A friend and fellow shopkeeper, Georgina, wrote to me in the summer and asked if I had heard about #LondonIsOpen an initiative by the new Mayor.
In the immediate aftermath of the Brexit result London was in bitter shock and this positive sentiment and welcoming attitude was exactly what we needed. I began to dwell on the idea behind 'London Is Open' and what it means to me and my small business.
Revival Retro is an independent boutique in central London. Our specialist small shop serves a loyal London following but we are also a destination; people travel far and wide to visit us, women plan entire weekend breaks in London around the opportunity to visit our store!
We have customers from all over the world and we really enjoy meeting, getting to know and helping our customers. Shop manager Sarah has a Canadian pen pal as a result of a conversation that started in the shop, the business owner and founded the company as a result of her passion for swing dance and has friends all over the world who became customers as a result of that common hobby.
We even run a monthly social for our London ladies where we all get dressed up and go out for cocktails. Women with a passion for our style of dressing and the open and friendly attitude we express get to hang out with other likeminded women and have a natter.
I really wanted to come up with a creative way to demonstrate that not only is London open but that Revival Retro is a small business that is going to great lengths to extend a warm welcome. We take a genuine interest in our customers and will welcome you with a genuine smile and an enthusiasm to help.
We love Instagram and although it's wonderful looking at pictures online and exchanging messages nothing beats meeting someone face to face. So we decided to invite to London the women behind some our favourite Instagram accounts.
This weekend Victoria, Sandra, and Ida flew in, we welcomed Ella who has just moved to the UK from Australia, invited Londoner's Sam E and Nora and Sam M got the train down from Derby for the day. We had such a fun day together.
This to me is what #LondonIsOpen is all about. Welcoming people, creating opportunities for people to connect and showing the creativity and courage as a small business to do something beyond just selling. Business is, after all, about relationships and we were very glad to make some new ones.