‘Shakespeare really forces you to think’: why a sustainable fashion platform founder is rereading The Bard’s complete works
- Laura Williamson, founder of Hong Kong-based sustainable fashion marketplace Plantdays, is attempting to read all of Shakespeare’s plays again by the year’s end
- She says Shakespeare’s works make you about yourself and your place in the world, and about your dreams, relationships and goals
Available in a range of editions, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare features the approximately 39 plays and numerous poems written in the 16th and 17th centuries by the man generally considered to be the English-speaking world’s foremost literary figure.
Laura Williamson, founder of Plantdays, a Hong Kong-based marketplace for female-owned, sustainable fashion, beauty and homeware brands, tells Richard Lord how it changed her life.
I first encountered Shakespeare in elementary school. I remember being confused, because we were introduced to it so young. When I originally read Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Hamlet, I probably understood 10 per cent of what he wrote.
Recently I challenged myself to reread all of the complete works. I love a challenge: I’m trying to get through all the plays by the end of the year. Definitely everyone I’ve talked to about it either respects it or thinks I’m crazy.
I bought the book in 2022, and another one, Shakespeare for Grown-ups (a 2014 guide to the author’s work, by Beth Coates and Elizabeth Foley), so I can go through and reconsider what I originally thought.