Rachel Castle
Rachel Castle started her business, Castle, fifteen years ago. We chat to her about her creative journey and how she remains passionate about her job, all these years later.
Photography: Lisa Cohen & Jacqui Turk
‘As you loosen the accelerator you lose momentum, your team loses momentum, your brand loses momentum. I need to be as focused and dedicated and energetic now as I was the first month I started the business,’ says Rachel Castle. Photo: Jacqui Turk
H&F: Hi Rachel, what have you been working on lately?
Rachel: We’ve been working on the release of our new AW22 range, shooting down in Daylesford, getting everything looking gorgeous, and more of a challenge, actually delivered and into our warehouse! We’ve been working on a couple of new collaborations, so exciting for us to work across different categories, the design challenges are challenging but exciting, one minute its 10am, the next its sometime!
How much has your business changed since you first started 15 years ago?
How long is a piece of string? Our business has changed exponentially in some ways, in others hardly at all. The production process is entirely different, it’s a lot more structured and formal, I leave it to the girls as they know precisely what needs to be done and how. With the customer service and my drilling down on the day to day with the orders and the artworks, this hasn’t changed at all. When it comes to the customers, what they’re saying and ordering and asking for, I still see every single email.
What does a ‘normal’ day at work look like for you?
A normal day starts early, around 7am, the usual emails and social media tending to. I do some sewing or drawing before the girls arrive and then we’re into all our meetings and ‘to do lists’. In the afternoon I really TRY REALLY HARD to get some painting done with the door closed, but realistically this happens maybe only a few times a week? I do a lot of organising the girls, the content, designing the ranges, I’m still trying to find the creative/admin balance all these years later.
What do you love most about what you do?
I love our little team. I’m happy when they’re all happy and inspired and loving their jobs, thats when I feel most peaceful and happy to close the door and leave them to it. Keeping the business small and highly curated has always been really important to me, it allows us to be nimble and try new things quickly and locally which spices things up a bit. I also LOVE painting and sewing, always.
The Castle bedlinen and cushion range full of colour and pattern. Photo: Lisa Cohen
‘The creative process keeps me moving forward, just that desire to make lovely things for lovely people,’ says Rachel Castle. Photo: Courtesy of Castle
“Keeping the business small and highly curated has always been really important to me, it allows us to be nimble and try new things quickly and locally, which spices things up.”
The new Castle AW22 range – full of colour and pattern. Photo: Lisa Cohen
Bright and beautiful details from the new Castle AW22 range. Photo: Lisa Cohen
Is there a common misconception people have about your job?
My job requires me to be focused and driven all of the time. I speak to friends who are heavily involved in the day to day running of their businesses and we all feel the same way, as soon as you loosen the accelerator you lose momentum, your team loses momentum, your brand loses momentum. I need to be as focused and dedicated and energetic now as I was the first month I started the business.
What did you study at school – do you think it’s influenced your work today?
I studied PR at university, bizarre because I wasn’t very good at it at all! I guess it taught me how to be organised, how to understand a brand, how to talk to an audience. Anything practical that I do I have taught myself, in a messy ad hoc fashion, ‘don’t worry just do it no-ones watching anyway’ kind of way.
You’ve been working for yourself for quite some time – what’s kept you interested?
The creative process keeps me moving forward, just that desire to make lovely things for lovely people. I’m a really good sleeper so wake up with a ton of new ideas, most of which don’t see the light of day but still, keeps me interested!
How do you balance the work/life juggle?
It’s sooooooo much easier now that the children aren’t in school. Suddenly there is enough time for me and for work. Whoever accomplishes anywhere near a good work/life juggle with small school aged children is a saint. In the end it took one of us, either myself or my husband to be at home at least part-time, to make home time a nice and manageable place to be.
Are there different roles in your job – and if so, how do you navigate through each of them and make it all work?
I wear so many hats at work, a different one with each person I work with, and then alone in the studio with the artworks. It means the days go very quickly, designing and making art and managing the girls, each one of them and the input they need from differently, the pace is relentless but I like it this way.
What’s the most important piece of advice you would give someone turning their dream project into a full-time job?
Give it everything you’ve got, do what feels good and right to you and not something you feel you ’should’ do. If you’re not really compelled and full of night and day energy for it, maybe now is not the time. The markets these days are so flooded with small businesses, create your own pace and don’t look side to side at what everybody else is doing, do YOUR thing, your way.
What’s coming up for Castle this year?
So much good stuff! All the usual products and artworks, with the new collabs as well. And it’s our 15th birthday (we missed number 10, we just forgot about it) so there’s a nice little birthday range as well.
