sale in
two Cities
Are mass-produced high street goods killing independent retail? No, finds Kirstin Innes as she visits two shops in Edinburgh and Glasgow, both of which are
bucking the trend
rista Blake and Fleur Macintosh haven’t met. aybe they should have. Macintosh took over tiny Edinburgh vintage clothing store Godiva as a 23-year-old graduate. and. five years and a change of venue later. it is one of the most original clothing outlets in the country and a showcase for young emerging fashion designers. Blake opened her shop Hitherto in the space at the back of Glasgow’s new Ingram Street Tinderbox late last year. and she’s already built up a network of young artists anxious to display in the shop. Both of them have made good use of the
96 THE LIST 29 Mar—1 2 Apr 2007
range of design talent currently coming out of Scotland's art schools. and the success of both establishments offers hope for the future of independent retail. ‘When I took over the shop. I wanted to use it to make a stand against fast food fashion.‘ says Macintosh. ‘Everything is so trend-led and mass-produced these days. I inherited lots of leftover vintage clothes. and body shapes have changed so much that there
‘I WANTED TO USE THE SHOP TO MAKE A STAND AGAINST FAST FOOD FASHION'
weren’t really any sellable items. but I thought they could be
customised. Edinburgh College of
Art (ECA) is so close to the shop. so I went along to the degree show and put a poster up — I didn‘t know what on earth I was doing. ljust thought I’d see what the response
was. Lots of people came to the first meeting. and I gave them the unsold vintage fabric and clothes from the original shop to play with —just altering jumpers and resizing things at first.’
Godiva now stocks the work of a variety of young designers — most of them Scottish and many of them still from that original pool of fashion students. ‘There’s such a high standard of tuition at ECA that when the graduates come through. their skills are amazing. There wasn‘t really any outlet in Edinburgh for their talent at the time. which was a total waste. You go down to Leeds. Brighton. London and everyone’s running their own customising business. but here there was nothing. I just approached the designers I’d been working with after they graduated. and said ‘why not stay in Edinburgh instead of trying to compete in London'."
Godiva is now part of a network of independently-run shops in the Grassmarket area. including the Victoria Street base of fashion and accessory label Totty Rocks. which is run by art college lecturers
Godiva stocks work by young designers, many of whom come through Edinburgh College of Art
Holly Campbell and Lynsey Miller. The shop also has its own MySpace page.
‘I love MySpace!” says Macintosh with a grin. ‘I get hits every day. I‘ve met a lot of designers l stock through MySpace. and found out a lot about ethical projects and mini trade shows going on. It‘s really good for independent small businesses.‘ Macintosh found she was taking in so much new work that she moved to larger premises further down the West Port last year. The designer section. which started as one small rail with eight pieces on it. now occupies the whole of the sunny front room.
Across the M8. in the peaceful. white. high-windowed space tucked behind Tinderbox. Krista Blake agrees with Macintosh‘s anti—mass production ethos. ‘I got fed up of going to shops where you would see the same things over and over again. I'm trying to give people access to things that have merit and value; just nice. interesting items to make them talk.”
Unlike Godiva. which focuses