As they cross the border into West Yorkshire, White Rose is redefining what you’d expect from a typical charity shop.
What do you get when you take all the best elements of a charity shop and combine it with a high street shopping experience? White Rose Recycled Clothing, that’s what. They’ve recently opened a shop in Leeds city centre after a string of successful outlets across Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and South Yorkshire and we can’t get enough.
“There were a couple of Nottingham Trent students who were part of the Aegis Trust – they finished their studies and decided they still wanted to support the charity,” assistant manager Nathan Smith told us. “They started White Rose in Nottingham, and following the growing demand for second-hand fashion, have since expanded in Derby, Leicester and Sheffield over the past few years.”
The Aegis Trust is a charity who work to prevent genocide by breaking cycles of hatred through education. They’ve built the Kigali Genocide Museum in Rwanda, in turn creating peace education programmes that are part of national curricula to ensure genocides don’t happen again. Any profits left over from White Rose’s running costs go straight to supporting the charity’s work.
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So, why was Leeds next on their list? Well, with the number of clothing banks around the North and the success of their new stores, there’s been an obvious pathway towards opening in Leeds. It’s an excellent size, and while they don’t solely cater for the student population, the 60,000 or so in the city certainly helps a lot.
The new Albion Street home is a bit different to the previous stores. It’s been built in a new, slightly bigger style, with neon signs, industrial lighting and a light and airy feel. Unlike most second-hand stores in Leeds, it’s split across two floors with a full men’s section occupying the upstairs and women’s living downstairs – it truly feels like there’s something for everyone.
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In terms of stock, 90% of the clothing is received through customer donations – men’s, women’s, children’s, accessories, shoes, you want it, they’ve got it. And for garments that are a little bit worse for wear? They’re sent straight to the in-house upcycling department, where fixes are made and old threads become new again.
Clothing ranges all the way from Primark basics through to big names like Levi’s, Hugo Boss and Ted Baker. The head office team work hard to get the clothing banks into areas where they’ll receive a good variety of clothing that’s also of a good quality – customers often remark on how there’s a little bit of everything, no matter the trend, style or colour.
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If you’re wondering whether you should come down and give it a go, let Nathan tell you himself. “There’s an excellent selection of vintage stores at the moment in Leeds, but there isn’t a shop of this kind of scale. It’s kind of like Vinted in a real-life setting, with an organised and handpicked selection of secondhand clothing you can interact with without having to scroll through a website.”
White Rose, 77 Albion Street, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS1 5AW. Open from 10am to 5:30pm Monday to Saturday and from 11am to 5pm on Sundays.
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