Tell us a little about yourself and what you do:
My name is Lindsey Holland, and I've been in the content creator and influencer space for a long time now. But more recently, in the last four years, I developed a brand called Marnie Rays, which is a surf and wellness retreat for women. It was sparked by my own joy and love of surfing and the ocean, and gave me joy during a period when I'd lost a lot of it in my life.
I did what any normal person does and turned that joyful thing into a job. I now host retreats in Portugal, Cornwall and Australia every year, and it is my biggest source of joy alongside surfing for myself.
Lindsay Holland wears the Arden Ecru Denim Jeans & Lottie Bone Jersey Top
You’ve said that surfing has taught you a lot. What are some of the lessons you’ve taken from it?
The biggest one for me has got to be patience. The ocean holds a mirror up to you, where you are in life and the kind of energy you bring to it. So some days it can leave me sitting on the sand in tears because that's what I needed to do that day. On other days, I catch every wave and feel completely in it. It just depends on what's going on in life. I find myself constantly surrendering to it.
Lindsay Holland wears the Arden Ecru Denim Jeans & Lottie Bone Jersey Top
Can you talk a little about your relationship to the clothes you wear and how this has evolved with your career.
Having spent a long time in the fashion industry chasing the latest trends to stay relevant, I've shifted to living a much more practical life, and so I want and need pieces that take me from surf to town. It's about having a wardrobe that works for me, and I want to choose brands that are responsible and will stand the test of time. I love what I wear these days, and I really feel like myself in more oversized pieces. I believe practicality doesn't have to mean boring.
Lindsay wears the Liana Black Jersey Top and Logan Ganache Cotton Linen Trousers
You’re wearing Beyond Nine pieces today, how do they make you feel?
I'm off to a festival this weekend, and I want to take everything with me! I feel like myself and genuinely comfortable. It’s important to have a wardrobe that works for me and as a tall girl, everything is long enough, fits well and feels really soft. I know these are pieces that will interchange easily with things already in my wardrobe.
Lindsay wears the Reeta Black Linen Dress
Community is central to our work at Beyond Nine and you’ve talked about fostering this within Marnie Rays. How does community show up in your work, and how does it influence your day-to-day life?
As I've gotten older, community has become a really important part of my life, and I'd really struggle without it now.
I've always needed to be part of creating something — whether that's an experience, a feeling or something more practical — and doing that alongside other people, especially women. I used to be a physiotherapist in a team of female physios, and we would thrive in that environment of caring for people and the community of being a team.
I've carried that into my life, being surrounded by so many amazing women and leaning on each other in a way that you don't know you need until you have it. Even my friendships, it's all real community and love. I'm most happy when I'm with all the girls, or my best friends.
Lindsay wears the Reeta Black Linen Dress
For anyone who wants to try something new but feels like they’ve left it too late, what’s one piece of advice you would give.
My main piece of advice would be; just do it. Because on the other side of all that scary, hard stuff is where everything good is waiting. It's where we grow and learn who we really are.
If it means packing up your stuff, turning up somewhere alone and being frightened, do it anyway.
