Following a partnership with a major retailer Primark, a vintage clothing brand launched 15 years ago in Hull is going global.
WornWell has been launched by the Vintage Wholesale Company, which operates Poorboy Boutique on Humber Street in Hull.
In September, the retailer debuted the new brand at one of its flagship stores in Birmingham. It will launch WornWell this week at its Piccadilly Gardens outlet in Manchester, and later in the month at its Oxford Street store.
In a statement, Riccardo Seaton, who owns The Vintage Wholesale Company along with his wife Angela, said:
“It’s the biggest deal we have ever done. It’s absolutely unbelievable. It still doesn’t feel real, but that’s a mindset I have tried to keep to make sure I’m grounded and focused. I am trying not to get over-excited about it.”
“After Birmingham opened they said they had never seen a better-curated vintage concession. Comments like that make it all worth it but I just want to focus on delivering the brand that they expect and then see how they react.”
While working as a mental health professional, Riccardo began his career in vintage clothing retail as a hobby. As a result, he branched out into wholesale and built suppliers’ networks in both Europe and the United States.
Poorboy Boutique opened in Princes Quay Shopping Centre nine years ago and moved to Humber Street six years later.
Earlier this year, Bag It Vintage opened in Princes Quay where customers could buy bags and fill them with vintage clothes. Additionally, the company organized a kilo-buying event at its warehouse in Bontoft Avenue, Hull, called Worth the Weight.
A top Primark team visited Hull earlier this year to seal the deal and examined every aspect of the business. Primark and Riccardo met on Oxford Street in London, and although the pandemic slowed things down, the discussion continued.
: “The CEO told me we should be proud of what we have done. He didn’t say anything else but I got a call that night to say they were very impressed with how it went. They loved the look of Poorboy Boutique and wanted to replicate that reclaimed, pre-loved look in their stores.
he said:
“I developed a few potential brands and we decided to go with WornWell. I own the brand and Primark gives us space within their footprint to trade on their premises.”
“Primark have a hand in how things are presented because there are certain regulations and requirements for big stores that don’t normally apply within our stores.”
“We’ve added 24 staff in the last two months. Primark has over 400 stores in Europe and the United States and the next thing they want to talk about is scale-ability.”
