My lockdown project led to stylish success

Bethan's fashion store is a hit with shoppers

- By RAY BONSALL

WHEN Bethan Flanagan first started making tie-dye tracksuits from her spare room during the lockdown of 2020, she might not have foreseen that in just five years she would be the owner of her very own shop in one of Liverpool's most famous shopping locations.

Her store, All Over The Shop, is one of the Metquarter's newest and most innovative retailers. Despite what its pun-intended name suggests, the chaotic charm of the brand disguises what is in fact a lovingly curated selection of clothing, jewellery, and handmade goods, combined under one community-orientated roof.

But the journey to her first retail space was born out of a longer journey with clothing and creativity. The fine art and sculpture graduate, 32, from Everton first began making reworked clothing, including acid-washed tracksuits and bucket hats, whilst on furlough in 2020.

Fuelled by creative passion, the clothing soon took off. Bethan said: "People started saying, 'I'd buy that.'"

With the success of custom orders for her evolving reworked style, Bethan attempted a move to a local maker's market, but she found that "fashion didn't really fit."

Bethan said: "Clothing got dirty, there was nowhere to try things on, and there was a preference for smaller items at a lower price point."

And something else was missing too: "I needed to be part of a community. Being self-employed is lonely."

It was this firsthand experience of being a small fashion business owner that paved the way for All Over The Shop.