Purlesque opened its doors September 2006 in Grand Central Hall on Renshaw street, a new shopping arcade created to house the former Quiggins retailers.
Purlesque was created by Jane and Susan, who had found their passion for knitting. After looking for supplies they saw a gap in the market in Liverpool for a craft supplies shop that stocked contemporary yarns and craft materials. So they put the plan together.
The small unit in the basement of Grand Central was perfect for our start up.
We soon gained our reputation for large clown buttons and ribbons, everybody at the time was making large bows with buttons in the centre for their hair, as well as our bright and unusual yarns.
In 2007 The Bluecoat was finalising its plans to re-open after a couple of years re-development.
They were recruiting creative businesses for their studios and retail spaces. The re-development was exciting and the opportunity to be in a supportive creative community was difficult to resist. We put in our proposal and we were selected for a space.
It was very exciting to have our own front door on to the court yard and to have a shop with day light.
We had our pink and white candy striped wall designed and built by Matthew Ashton and Christopher Ashton. The Bluecoat is listed so we had to work around a number of details we couldn't change this didn't leave us a lot of plain wall space. So Matthew designed the walls as a response to this problem. All the walls were built out and designed to look as though they are floating. Christopher used his skills and patience to build the walls.
The design is unique and striking and we would soon become known as the candy stripe shop.
We opened our doors at the Bluecoat on the 10/05/08. However our excitement quickly turned to fear as we were told there had been a fire in the kitchen above the shop. Luckily we escaped with out to much damage, a lot of thanks to the fire brigade who used the shop as the entrance to put out the fire, but managed to leave the shop looking exactly as it was.
During our time at the Bluecoat we have had a lot of fun, doing workshops, being involved in events like the Bed in, and knit graffiti in the garden.
We will be sad to leave the creative community and to close the door on our cute little shop.
We want to thank all our customers and supporters, especially for their kind comments over the past couple of weeks, and we ask that you keep following us and get your friends to follow us too.
We are not going to let 5 YEARS of hard work go to waste, so what is next for Purlesque?????
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