A married couple has fulfilled their dreams by taking over each half of a high street, selling records on one side and unique vintage fashion on the other. Paul and Andrea Clarke have set up their own venture in a former tattoo parlour on West Gate within Sleaford , hoping to bring something new to the town.
Paul, 61, runs Vinyl Resting Place, a creatively-named record store that is crammed full of more than 4, 000 vinyl records, ranging from essentials like The Beatles and The Clash in order to top-sellers Harry Styles and Taylor Swift, plus seemingly everything in between. Andrea is upon the other side of the wall, with a dark, Alice in Wonderland-themed clothes shop called Crimson Rabbit, that specialises in vintage and retro-style clothing.
The particular clothes, which span through authentic Victorian handbags to 90s/Y2K style and celestial jewellery, aren’t separated simply by gender and she took inspiration for what to stock from her life spent in the famously trendy city of Manchester. She said: “Some people don’t like wearing pre-loved clothes so we also have a lot associated with retro-style clothing as well. ”
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The girl continued: “There are ‘men’s’ t-shirts mixed in with ‘women’s’ clothes. They’re just for everybody, including the particular jewellery plus the bags.
(Image: James Turner/Lincolnshire Live)
“I don’t really believe in labels – I’m not really the traditional person. ” Though many possess lamented the state of Sleaford’s high street, Andrea said she felt the town’s youth was no different to the young people living within big cities.
She stated: “There are a lot of young people and I don’t think they’re any different here than where I come from. They all want in order to look good and some will want something a bit different.
“And it’ll even appeal to the people who are a bit older. I wear this sort of stuff and I’m in my 50s.
“It’s not only for young adults: it’s for anybody. inch The shop captures the particular couple’s personalities – though Paul offers resisted the urge in order to stock solely Elvis plus Beatles information – and both are usually eager to talk to customers, young and old, about their passions.
In a way, they are watching their youths catch back up with them, they mentioned. Paul, originally from London, grew up collecting records plus he said he remembered the advent of the CD, with Andrea saying she has seen the particular return associated with bomber jackets and chunky trainers she remembers from the 90s.
(Image: James Turner/Lincolnshire Live)
They moved into the store in August and opened their doors for the first time in mid-December, having spent those four months getting everything prepared, painted, — and of course, putting up the particular wall. Now a few weeks into running his brick-and-mortar shop, Paul still does a lot of his trading online
He also works part-time as a driver, but opening and running the record store had been a dream of his “since he was a little boy”. He stated: “We simply decided in order to take a punt at having a physical place.
“I’ve always had thousands of records plus they’re all online, yet there’s some thing nice about a physical store where you go in and pick up the records. That tactile feeling is a big part of the appeal behind records, I think.
“You can hold them and read the album cover, open the particular gatefold. There’s a sweeter sound on vinyl. ”
By stocking a mixture of both new and old, Paul hopes it will bring people in : especially considering that there are relatively few record stores in the county. So far, feedback has been positive.
Although it hasn’t “quite turned into heavy sales yet, ” John said, various people have got been coming in, asking about rare records plus perusing Andrea’s wares. Paul added: “You’ve just got to try, haven’t you?
“It might be the wrong period to start but who knows? We’ve experienced plenty associated with interest so we’ll just have to wait and see with the economic climate how we get on. ”
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