Men’s clothing shop set to open women’s venture

Sleaford Clothing Company is due to close its Market Place store in the coming weeks, but Wiseguys menswear shop from across the road is all set to move in.

Proprietor Mike Willis has told The Standard that it will be a step up to larger premises, enabling him to expand the suit lines in stock, but also deliver a women’s wear enterprise in an effort to encourage more people to ‘shop local’.

Mr Willis said: “We are launching Wisegirls, which my daughter will be heading up.”

He said the new brand will offer mid-range, affordable women’s casual clothing from brands including Weird Fish, Camille Lingerie, Marble and Dude shoes, plus more to keep shoppers local. He said the range will be aimed at women aged 30-plus - not ‘skinny’ fittings - with rapid stock turn over.

He said that hopefully it would help to see less necessity for shoppers to travel to bigger cities.

The plan is to open in late August/early September. Mr Willis said: “Our shop fitters will go in and prepare things. Initially transferring the menwear, then launching the womens wear brand a week to ten days later.

“It will give us 1,000sq ft of shop space - more area for hire wear and we are bringing more brand names like Ben Sherman.

“It is going to be very exciting for local women. My daughter Samantha is moving up having graduated from Portsmouth University studying fashion and textiles with a view to eventually launching her own label.

“You would not normally see these women’s brands in Sleaford, so let’s support the town.”

Mr Willis’ other daughter, Laura is also a director overseeing finance and strategy and they will be retaining one of the members of staff from Sleaford Clothing Company.