For boutique firm owners, stepping away from the business can feel impossible. But for Claire Styles, launching a luxury leather bag side venture has ignited her creativity and entrepreneurial spirit, giving her renewed focus and a fresh perspective as a firm owner.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Boutique Lawyers Show, Claire Styles, C Legal founder and principal, revealed how launching her luxury bag side venture has not only fulfilled a personal passion but also transformed the way she approaches running her boutique law firm.
In the same episode, she shared how her overseas trip unexpectedly pushed her to reassess how she runs her firm, how she balances her life, and where she wants to focus her professional energy moving forward.
After nearly 18 months of work and a globe-trotting journey to bring it to life, Styles is set to launch House of Styles next month.
“I’ve been working on this side hustle for almost 18 months now. I am launching a brand next month, and it is a luxury leather bag brand for his and hers,” she said.
“I’ve been creating this with some beautiful manufacturers over in Spain. So that was part of my trip to Europe. I got to go visit the manufacturers and finalise the samples.”
Although this venture represents a completely different path from running a law firm, Styles shared her deep passion for fashion and how designing luxury items allows her to tap into a personal aspiration she hadn’t fully explored before.
“That’s completely opposite. I have always loved fashion. I love beautiful things. I want to surround myself with beautiful things all the time,” she said.
“It makes me feel good. There’s a layer of aspiration to that, this life of luxury that I’m a part of, and I want to be more a part of.”
Styles explained that building this side venture has given her the creative outlet she’d long been craving – something the legal profession rarely provides – while also further igniting her entrepreneurial drive.
“I needed a creative outlet, and the stars aligned to create something like this. I always say I sit in a room of lawyers, and I feel a little bit out of place. I feel like I sit in a room of entrepreneurs, and I feel like that’s where I’m meant to be,” she said.
“When it comes to the entrepreneur mindset, I’ve got ideas all the time to the point where I’m like, I want to cut my head off. I’ve got too many ideas. So for me, it was looking at what these ideas are that I have, and is there something that I can actually go all in on? So that’s how I landed on the bags.”
Interestingly, Styles revealed that her luxury bag venture hasn’t distracted her from her law practice; rather, it has sharpened her focus and helped her shape the firm exactly as she envisions it.
“It’s very much blended. I feel like for me it’s giving me a level of focus for the firm as well because I’ve got a couple of things on,” she said.
“It’s given me a lot more focus for the firm. It’s allowed me to make the decision to niche. If I didn’t have the side hustle, I probably wouldn’t be niching because I would just keep on going. I’d probably be looking at growing the firm with numbers.”
