The online brand The Fashion Bible has opened its first brick-and-mortar shop in Sunderland city centre after more than 10 years in the business.
From loungewear to knitwear and glitter dresses, the clothing brand sells stylish and affordable pieces that led to a massive success among younger customers in the UK and worldwide.
Founder Lisa Fox told Fashion North it was natural to open the first physical store in her home town.
“I love fashion,” says Lisa. “We collaborated with TopShop in the past and we were present in four of their shops in Manchester, Newcastle and Sunderland and after the chain’s closure, we wanted to try it for ourselves.”
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With an international customer base, The Fashion Bible performed extremely well among young females between 16 and 36. “We have customers from across Europe, America, Australia,” Lisa adds, “but even with such a big customer base we still found it difficult during lockdown. We struggled with stock and it would have honestly been a lot harder without the furlough scheme”.
Source: Fashion North
Since opening the store at The Bridges, Lisa says that they had an amazing response. “We’ve had some brilliant feedback from our customers. The location is great and it was a good opportunity to open the shop before Christmas when people shop for dresses and party outfits.
“However, we’ve only had two weeks so it was a very stressful process,” she adds. “It’s very different than what we’ve done and I think people don’t realise how much it’s going on when opening a new shop”.
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The new store which is located opposite River Island, will initially create four new jobs in Sunderland, but Lisa says she wants to see how the shop will perform long-term. “We hope to be able to expand the number of stores, but it’s hard to say when. The rent is obviously a big factor and we want to try this first.”
Will you visit The Fashion Bible store? Tweet us @Fashion_North.
