Youth Full!

We were very lucky in the run up to Xmas that a visit to Karen at the DWP, proved an amazing opportunity for us to get great assistance in store for the run up to Xmas. Mary went down to Watercourt on Castle Boulevard to chat to a group of young people who were currently looking for work who wanted to get some work experience in retail.

We told them our story, our ambitions for the store and were so happy to hear that 10 young people wanted to take up the opportunity to be involved! Within a week the shift rota was set up and we had quality people manning the zones with energy and enthusiasm.

This young team was vital to the running of the store, especially when the busy xmas footfall hit in Dec. The designer makers of MiN spent time in store when they could to meet customers, make their product ‘live’ and network with each other, but when they were absent this young team covered for them.

We could not ask for a better gang of people to have on board as part of us. Alex, our budding blogger and writer took on Paguro, read her piece on this page to see how working in the store impressed her. Nina, dancer and retail, looked after womenswear and Amy Tophams ‘From the Heart’ dance zone.

Nisha, with great history on retail, took the helm at The Knitting Academy, learnt how to knit and advised the knitters in store! We also had Cordell at Bantum Clothing and Fatnek urban wear, Aisha made an impact on the vintage area with her new found skills from Sales Manager Tracey Christie, with her weave panels and was designing her own box bags by the time the store closed.

Brett and Justin manned the contemporary and Menswear area. Sauce and Brown were so impressed with Justin Watson, and amazed at how close he looked to the model in their advertising campaign that they gave him S&B shirts and product to wear in store, and have since asked him to model in their next lookbook! What a result for everyone.

Simeon Hartwig then asked Justin to model in the Nottingham Indie Fashion week catwalk shows at Rough Trade, where Justin showed his true natural talent as a catwalk model. With the current hot trend for fiery redheads - London Fashion week watch out!!

Thanks to Karen Richardson and all the team at the Nottingham Dept of Work & Pensions for their brilliant support for this youth team!

The Youth Team included...

Nisha Sharma, Nina Limbrick, Justin Watson, Brett Pike, Aisha Amar, Cordell Morley, Alex Robinson, Sam Ventrella Hudson, and Raiese Smith.

(Click on photos to see larger)