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The Alhambra Shopping Centre has held a Fashion Week event to coincide with London's Fashion Week to spotlight some of the shops, give away prizes and put on some shows.The event has been on since Tuesday with the Barnsley Hospice having a pop-up shop and fundraising. On Friday there was some vintage style Paparazzi's taking photos and giving away £150 when they entered the competition. Saturday was the main day with their 'Fashion On The Move' shows, consisting of 5 models and doing a shows every half an hour at various spots around the centre to show different shops' selection of clothing. At each show, they were giving away £50 vouchers to spend in those shows, the winners being picked at random from the audience.

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From Tuesday, the Barnsley Hospice charity was in the centre selling pre-loved clothing from their charity shops and promoting their upcoming events. On Friday they had two vintage style paparazzis in the centre, taking photos of local shoppers and then giving them a card where they could download the photos for free and also have the chance of winning £150 to spend in the retailers. These were a nice touch to the event and created a fun atmosphere.

The 'Fashion On The Move' shows were a delight to watch, they had 5 models of which were 3 gals and 2 guys. Dressed in the retailers, the shows were right outside of that shop amongst all of the shoppers. They would then put on a dance routine and then a standard catwalk show. The compere would then talk about the clothing the models wore and what prices they were at. The shows were on roughly every half an hour and the models did do the same dance routine every show, which I thought they could have maybe had 2 dance routines to switch it up a little. Despite this though, each show was kept lively, intriguing and informative by the host. In the show that was outside TK Maxx, my boyfriend that had come along with me whispered 'I want that shirt that model is wearing.' so we headed straight in to find it, proving the shows worked as they should have!

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It would be great that next year when they do this again, they try to add even more to the fashion week event and bring more people into the Barnsley town centre. Maybe some more pop-up shops? Live mannequin window displays? Let us know what ideas you have. The Alhambra Shopping Centre is one of our 10 places to visit in Barnsley and putting on events like these ensure its place on that list!

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Credit given to first 2 pictures, all rest belong to Barnsley Fashion Creatives.

Other than the high streets shops, there are a number of places to get different menswear in Barnsley from independent shops and handmade designers. There's always plenty of places for womenswear and the menswear seems sparce or hard to find. Well we've done the leg work for you, here's our list of possibilities for you guys to explore.

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Down the Victorian Arcade are 3 independent shops, Ashworth & Bird, Originals and The Gallery. Each of these have a different style and look so depending how you're feeling, you can easily pop into all 3 down one short street to figure out what you're wanting.



If you leave the Arcade at the bottom after being inside Ashworth & Bird, cross the road and head to your right and you'll pass the corner shop of Ghia Menswear, for the more sport luxe clothing as well as accessories.



Also On your visit list should be Nomad Atelier, many of their items are unisex, looking amazing on men as they do on women. Be prepared to pay the price for their luxurious fabrics, bu they'll certainly last you many years to come in both quality and style.

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Speaking of handmade, local designer Emily Sharp Fashion creates quirky menswear garments, geometric t-shirts, stylish trousers and one-off cardigans. She can also cater to requests and commissions if there's something you'd like but just can't find in the shops.



And lastly, if you're needing something more formal, Greenwoods Menswear is the place. Now based in the Alhambra shopping centre, they have suits, shirts, ties, jackets and more.

All photos belong to Barnsley Fashion Creatives, except Emily Sharp Fashion's two photos.

Whilst at the Barnsley Archives the other day, I found out about this wonderful event called the Barnsley Shopping Carnival. In the archives they had the booklets from 1910 and 1922 and found them so fascinating to look at and read through. These booklets were actually more like an entire book and properly bound. Inside were drawings, photographs, advertisements, all about Barnsley, shops, competitions and more.

The 1910 booklet was less illustrious and more text based, as you'd expect. This was the first year Barnsley held this week-long event and it wrote how other towns had also done in and Barnsley wanted to join in. The carnival meant gathering all the shops throughout the town and to work together to create a massive attraction to all customers new and old, they would host special offers to get them into their shops and also import some special products that could only be bought during this week. The main part of the carnival was the window dressing competitions, they had different categories such as Ladies goods to wear, Mens goods to wear, Goods to eat, Best outside decoration and Best novelty window exhibition. To entice the shoppers, they urged them also to take part in guessing who would get the awards and also written essays about the carnival.

The 1922 book had far more visuals and even the first page was printed in colour as seen above.It echoed the previous book but had far more pages as it had grown in popularity. This time, the window dressing competitions had simplified down to the categories Things to eat, Things to wear and Things to use, but had extra special prizes given by  companies if they had put any of their products amongst their window displays. The Barnsley British Co-operative Society is featured quite heavily throughout this book, advertising each and every of it's departments, right down to particular products. Here's a selection of images from the 1922 booklet. Can you imagine if Barnsley still did this?

All content from the Barnsley Archives.

Spirit Original Designs owned by Trish Evans is one of our local handmade designers and her skills range from bag making, to jewellery, clothing and homewares. The business currently resides inside the Oh Sew Sweet Shop at Wombwell and we had a bit of a chat to her about how it all began. Visit Spirit's Facebook page here.

 BFC: Hi Trish, as a local Barnsley creative, what was it that got into doing your business originally?

Trish: I have loved sewing and being creative from when I was at school. I had a very stressful job and needed to chill and take a step back for health reasons. This is wear my creative and sewing skills made another appearance in my life and now i'm not stressed at all!

BFC: That's great that you almost use it as a relaxation method. Which creative skills did you start out with first? And is that what you still do now or have they evolved to other things?

Trish: I could sew at school so I would say that. I was also good with art at school too, then came making bridal head-wear in the early 80's. Initially this business began with jewellery making and we still do that.

BFC: So that's already a few skills you had under your belt early on. You now also do clothing as part of your business don't you? Could you tell us how that came about?

Trish: I would say from about the second year when we had already progressed into bag making and neck wraps, customers were asking us for clothes. They kept asking "when are you going to start making clothes?". To be honest I was happy with the business as it was but I gave in! I thought, give the customers what they want. That's how our clothes range started.

BFC: It's always good to listen to what your customers want. How would you describe the style of you clothing?

Trish: Individual. We only make one of everything so u wont be wearing the same dress as someone else! Individual with a twist.

BFC: And how would you describe your customer base that wanted you to make these clothes?



Trish: The same customers that keep coming back and new ones too. The age group that initially requested clothes were around 18-35 year old. I tend to get a lot of requests for races and weddings. I love creating something unusual.

BFC: Having returning customers are so valuable to any business. Do they still come to see you in your new home at the Oh sew Sweet Shop? Could you tell us a bit about the new place?

Trish: Oh yes. Since moving here it has gone from strength to strength! New customers all the time! Its a hub of life! A fabric shop, cafe and our boutique all in one!

BFC: Sounds like a wonderful little place! So out of all your fashion-y items, which are you favourite to make? Dresses? Bags? Jewellery?

Trish: Mmmmm I think dresses! 😀

BFC: Haha! And lastly, what piece of advice would you give to new business startups?

Trish: Listen to your customers and hang in there!

All pictures belong to Spirit Original Designs.

In recent news, a beautiful Victorian building has gone up in flames in Barnsley. It's recent use was a nightclub and now under renovation to become a restaurant, but all has been wasted away to a large fire destroying it. Originally built in 1862 and was a Grade 2 listed building, it housed many different departments from butchery, pharmaceutical, tailoring and also drapery.

It's with great shame that this building has slowly deteriorated over the years and has now been engulfed in flames. We're going to take a look at it's fashion sided history through these beautiful old photos from the 60's and a memories video from Experience Barnsley. Photo Credit to the left: Yorkshire Post.




The Experience Barnsley Museum have been delving into this topic and created this wonderful video of people who used to be members of the Co-Operative and their memories.

Barnsley is home to many independent boutiques, places to get away from the treadmill of high street shops where everything is mass produced at low quality. When you look just a little harder, you can find better quality items, different styles to the norm, local handmade designers and quirky pieces to brighten any outfit. Here just are few of those gems...



Nomad Atelier (previously Pollyanna) is a brand created by Rita Britton based around luxury fabrics. The new store is on George's Yard, Barnsley Centre and also houses to their own curated gallery on it's top floor and their cafe 'Quintessential'. Nomad cater to a higher end clientele, but it's the place to visit for sumptuous silks, velvets and cashmeres.





Moo Designs boutique is based inside the Thomas Whitworth Forum on Hanson Street, Barnsley Centre, house many designers including their own in-house brand. If you're looking for something fun, quirky and edgy, this is definitely the place to visit.









Junction 36 Boutique is in Hoyland Common, Barnsley on Hoyland Road and houses many local designers such as Cottonarts, Emily Sharp, Alice Takes A Trip, Not6Sun and more! You are guaranteed to find something you'll fall in love with in this fun little boutique. Keep up with their newsletters over on their Facebook Group.

If you own an independent boutique, why not get in touch. We'd love to hear about what you do and who you sell. You can either use the contact form above or email hannah456@hotmail.com

All pictures belong to each businesses as listed, none are of BFC.