Greetings.......

Greetings one and all - I have dipped my toe into unfamiliar blog waters in order to share a bit about my vintage boutique, Queen of Threads. If you're lucky you might even get a few snippets about Michael and I too....

I'm Helen Diamond, boutique owner, buyer, merchandiser , sales assistant - you get the idea! I've been selling fashion online for around eight years now, based in London. However when Michael and I got married in March 2010 we decided to move to Newport Pagnell where a lot of our family are. The premises for our boutique came up for lease in Autumn 2011 and we decided to take the plunge and expand the business to a shop. We had a lot of help from friends and family and,on December 3rd 2011 we opened the doors and Queen of Threads was born...

So, here it is, my lovely shop....

We're located at 31 High Street, Newport Pagnell. For those of you aren't local, NP is a pretty historic town in Buckinghamshire, very close to Milton Keynes. We are very proud to be here on the high street and part of the town and its community. I think that big shopping centres, superstores and out of town retail parks have really affected high streets in recent years. Newport Pagnell High Street has been the hub of the town for hundreds of years and long may it continue! Hopefully our little boutique brings something a bit different to our town and will ultimately bring a few more people out for some local shopping.

So, what do we do? Well, we describe ourselves as a 'vintage' fashion boutique and around 30% of our stock is bona fide pre 1990s fashion. We also sell more modern 'nearly new' items - Topshop, River Island, Miss Selfridge etc as well as a few designer items. Now and again we stock brand new clothing and we always have a selection of brand new jewellery too. I hand-pick everything - we're not a 'job-lot' shop. Each piece is unique and individually sourced. I only buy items in good condition and treasure hunt at vintage fairs, fashion markets and on my trips abroad to find unusual, one off pieces. I try to add new items in store two or three times a week - so there's always something new to find. We upload our new bits and pieces on our Facebook page here www.facebook.com/queenofthreads so customers can virtually browse before planning a trip to see us.

Anyway, that's us in a nutshell. I plan to use the blog to bring you updates about new items, fashion ideas and trends and probably a lot of blathering on about completely irrelevant subjects. You lucky people....x