BUSINESS is booming for a Ringwood couple who have opened a pop-up shop in the Dolphin Centre in Poole selling vintage clothing.

James and Rosie King, 32 and 26, started up their business, Go To Vintage, online six months ago, but a surge in popularity for sustainable and second-hand fashion has seen sales take off.

Sustainability is a subject close to James’ heart. As a former charity worker, he has spent a considerable amount of time travelling the world including visiting the Amazon and Africa. He has seen first-hand the effects of deforestation and global warming.

James said: “We want to be part of a greener and more sustainable future and starting a vintage clothing business was a great way to help us do this.

“In the past few months there has been more and more in the news about the importance of being sustainable and of course the clothes we all buy are a huge part of this.

“We’ve been absolutely overwhelmed by the response we received. On the first day we opened the shop our phones were constantly going off with people messaging us saying how much they loved the items they had bought.

“We’ve had amazing feedback so far on how cool the shop is and that there is nothing like this in the area.

The couple say their usual customers are college and university students, but they have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of twenty to thirty-somethings and parents who come into the shop.

James continues: “What we have here really is unique: students like it because it looks great and our older customer like it because of the retro value.”

Their shop features a wealth of retro stock including branded and USA-style sweatshirts, denim jackets, jumpers and fleeces, branded t-shirts, basketball vests, corduroy and print shirts, ski jackets and Levi 501s.

Rosie said: “It’s amazing that James and I are both passionate about the same thing. It has taken over our lives and we struggle to talk about anything other than Go To Vintage to each other!

“Funnily enough we also share the same clothing because it is unisex, so we can both wear our own favourites. The only problem we’ve encountered so far is that we want to keep lots of the clothes in the shop for ourselves, so we need to be business-minded about what goes on the shelves.

“At the moment we are putting all our focus into the shop, so our clothes are only available to buy in store. Getting a website where customers can order from is definitely on our to-do list, but we are selling our items so quickly we don't have the stock long enough to get them up online before they sell. Nothing beats buying and trying in person!”

Go To Vintage is situated in Poole’s Dolphin Shopping Centre on the first floor. Follow them on Instagram and Facebook @GoToVintage.