In case you’ve been living under a rock, SIRPLUS is the hugely successful and highly recognisable menswear brand that any man with style will opt to wear on his wedding day, for weekend parties and during any day in between. Famed for their beautifully-crafted clothing and unrivalled customer service, SIRPLUS has made a name for itself in the always-growing category of menswear. At the helm? Henry Hales. Henry is a man who you want to know: charming, stylish, brilliant father to his 2 year-old daughter, Cosima, plus the owner of a second business, a clothing logistics company called Tu Pack. So, how does he get it all done? It starts with his morning routine, of course.
“My morning normally starts between 6 and 6.30am. I actually don’t set an alarm anymore, because I wake up pretty naturally around that time anyway. I like being productive in the morning but if I can sleep a bit longer, great. I used to go for a run every morning but now it’s a couple of times a week – that always makes me feel better. Tamara [Henry’s wife] and I are quite good at taking turns looking after our daughter in the mornings and to be honest, Peppa Pig really helps if I’ve had a few drinks the night before.
I get the clothes that I’m going to wear to work ready the night before, so that it’s one less thing to think about in the morning. I brush my teeth in the shower, which I’ve been told is quite weird.
I have been swimming a few times in the Serpentine in Hyde Park and that’s pretty cold, unless you’re going in July or August but actually, that’s even
worse because it really doesn’t feel fresh.
When it comes to skincare, I actually put my BAZ & CO Skin Food Moisturiser on in the evening, which is quite niche but I find that I remember to do it if I put it next to my book and then apply it while I’m reading. I’m told that that’s not the right way to do skincare but I find that I’m not in as much of a rush in the evening so it’s a good time to put my moisturiser on. Plus, if it’s in reach on my bedside table it means that I really can’t forget it.
I don’t tend to have caffeine until I’m sitting down at my desk. It’s sort of my motivation to start working! My weekends are a little bit different, I tend to head straight out and get croissants and the papers. We often bring Cosi’s highchair into our room during the weekends so that she can sit and eat her croissant while we’re still in bed – which works quite well, until she wants out of her highchair and into our bed!
During the weekdays, I get on the tube to our office in central London. I started SIRPLUS in 2011 after discovering that a lot of London’s shirt-makers ended up with surplus fabric after they’d made their pieces and that any leftover fabric was thrown away. I decided that something needed to be done with that fabric, which is how SIRPLUS was born. The best piece of advice that was given to me by Nick Wheeler who started Charles Tyrwhitt. He used the tortoise and the hare analogy which I think is a good piece of advice because it’s quite tempting to try and grow a business really quickly but actually growing it slowly, bit by bit, is in my opinion a way of producing a better and stronger business. There’s also a Robert Louis Stevenson quote which is “the man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much” and that’s on my dad’s tombstone and I think it’s great advice to go by. People who have started a business are creating something that they believe in and often employing people, selling a product, creating a lifestyle for themselves but at the end of the day it has to be fun and it has to be enjoyable otherwise there really isn’t any point. And then the advice I’d give my 14-year old self would be to try everything. When I was younger, it was cool to be naughty and to be late and to think that things like chess were for uncool people when actually, it’s the complete opposite. What’s cool is to have passions and to be a geek and to love activities and to be early. So I'd tell myself to stop trying to be cool. and embrace the things that you don’t think are impressive. And don’t smoke!”
I know I should have a cold shower, but I like it scorching. It’s kept with me since
those cold days on the market.
