Ok, so.... I have worked in fashion retail for a long time. It started back in 1993 with Saturday job in BHS. Oh the glamour! Since then I have worked for many different companies in many different roles. I have worked my way up from the shop floor and been lucky enough to progress to a Buyer and most recently the Visual Merchandising Manager for a large womens wear chain. I have always worked for High Street brands. As much as I love fashion, I have never had any desire to work for anything else. I like fashion to be fun, affordable and no-one does this quite as well as the UK high street.... or do they?!
Over the last couple of years I have begun to question the approach of the big high street players. Are they really giving us fashion lovers what we want, or are they just drip feeding us their own ideas of what shopping is all about? I believe that fashion retail does not have to be so dull! We are not sheep! Us girls know what we want and how we want to shop. I am not the only girl out there who wants to know a bit about the hardworking creative team who designed their clothes, the process that happened to get the item from studio to shop floor and would love to be able to tell a retailer about the dream item they are searching for. I don't want to be embarrassed that I am wearing high street, ashamed of the fact that somebody somewhere has been exploited to fulfill my fashion whim.
And so I am setting off on an adventure to see if I can create a new type of shop on the high street. A place that says a little bit more about what it sells and listens a whole lot more to the people actually out there shopping and spending money.
Over the next few months I am going to be posting links to different websites, asking for your opinions on what you see. Sometimes it will be clothes, other times accessories, on occasion it might just be a cool idea for display. What I hope to do is get a discussion going about what we really want on our High Street and together create a store that really reflects they way that we want to shop. I am imaging a store with a mix of vintage and new, clothes and accessories, and regular sessions with the designers in store, so I could learn more about the design process and whose clothes I am wearing. Sometimes I'd like to be offered a nice cup of tea as I look around! But that's just my opinion, what would you like in your dream high street shop?
I'll be posting my first link for you all to check out soon. Watch this space!
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