Once a homeless teen, Hayley Miller launches luxury handbag company
This month, 20-year-old Hayley Miller launches her first collection of designer handbags.
Until last summer, she was living in a hostel for homeless young adults.
At 15, Miller left home after her parents told her to quit school and get a job. Instead, she continued her studies from a hostel filled with cocaine and heroin users.
"It was very scary," Miller told The Oxford Times. "The staff were lovely but every single one of them would say: 'Hayley you are well-spoken and well-presented — you should not be here.'"
Determined not to follow in the footsteps of the addicts around her, Miller spent most of her time in her little room, drawing and designing, working toward a BTEC in fashion design.
"I've loved handbags for as long as I can remember — from when my mum first gave me a little red bag that I used to pretend to keep my make-up in," Miller told The Sun.
"Being in my room for hours on end gave me time to be creative and helped me escape reality. I'd spend hours drawing handbag designs."
Last summer, Miller left the hostel and moved in with her grandmother. With 55 handbag designs ready, she started to research what it would take to launch her own line.
"I did accounting courses, a Prince's Trust course, then I wrote an 18-page 'to do' list to start up your own business," she told The Sun.
"It took me six months to find the right manufacturer. In the end I found a Chinese company referred to me by someone who'd used them before — and I got them to make six samples from money I'd scraped together. At one point I was working 90 hours a week, getting up at 3am to get through to China to talk to them about every little detail, from the measurements of the stitching, to the colour of the lining. I even learnt some Chinese."
Soon after her first bags arrived, Miller found an investor and Hayley Miller Designs Ltd became a reality. Bag Servant, a luxury online boutique that sells high-end bags from Chloé and Chanel, will be selling her designs. Selfridges has shown interest, too.
"This collection is so special to me because it has so many memories. The other day I saw a girl I knew from the hostel and I couldn't believe how much she had changed," Miller said.
"It really hit me hard that I too could have ended up the same way she had. I'm just so glad I chose a different path. I may have lived under a dark cloud for some time, but this collection is my silver lining."
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