A vintage clothes and jewellery shop in Greenwich town centre is planning to expand after battling a tough start and surviving the pandemic.
Joli Vintage Living, on Nelson Road, was founded by Jo Khalef nine years ago. She had originally owned a shop in Camberwell, but gave it up due to an illness in the family.
Her son persuaded her to get back into retail, and now the shop is thriving, with five members of staff.
“I did have a shop before, many, many years ago, in Camberwell,” she explains.
“I ended up giving that shop up and then I just had a normal job, but my son said, ‘Mum, it’s your passion, why don’t you do something like this? Come on, you can do it, you love it!’
“The very beginning was very hard because the rents are quite high here. I was working every hour of the day.”
Just as Khalef’s hard work was starting to pay off, the pandemic hit. “It was a pretty worrying time because we didn’t know what was happening,” she said.
“The shop really started to take off just before the pandemic, so I thought, ‘What’s going to happen now? People are not going to want vintage clothes.’
“But it’s been fine, because I think people are now greener and they realise now that it’s not good to be making new clothes all the time, they like to recycle. So, it’s been working well – fingers crossed.”
Khalef is hoping to expand into sewing, haberdashery and knitting from the shop’s basement next month. “It is a work in progress,” said Josie Porciatti, who will be responsible for the new section.
The rent in Greenwich is very high and rising, which worries Khalef a little, but she loves the place and the people here.
“You know what’s great about Greenwich? There are so many different customers,” she said. “Young and old, men and women. There are all sorts. It’s great, it’s really diverse here. I love it, it’s just so many different kinds of people. It’s a lovely area.”
Joli Vintage Living is at 7 Nelson Road SE10 9JB and on Instagram at @jolivintage.
Anna Schriewersmann is a student journalist from the University of West London
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