J'AIME SEPTEMBER 2020

uy something that they know they can keep for
decades?”
Clothes from the 1980s and 90s are particularly
sought after at the moment, but Ginger’s own
personal preference is for pieces that are considerably
older than that.
She specialises in items spanning Victorian times to
the 1950s, both to wear herself and for her business.
“I find clothes from that time the most interesting,
although I do occasionally buy and sell later pieces.
If I am going to buy something that was made
later then it has to be good quality and not mass
produced.
“When the 1960s came along there was a move to
mass production for clothes and the quality changed
so much, so for me to delve into that era or later it
really has to be a good label that was well made.”
Clothes from Ginger’s era of choice weren’t designed
to be washed every day, so that’s a principle that
Ginger tries to live by with her own wardrobe.
“I don’t wear and then wash,” she says. “If it doesn’t
smell and it hasn’t got marks or stains on it then I
don’t wash it. I certainly don’t take my clothes off at
the end of the day and automatically drop them into
the laundry basket.
“I wash my knickers every day, but most other things
can be worn more than once before being washed.
It’s just not necessary to put them through the
washing machine so often.”
It was around eight years ago that Ginger’s love of
vintage clothes started to become a business rather
than a private passion.
She was working as a primary school teacher at
the time and started off by selling some of her own
wardrobe.
GINGER EWART, OF
GINGERMEGS VINTAGE
“To begin with it was nothing more than a hobby
really. Selling some of my own things was something
to do. Then I decided to try it as a business.
“I switched to doing supply teaching then woke up
one morning and decided that making a go of a
business selling clothes was what I really wanted to
do. Fortunately it worked.”
She opened a Gingermegs Vintage shop in the
Custard Factory, trading there for around six years
before moving the business to the Jewellery Quarter.
Gingermegs Vintage has survived during lockdown,
largely because Ginger already had a strong online
presence and didn’t have to start launching a new
business model in the middle of a global pandemic.
She sells items through her own website and also
through Etsy. The Jewellery Quarter shop has now
reopened, but by appointment only.
That’s not to say that things have been easy for
Ginger and her business in this strange new world we
are living in.
“At the beginning it was awful,” she says. “Then a
month into lockdown it seemed to go nearly back to
normal. Now things have started to quieten down a
little bit again.
“Some people just don’t have the disposable income
to spend at the moment and for others the future is
feeling uncertain.
“A majority of my customers are international, a lot
of them are in America, and they have been having
things very bad. It hasn’t helped that postage prices
have gone up too.
“I have to say that business is not as bad as I initially
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