High Agency Women
Welcome to High Agency Women, featuring weekly conversations with inspiring leaders about what they’re building, how they’re building it, and their unique approaches to commerce and creativity. Hosted by journalist, product manager and media strategist Natasha Gillezeau, brought to you by Missing Perspectives.
High Agency Women
Stuck on success: How Annabel and Lucy Hay reinvented fashion tape
In this episode of High Agency Women, we sit down with sisters Annabel and Lucy Hay - the powerhouse duo behind Clutch, the startup redefining what it means to feel secure, and supported, in your clothes. What's not to love?
Frustrated with the poor performance of traditional Hollywood tape, Annabel took matters into her own hands. While juggling a demanding full-time job in Hong Kong, she collaborated with a research chemist at UNSW to create a patented glue that actually sticks - even through sweat, movement, and long wear.
Her breakthrough formulation marked the beginning of Clutch: a sustainable, long-lasting adhesive designed to keep everything from dresses to jewellery to shoe straps in place.
Once the formula was finalised, Annabel turned to her formidable sister Lucy - a seasoned ad agency copywriter - to bring Clutch to life creatively. With Lucy’s strategic vision and storytelling skills, the brand quickly positioned itself as a stylish, solutions-focused disruptor for a global market.
Together, the Hay sisters share with Tash how they turned a personal annoyance into a globally relevant innovation, the lessons learned navigating R&D and manufacturing, and what it’s like building a brand with your sibling.
Clutch isn’t just a product — it’s a story of high agency, and female-led ingenuity.