Digger: Please tell
us something of your background and the background to Dressed
2 Frill Mark.
Mark: Although I would love to tell you I have a background in
Retro Clothing, the truth is I started out as a chef, then a
Butcher then a forklift driver. And then we started a house
removals business, which until around 10 years ago was quite
lucrative. But then the housing market started to decline and
the rest is history. We found ourselves testing the eBay
market, at first with a variety of items which included a few
70s-style dresses. We noticed they would achieve a higher sale
price than the other fancy dress items. We decided to buy 20
of the same items from America and sell and resell on eBay
(just the same dress.) Next, we ordered 100 of the same dress
and resold that and so on, and it really grew from there to
eventually building our own website. Our 70's boots ranks no. 1
and 2 on Google searches and we do really well with the other
products on Google searches as well. So it is really growing
now.
Digger: What is it
about fancy dress that you are so passionate about?
Mark: I cant really say
it's fancy dress especially that we are passionate about. More
the era, being born in the 60s and growing up in the 70s, the
style of clothing, along with the music, evokes times when you
didn't have a care in the world. And I personally wouldn't say it
was a happier time, as at the moment we have two grandchildren
so we couldn't be happier. But the 70s takes you right back to
jukeboxes, listening to The Sweet and Slade with your bellbottom
jeans on.
Digger: Can you tell
us more about the products and services you are offering
there?
Mark: We offer all styles
from the 60s and 70s and are trying a few 50s styles in the
next few months, including ladies' platform boots, men's glam
boots, Abba-style clothing, hippy clothes, wigs, tops and so
on.
Digger: You seem to
have the 50s, 60s and 70s very well covered on The Internet.
Apart from decades, what are the most popular genres, subjects
and styles?
Mark: We find the most
popular parties people attend are hippy parties, Abba parties,
glam rock, with 60s Beatles type close behind.
Digger: The 50s, 60s
and 70s never seem to go away from people’s consciousness. Why
are the music and fashions of those decades so special?
Mark: Like I said in the earlier question I think it
transports people to a time when they were young and so the
pressures of society weren't solely on their shoulders (it was
mainly their parents.) And as all music evokes memories more
than any other medium, people remember what they were doing
at that particular time and what they used to wear. Being the
60s and 70s, the fashions and colours were very acute and
stuck around until punk reared its head really.
Although the seventies are a period in time that not many
people are able really relate to in the 21st Century, the
clothes are experiencing a resurgence. The early 1970’s saw
the mini skirt at its most popular and was worn by a
multitude of people from a plethora of different backgrounds;
this fashion phenomenon in combination with flared jeans
produced a street scene that would be almost unrecognisable on
the streets of the UK today. The music of the time influenced
the style of dress hugely and bands such as ABBA played a huge
part in producing that unmistakable seventies look. No
reflection on seventies fashion would be complete without
reference to the iconic platform shoes. These shoes, with soles
2-6 inches thick, were the footwear to be seen in and were
hugely popular with both men and women. Embroidered and
knitted clothes with an ethnic flavour were also very popular
and were favoured by fashionistas and the psychedelic set
alike and produced a distinct subculture, whilst drawing
influence from the sixties was still very much a seventies
look.
Digger: Who are your
‘typical’ customers, where are they coming from and what
customer feedback/comments do you get?
Mark: Our customers come from all over the world really. We
have recently sold to multi-millionaires in Egypt and Monaco,
English royalty and a 5 year-old boy in Blackpool. It's really
that diverse. Anybody who is going to a retro party is going
to need an outfit as not many people are going to fit into
something they wore 40 years ago, even if they were around then. Our
feedback is fantastic - a lot of people call us after their
parties, as because we import a lot of costumes they aren't
available in many of the high street shops. So people are
usually the only one at the party with that particular outfit
on.
Digger: What would
you say is special about the Dressed 2 Frill customer
experience?
Mark: We like to think of
ourselves as a small (which we still are compared to a lot of
the larger Internet companies) but personal service. All our
products have a direct telephone number on them. Jean has
personally worn a lot of the items to parties, so she can give
really detailed information on the ladies' styles, as with me
and the men's costumes. Most of the stock is actually in stock
not like a lot who buy to order, which means we can get the
outfits to them within 24 hours most of the time.
Digger: What are the
best and most enjoyable aspects for you of running Dressed 2
Frill?
Mark: That's easy, I
don't
have to go to work in the cold anymore, carrying heavy
furniture, standing in a freezer cutting up meat or listening
to irate customers telling me their steak isn't cooked right.
I get up, have a coffee, walk into the stockroom (which is in
our house, we don't have a shop ) turn on ITunes with The
Sweet, Slade, Focus to name but a few blaring out. I might
even slip on some platforms and the disco lights (just kidding
about the last two???) and turn on the computers and the phone
for orders. Who says you can't enjoy your work?!!
Digger: What are
your plans for Dressed 2 Frill in the future?
Mark: The scope to expand
is large. Do we expand and possibly lose the personal touch to
make more money? I don't know, maybe if we take on more staff
it would be possible. But at the moment we are more than
happy with this great little Internet site we have, talking
everyday to people with the same interests, whether it be a one-off retro party stage show or a
royal bash.
