An independent fashion business launched by a Leicestershire mum and daughter in response to the cost of living crisis has now launched a website, enabling people from further afield to buy its cut-price clothing. Leicester Fashion Outlet (LFO) is owned by Linda and Samantha Sansome, who started out with a stall on Loughborough Market.
They opened their first outlet, in Desford, in April 2022, and then moved to bigger premises, a shop in the centre of Blaby, in July this year. Clothing is available in sizes 4 to 28, with prices starting at £1.
There are 1,000 new items coming in every week, Linda and Samantha said, with tops, dresses, jackets and jumpsuits among the items in store, and usually as one-offs. Once clothes have been in store for two weeks, Samantha puts them on a £1 rail, to help make room for fresh items.
READ MORE:Inside new Leicester Fashion Outlet shop where clothes prices range from only £1 to £10
The women said LFO was able to offer clothes from high street names at discounted prices because it worked with a handful of Leicester factories from which it bought surplus stock that, Samantha said, would otherwise go to landfill or sit in the factory for years. She said the shop had proved hugely successful, both with customers who could not afford higher prices and with others who were being savvy with money.
Samantha told LeicestershireLive: “It has been on my mind for a while that I wanted to find a way to offer our affordable clothing to further than just Leicestershire. However, with us usually getting items as just ‘one off’ pieces we struggled to find a way. From now on, we will upload all items that we get a large quantity of to our website for people to shop across the country.”
(Image: Becky Jones)
Currently on the website, shoppers will find bodysuits and blouses for £3, jumpsuits and dresses for £5, and a ribbed orange dress for £7. There are also mystery bags for customers who fancy delving into the unknown with their fashion purchases. There’s a pink mystery bag containing five items for £15, or containing 10 items for £30, and a purple mystery bag containing five items for £22.50 or 10 items for £40.
Samantha said that over the coming months, the website would become “full of brand new ex-chain store bargains”. LFO will also be doing Facebook Live shopping videos where customers can purchase one-off pieces live and then have them posted to their address or collect from the store.
“The plans we have for the outlet and our presence online are ever-growing and I believe it will make an amazing impact to shopping online,” said Samantha. “We have big plans for the future and cannot wait to be able to offer LFO prices to the whole country.”
