Hello…..

 Welcome to Hope town, I hope you like what you see and read and that you come back to visit again and again.

I’m not really one for doing lots of Instagram posts about myself, or in general but I am really trying to change my mindset when it comes to my work and share a little more of what I am doing and why I do it.

So here goes!

If you are new to Hope Town then hello and thank you for dropping by, if you have visited me at markets or via the website then thank you so much it really is appreciated!

For those of you who are new I will introduce myself…..

I’m Claire, founder, curator, social media person, marketing gal, cleaner, mender etc etc here at Hope Town Vintage. I have worked in high street fashion in one way or another since I was 16 (I’m 40 now for context!). When I was around 21 I wanted to sell vintage on Ebay…I didn’t do it, then at 36 with a 3 month old baby in the midst of Covid I started selling some vintage pieces I had collected on Etsy and it’s gone from there.

Selling vintage and being a window dresser was what I wanted to do when I was in my late teens and I was lucky to be part of a creative team in high street retail for a long time and now I source and mend beautiful pieces of clothing. Neither career choices are particularly financially rewarding but the heart wants what it wants and luckily your gal has simple taste! The window dressing and display side of things will hopefully be making a re-appearance on a freelance planet friendly project this year but that’s for another post!

So why Hope Town? It’s a play on words of where we (my husband Dave, my little lad Ted and I) live, but also because I really believe that hope is important. The world right now is a worrying place, the environmental impacts that fashion has on our planet is something I care greatly about and with Hope Town I am trying to make a dent – albeit a small one on that impact.

Whatever stage we are in, however worrying things might seem, we always have hope, so hope really is important.

Along with the no doubt sporadic blogs on this website I will also have a monthly newsletter with sneak peaks, offers and also top tips for second hand styling and sourcing so if that is something you would like to read please do sign up below!

My next few blogs are going to be about simple vintage swaps – and why vintage can be so much more lovely and rewarding than buying new.

Thanks for reading this far, please get in touch if you fancy a blether on all things second hand!

Claire x

(Image shows a collage of some of my favourite things!)