Behind The Scenes of Our Latest Shop Move & Opening

Behind The Scenes of Our Latest Shop Move & Opening

Maggie Mae's Vintage first opened its doors at 13 Dogpole, Shrewsbury in 2013. We opened mainly selling vintage homewares, fabrics and textiles and it soon grew to include fashion and accessories. We had many a happy year in our little shop and a few years ago we realised we had outgrown the space and were bursting at the seams. We were contemplating closing our shop doors and working from an appointment only studio space but our hearts just kept saying no, we still wanted a shop premises for people to come and view our full collections. In late June last year we found our new shop along the same street as our lovely little shop and we couldn't be happier with the position we found. At the beginning of September 2019 we finally got the keys to the new shop and said goodbye to our old home. Here's a written journal of creating our new shop alongside the inspirations we had to create the space we have now. 



 On the 2nd September, 2019 we finally managed to get to the keys to the new space and immediately scurried in to start work on our plans. We kept our little shop open until mid September and closed for a week to complete the move. The space was vast compared to our old home and empty looked huge ! Our vision for the space was a homage to a 1930’s department store, creating sections for categorised garments, a jewellery section, a menswear department, lingerie department and accessories space etc. We wanted to create a space that felt as though it could have been taken from that era. Using period fixtures and fittings alongside modern elements, we have used classic mahogany and oak woods alongside brushed chrome and glass for a nod to the Art Deco period we love.
Taking inspiration from an original 1930’s rug Maggie created an Art Deco border to outline all the walls in a simple but classic deco colour palette of pastel green, soft pink, rose pink and a rich claret. She also handpainted a mural behind the shop counter as a feature.  ( Mum is always fabulous at creating the image in my head ) 

Heres some behind the scenes images taken from the couple of weeks we spent creating the new shop layout.



A stunning image of a 1930s rug which we found in an old auction catalogue from the states, which we used as inspiration for our art deco border panels and mural for our shop interior. 




 


We sourced this amazing 1930s double haberdashery shop counter unit as our till point. It has 2 huge drawers and double cupboards which house all our stationary and packaging. 




Arthur, our keen shop helper during the refit. He was helping dress the shop mannequins




 

A close up of Maggie's fantastic art deco border panels which bring a touch of 1930s glamour to our shop. We love the combination of pastel greens, soft pinks, rose pinks and warm claret. 



 


Our new shop logo appeared late on a Friday evening and was hand illustrated by local sign writer Andy. He also created our last shop frontage signage.


 

Our shop move has allowed us to create a dream project, which was to create a vintage lifestyle shop. We wanted to create a space where you could buy not only fabulous original pieces but quality reproduction brands which you can intermix and enable you to wear the style everyday. We now sell brands which include : House of Foxy, What Katie Did Lingerie, Bow & Crossbones Jewellary, House of Drewvid Hair Products, Fatale Cosmetics and Knitting for Victory Knitwear. We wanted to create a socical space where we can house workshops to teach old fashioned ways with likeminded friends in a happy space. See our next blog for behind the scenes on our first hairstyling workshop hosted by Lucilles Locks. 

We opened our new shop on the 21st September 2019 and we had the best day full of fabulous friendly faces, new and old customers and family support. There were lots of laughs, great vintage, cake and flowers. We just want to thank everyone for their continued support to our business it really does mean the world to have such a great customer base :) Scroll down for some behind the scenes photos of our launch day ! 


 

 And that’s a wrap, we couldn’t have thanked everyone enough for their help and support through our transition and we really hope to have your continued support with the new shop. Lots of new and exciting projects in the throws for 2020 and can’t wait to share them with you all. Feel free to send us a message if you would like to know anymore about our shop move. 
Until the next read, happy shopping on our new website. don’t forget to keep up to date with everything on our social media. 
Lots of love
Maggie & Megan x x 
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