Fashion to Flower: Sackville & Co. is Changing the Way You Think About Weed
Salvaging pipe dreams to redesign the future of cannabis
Before jumping in, extending a HUGE apology to Lana and Hayley at Sackville & Co. because this podcast recorded back before Fashion Week is embarrassingly belated. Naturally, I planned to edit this sorely overdue segment the first weekend in October, so obviously that got tabled for a bit. But their story is so good that I had see it through the finish line. So, when you listen, pretend it came out in September as intended and that you’re the one who is catching up with podcasts, not me. Bonus: they have a Black Friday sale going on for 25% off right now!
Sackville & Co. came onto my radar back in 2019 during the first wave of the Green Revolution being fronted by forward-thinking women and queer people bringing beautiful wares to the mainstream to redefine the future of cannabis. Founded by Lana Van Brunt and Hayley Dineen in 2018, the New York-based cannabis lifestyle company and multidisciplinary product design and production studio stood out for its ooh-ahh accessories like their shiny gilded grinder and sleek joint carrying case fit for the stiletto stoner crowd.
Bringing impressive pedigrees in design and fashion to cannabis lifestyle seemed like a natural fit—one desperately needed during a time when sneaking into a down ‘n’ dirty head shop was the only way to get a decent hitter that would inevitably be stored in a stale stash box rather than proudly displayed on a coffee table. Van Brunt, the former Director of Experiential Marketing, Head Talent Buyer and Director of Business Operations at VICE Media, and Dineen, who worked in product design and development for luxury brands through the United Nations ethical fashion program to create programs for Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney, and Karen Walker, brought a new vision to cannabis where users no longer needed to sacrifice form for function.
Since then, the company has grown exponentially, exposing cannabis culture to a new generation of consumers thanks to collaborations with Wu-Tang’s GZA and streetwear brands like Sundae School and Carrots Carrots that sell out almost instantly at each drop—but also a more mainstream, older demographic gravitating towards the plant.
While the growing number of beautifully crafted smokeable objets d’art have helped to normalize, destigmatize, and ease consumers’ apprehensions about dipping into world of weed, the road to success hasn’t always been easy. In fact, they almost lost the company.
After only five months of being acquired by a public company in late 2019, the company changed leadership and the new CEO didn't see the vision for the brand, initiating an immediate attempt at shutting down of Sackville & Co. along with several other acquisitions. This began the founders’ fight to regain ownership, a challenge exacerbated during the height of the pandemic in March 2020.
Getting entrenched in a ruthless, expensive legal battle is laughably par for the course in the cannabis industry, but there’s a happy ending: ultimately they won their business back and have been running the brand independently (and profitably) ever since. Today, they join the podcast to share their insights on New York’s chaotic market, the changing face of cannabis culture, and their triumphant comeback story.
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Have someone in mind that you think should be on the show? Drop a line at itstheweedwitch@gmail.com.
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