Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

THE INSEAM VOL. 79: LES CONSERVATEURS

Vancouver is home to a thriving fashion industry made up of individuals committed to its growth and success. Get to know these personalities in The Inseam and discover what makes the Vancouver Fashion scene so awesome.

 

Vancouver is home to a thriving fashion industry made up of individuals committed to its growth and success. Get to know these personalities in The Inseam and discover what makes the Vancouver Fashion scene so awesome. 

Photo courtesy Tessa and Jonny Hughes

Tessa and Jonny Hughes are the duo behind Les Conservateurs, a blog and fashion styling service that helps clients to shop and discover their own personal style. While notions of personal shoppers may be intimidating, Tessa and Jonny’s down-to-earth personalities prove that the experience is anything but. The happily married couple takes on clients by offering honest and realistic style advice, all while juggling their two kids, day jobs and other creative projects. I sat with Tessa and Jonny to learn more about their business, their style and their love of coffee.

Valerie Tiu: Tell us about the concept behind Les Conservateurs.

Tessa Hughes: Basically the name came from the idea that we love curating. “Les Conservateurs” is “the curators” in French. Our main thing is fashion, but we love curating the city and discovering what’s amazing out there. It was one of those natural processes where all of our friends were always asking us what to wear, where to go, things like that. We were constantly texting back and forth, even to the point of full on shopping for our friends, picking up a bunch of stuff and then taking it to their house and then having them try it on. We figured that we were kind of running a business and that’s how it started.

VT: Were you always interested in starting a business together?

TH: We didn’t always know that we wanted to have it as a business. But looking back on our honeymoon -- it was all shopping. We spent ten hours one day in an outlet mall.

Jonny Hughes: And I was just as happy as her. We would sit around and be like, “What kind of new day job would I get?” I knew that I liked shoes and mens’ clothing. I don’t know if I want to sell it, but I like it. We started our style blogs for fun and we thought we should just do it because we put so much time into it.

TH: Usually married couples get along but they don’t have such a weird need to work together or have things that they’re passionate about that are exactly the same. We actually started a visual and graphic design business, so this is our second business that we’ve started together. And the only reason why we’re not doing that is because we realized that we like fashion more, so just decided to go with it.

VT: What’s it like to work together? How do you separate your work life from married life?

TH: We never have any issues. You would think we would start hating each other but it’s actually fun. We’ve always been best friends, so we just want to hang out with each other all of the time. If we can shop while we’re doing that, then it’s pretty awesome. If we didn’t have this business, we would be constantly talking about fashion anyways. The company is a natural extension of our selves.

VT: What’s the styling process like with clients?

JH: We work one on one. We have a couple of friends that we’ve styled together.

TH: Essentially, Jonny does men and I do women. There’s a little bit of overlap, but it’s not like we’re arguing in a change room about what somebody should buy. I usually get the final say with women and he gets the final say with men.

VT: How do you describe your personal style? Do you think that you influence one another?

TH: We automatically influence each other’s style because we’re married but we both have a pretty strong opinion. I’m quite minimalist and I have to force myself to wear colours.

JH: I feel the same way. Tessa brings out the preppy in me. Normally I would just wear a blue oxford shirt everyday but she always gets me in plaids. I think I would dress more serious if I didn’t have her. She makes me more playful and fun. We keep each other from being too serious.

VT: What are your favourite go-to shops in Vancouver?

TH: Hands down, I think we would both say J. Crew and Club Monaco. It’s predictable but our goal isn’t to be super original or out there. Our goal is to look good and there are brands that just constantly turn out clothes that make everyone look good. We can take out clients there and we know that we’re going to find classic pieces with good quality, plus it’s not outrageously expensive.

JH: When it comes down to Vancouver-based stores, I love Neighbour. Some boutiques like that can feel so intimidating or cold but those guys are so friendly. It has that New York vibe to it. I love that store.

VT: What’s the most rewarding part about your job?

TH: Just seeing how it affects people. It’s so easy to write off clothes and it seems so superficial but it’s actually so important and rewarding. People come back to us with their testimonials and they’re like, “I’ve gotten so many compliments and I’m so confident.” We just love empowering people with building their own wardrobes. A lot of our past clients have said that we’ve taught them how to shop, what looks good and even brought out other sides of people’s personalities.

VT: What makes Vancouver so awesome?

JH: Definitely the coffee scene makes it huge for me. Vancouver is exploding with amazing small coffee shops and coffee roasters.

TH: Coffee and food culture here is so incredible and we’re so thankful for it.

Check out Les Conservateurs here.