job.
The following Monday she took up her
second internship, coupled with harder
and longer hours, and remained there
for the next six months.
However, she soon tired of the rigours
of life in a fashion house, so once
again set her sights on galvanising her
own fashion brand. Thus, taking on
the challenge, she had to raise some
funding for her designs and took a job
on a yacht in the South of France where
she earned £10,000 in the first month
alone, following this up with three years
working for a Russian businessman
with a private jet, where she travelled
extensively, learned to speak Russian
and in her spare time worked on
developing her own business.
By 2008 she had saved enough to
fund her venture and spent the next
two years laying down the groundwork
and infrastructure of her new fashion
design business that was to become
Lucas Hugh.
An interesting name, with a very
simple message – Lucas and Hugh
were her two grandfathers: Lucas
was athletic, a doctor and a boxer
in his spare time. He would always
tell Anjhe: “Fit in the body, fit in the
mind.” Hugh was a thinker, methodical
and entrepreneurial – Lucas Hugh
incorporates all that these two
34 | April 14 | EP