11 inspiring people from 11 years of Escape: Helen (Newcombe) Lofts

When we first started Escape the City back in 2010, we had no idea how many incredibly inspiring people we'd meet along the way. We set out to help ambitious and talented people to do work that matters to them and the world, and through the years we've encountered thousands of people who demonstrate that it's possible to do something different with your career and make a difference in the process. While it was hard to choose just 11 stories, here we've outlined a few of the people who we come back to regularly when we're looking for a bit of inspiration ourselves.

We hope you enjoy reading their stories and that they can be an inspiration to you, too!

Helen (Newcombe) Lofts - The circular economist

About Helen:

Helen is a Circular Economist and rising female entrepreneur, winning the Women of the Future Award for Entrepreneurship. She uses her business to deliver a much bigger message – that of building a circular economy and understanding the stories and lifecycles of the products we surround ourselves with and the resources that go into making them. Her work proves that profit doesn’t necessarily have to come at an environmental price.

Helen started her career as an economist working in international aid in Zanzibar and Tanzania. There she spent much of her time advising on climate change, sustainability, natural resources and development planning. From there she moved on to work as an Economist at KPMG, but she just knew corporate life wasn’t for her as it didn’t excite her. Helen decided to take the leap and leave her KPMG role to try her hand at starting a business. Helen got a job working at a local pub and doing freelance work to pay her rent and signed up to our Startup Accelerator programme. She knew that she’d always wanted to start her own business but didn’t know what sort of business she wanted to launch or what it was going to look like. 

A keen sportswoman, with experience kite-surfing and entering triathlons, she said she saw a gap in the market for swimwear that fits somewhere between the beachwear and sportswear Helen played with the idea of making better swimwear for watersports and activity on the Accelerator. Having worked in sustainability and the circular economy, she knew she wanted a circular brand, a product that lasts, but with style. She wanted something designed by a woman for women that looked great on a real woman, not just a model.

She moved from London to Devon and worked full-time for 9-12 months designing and developing her swimwear before it was ready for trading. She then launched Davy J in early 2017. The name Davy J is a wordplay on Davy Jones’ Locker – an idiom for the bottom of the sea.

Davy J is made using yarn which is a 100% regenerated nylon made from waste including abandoned or spent fishing nets, pre-consumer plastic components and textile discards. For every 100 Davy J suits sold, about 9kg of waste has been regenerated.

Davy J is a completely circular brand, with Helen working with customers to send their old Davy J swimsuits back to her and working with the University of Plymouth on ways to recover the nylon from the suits and recycle it over again.

Helen won the Women of the Future Awards for Entrepreneurship in 2017 and was shortlisted for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2018. Davy J has been awarded the Positive Luxury Butterfly Mark, a Royal Society of Arts Catalyst Grant, won the Sustainable Design Awards and was invited to exhibit in the Designer Showrooms at London Fashion Week 2018.

What we love about Helen’s story:

When we first met Helen back in 2015, she was an exceptionally talented and smart person with a unique skill set determined to do something positive in the world.

What we love about Helen’s story is her determination and dedication to the circular economy, bringing together all of her skills and experiences into something new which ultimately brings a touch of glamour to the world of sustainability.

Helen is an incredibly inspiring woman, who decided to shun the traditional corporate, international aid, and economist career paths to make a difference in her own way. Davy J is a beautiful and brilliant brand making use of the wasted ghost fishing nets and returning them to the sea with beauty and ingenuity.