Vintage boutique Scruffs has been open for just five weeks, and despite having no previous experience in the fashion world, owner Sarah Heath says that so far it is a great success.
“It’s going really well, better than I expected. The week we opened was Freshers’ Week so we got all the students in which was great,” Heath says.
Greeting you at the door is an old school indie rock n’ roll collaboration on the stereo, and inside, Scruffs has an impressive range of vintage pieces.
Heath, 22, has carefully selected a personal assortment of prints, patterns, and colours. For men there are T-shirts, collared shirts, and jumpers, while the women’s collection includes everything from shoes and cardigans to blouses and bags. She says: “I only get things in that I can then price at a reasonable price. The most expensive things I have are my coats and my leathers, but everything else is generally £5-£20.”
She set up Scruffs after orginally coming to Lincoln to start a teacher training course.
After recognising that Lincoln needed a wider variety of boutiques, she spotted a hole in the vintage market, saying that most of the current vintage stores stock “mainly 1940s style, quite expensive vintage”. She then decided to set up her own boutique, saying that Lincoln seemed to be “the perfect place”.
Scruffs will offer good prices, Heath says, as she herself enjoys a good bargain: “I like charity shops for the bargains, but I think it’s quite good to mix things like that with an expensive pair of trousers or a really good pair of shoes.”
Her quirky personal style definitely shines through in the shop’s collection. Two sheepskin coats are currently on the racks, very similar to Heath’s own. If her own style continues to influence the products she stocks, it seems customers can expect a good mix. Explaining her own tastes, she says: “I really like late 80s early 90s clothes at the minute, literally scruffy, good clothes, bit exciting but quite laid back, loads of over-sized baggy stuff.”
Heath says Scruffs has been very well received in Lincoln now that independent boutiques are becoming popular within the fashion community, as they offer people the chance to experiment with their own personal style.
“You know that if you get something from Topshop everyone’s going to have it… It’s not the same as having a one off thing.”
Scruffs is worth checking out, whether you want to make-over your entire wardrobe with a mix of heavy knits and delicate florals, or if you just want to nab yourself a statement vintage bag to personalise your style.
Expansion features in Heath’s plans for Scruffs, both in and out of Lincoln, and she will eventually have an Ebay store up and running.
You will find Scruffs in The Mall near bottom of Steep Hill.
would have loved to have seen some photos of the stock