As you may know, some months ago, I decided to regularly feature local businesses in and around Bishopston, as part of the Bristol Shop Local Campaign. Today’s Bristol Shop Local post is about Fancy Dress Fanatics on Cheltenham Road, which opened in the Summer.
Fancy Dress Fanatics belongs to Fran Gore, pictured here with her partner, Simon Minifie, who helped Fran in getting the shop ready for its launch in July.
What makes Fancy Dress Fanatics different from other fancy dress shops is that many of the costumes are hand made. Fran’s talented grandmother, Jo Lindsay, used to design costumes for the BBC, Pinewood Studios and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Fran explains:
“It’s been a family business for many years, until my Grandmother retired. Carrying on a family legacy was the perfect choice.”
Fancy Dress Fanatics also stocks many curriculum costumes for school children, which should prove to be very useful to local parents! For example, there are Egyptian,Victorian, Roman and Greek costumes.
Fran told me that she also plans to stay open later at particularly busy times to help local parents:
“I’m going to do some late opening hours to help working parents at times busy times like Halloween, Christmas and Book Week, as I know it can be really hard for working parents to have time to get an outfit for school events.”
I asked Fran what the best bits of having a fancy dress costume shop:
“The best bits – the response from the locals! I’ve had so many people popping in to welcome me, and so many kind comments. People only tend to dress up for fun things like parties or festivals so it’s a very happy business.”
I also asked Fran if there were any downsides to having her own fancy dress shop:
“Having someone come in and steal from the shop – it’s only happened once, and I caught the person, but every penny counts when you’re a small business, especially when you’re a start up, and the fact that someone would try to steal from you is pretty unpleasant. And doing the books! That’s the boring bit!”
Fancy Dress Fanatics is a very welcome addition to the local area! For more information about Fancy Dress Fanatics, please visit the Fancy Dress Fanatics website.
Bishopston Mum 