Conversation with… Ryan Llewellyn-Pace and Natasha Bailey
In this latest interview in our Conversations series, we chat with Ryan Llewellyn-Pace and Natasha Bailey of Pace Partnership London and Hay Life Clothing about their journey of building two thriving businesses, redefining unisex fashion, balancing work with wellness, and inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Ryan, we hear you’re writing a book. Can you tell us a bit about it?
It’s something I’ve been working on for a while. The core idea is to encourage more people to become entrepreneurs by embracing failure, or rather, making failure your co-founder. When setting up a business, too many people are paralysed by the fear of failure before they’ve even begun. I wanted to write something that encourages people to take that leap.
I read a lot of business and self-development books, but I felt there was something missing: a voice that reflected what it’s like at the start. I recently finished Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett, and it really resonated. I wanted to write something that would inspire people to pursue their dreams and ambitions — to take that first step toward becoming an entrepreneur. I know there are so many talented individuals out there who want to make that leap but are held back by the fear of failure.
You obviously balance quite a lot…
Ryan: Yes. We run businesses including Hay Life Clothing and Pace Partnership London (PPL). Hay Life, our lifestyle and wellness brand, has just celebrated its one-year anniversary. With that, we’ve been incredibly lucky to work with partners like John Lewis and Next, as well as Wolf & Badger where we’ll soon be launching in-store in London.
Natasha: Hay Life has been a real passion project for us. It’s given us the opportunity to build something with purpose and bring wellness into people’s everyday routines in a modern, stylish way.
Ryan: PPL, our consultancy and agency business, was born from a gap we saw in the fashion and sports retail space. There are lots of freelancers and short-term consultants, but we wanted to build something longer-term and more strategic — something brands and retailers could really depend on. Our vision is to become the leading global sports and fashion consultancy business.
PPL has worked with groups like Frasers and Itochu Japan, as well as lifestyle brands like Spoke, Hunter Essentials and Aztec Diamond (an equestrian-rooted lifestyle brand). We also manage Ted Baker’s wholesale business for Europe.
We’re now launching Pace Partnership Tokyo with our partner Tatsuo Yata. It’s part of a long-term goal we’ve had to bridge the gap between European and Asian retail and brands. When we both worked at Barbour, one of our focuses was growing the brand in Asia, and that process helped us build strong networks and gain valuable insights. Now, we’re helping UK brands demystify expansion into the region and make it happen.
How do you manage your time and stay grounded with so many moving parts?
Ryan: I must admit that we do work very long hours, sometimes 18 to 19 per day. However, we’re very intentional about prioritising our health, family and work, and strictly in that order.
Natasha: We try to be present when we’re home. Even though we travel and work long hours, we really value our time with family. It’s not easy, but we try to practise what we preach.
Going back to the beginning, how did you both get into retail?
Ryan: Back in 2001, I’d just finished a Business Management degree with first-class honours, but 9/11 hit while I was interviewing for finance roles. It made me stop and ask what I really loved. The answer was sport. So, I took an entry-level role at a sports supplements company, then worked my way up at Canterbury from the being a sales rep to global sales director.
That grounding in high-performance sport taught me relentless discipline and teamwork. When I moved into fashion at Barbour, those habits remained. The industries move differently, but the core principles of clear process and constant improvement are universal. That’s ultimately what helped me to become managing director there.
Natasha: I went to university to study Sports Science as I wanted to be a sports nutritionist. But during my second year, my uncle insisted I get real-world experience. I interned at companies across brand, trade and visual merchandise, fell in love with storytelling, and never looked back.
My first proper role was at Pentland Brands working with Lacoste. I was there when the brand signed Novak Djokovic, so the job was a perfect mix of sport and fashion. Since then, I’ve gravitated toward heritage labels with rich DNA such as Barbour and now Ted Baker — because I love teasing out a brand’s purpose and translating it for today’s consumer.
You only launched Hay Life Clothing in June 2024. How’s it going?
Ryan: Better than we dared hope. Launching any brand is an obstacle course, especially one built on a unisex philosophy, but we’ve already cleared some big hurdles.
And we’ve probably crammed ten years of lessons into twelve months as every supply chain snag becomes consultancy insight for PPL.
Natasha: At the beginning, unisex scared a lot of buyers. They asked questions like “Where do we merchandise it, men’s or women’s?,” but we came in with consumer data, supply chain efficiencies, and a sustainability argument. That led to the response turning from “interesting” to “let’s launch.”
Ryan: We had our battles. We came up with an initial name, went through all the checks, and then got challenged by a massive global brand. But that’s just part of building something. You realise very quickly that most ideas have already been tried. But everything that happened brought us to the name Hay Life, and now we couldn’t be happier with it.
It’s unusual to see founders running both a brand and a consultancy. Does one feed the other?
Natasha: Hay Life keeps us sharp while PPL lets us share that insight. When clients say, “Our lead times have exploded,” we’ve just fixed that problem for Hay Life, so we can point to live solutions.
Ryan: And vice-versa: consulting for Ted Baker or Itochu gives us global scale learnings we can funnel straight back into Hay Life. It’s symbiotic.
Last autumn, PPL was appointed to manage Ted Baker’s wholesale business, including sales and marketing functions for the UK and Europe. How’s that going?
Ryan: Really well. It’s just a phenomenal brand. Hats off to everyone who’s ever been involved with it.
What’s been particularly moving is how many people, especially former Ted employees, have reached out wanting to help as they love the brand. We’ve been able to sit down with some amazing people from Ted’s past who have really helped us understand the brand even better.
The UK retail market — both independents and major retailers — has been brilliant in supporting us. We know how hard it is when a brand goes through what Ted has, so we’re incredibly thankful for that. We’ve had a great response from customers and are now seeing phenomenal growth. There are some very exciting things coming up, especially next year.
You’ve both had fantastic careers. Have there been any standout people who have influenced and guided you?
Ryan: I’m grateful to everyone I’ve worked with over the years. You always learn something from every experience, even from people where the relationship was challenging at times. I’ve been fortunate in that most of the people I’ve worked with have been very influential in shaping me. You pick up things from the way they operate, how they handle challenges, and you incorporate those lessons into your own leadership style.
But I also draw inspiration from beyond the workplace, including from family members, sports and other areas of life I know well.
Natasha: For me, it’s also about having a well-rounded view. I often find inspiration outside the industry — people who impact you in different walks of life.
Family members, for sure. But also, people you meet along the way, especially the younger generation coming up. They’ve grown up in the digital age. They live and breathe social media, and the way they challenge norms is inspiring. Some of the ideas they bring forward make you think, “Wow, I hadn’t even considered that.”
Can you share any future plans for the businesses?
Ryan: With PPL, we’ve got some exciting new brands coming on board, including some from Asia. And as mentioned earlier, we’ve got a big launch coming up for Japan.
One of our big success stories has been Out With Style, the branded retail concept we developed with the Highlands Group (the Barbour store operator). This will continue to form a large part of our future strategy. What’s great is that we get insights from both the retail and brand perspectives — it’s helping us learn faster and be more agile in our approach. As part of our future strategy, we aim to collaborate with more retail groups and brands to deliver a holistic view of the market and offer a service that’s truly unique.
On the Hay Life side, there’s a phenomenal new collection about to launch and we’re looking ahead to bricks-and-mortar experiments and a tighter circularity programme. And for me personally, I’m looking forward to finishing my book by the end of the year.
Natasha: And I’m looking forward to building a culture that still lets us put health and family first. If we can prove you don’t have to burn out to build big, that’s a legacy worth leaving.
