Conversations with Local Businesses
Despite challenging retail times the West End continues to welcome new businesses, and new artists and creators, living and working among us. Anne Marie Hillan chats with Karen Harvey, who owns and runs two successful furniture and lifestyle businesses in the West End having entirely reinvented herself from a very different career. And to Rachel Sofia, an artist and Glasgow School of Art Graduate based in the West End who launched her own unique business last year.
KAREN HARVEY
Karen Harvey was born and bred in Maryhill, so is very much a Westender. Her adult life and professional career was spent in England where for 30 years she worked in child protection, latterly as a director of a charity working with vulnerable children and families. Unbelievably hard work and Karen’s contribution was immense, so much so she was recognised with the awarding of an MBE.
But at the age of 60, Karen returned to Glasgow to embark on an entirely different second career. Karen had always had a keen interest in interiors and decided to open a retail store – in 2016 HOOS was born. Situated on Great Western Road near the top of Byres Road, HOOS is perfectly placed for West End shoppers. It is a lifestyle store with home accessories from Danish brands such as HAY and FERM Living but also has jewellery, textiles, clothing, including children’s clothing, and so much more.
Despite having no retail experience, the store was and continues to be a great success. And speaking to Karen, it is easy to see why. In those early days of HOOS she was in the shop constantly chatting to customers, giving them advice and information, building relationships and getting feedback directly from them. Karen is a born communicator who loves her shops and everything in them and it really shows. Covid saw her continuing to trade online and the West End community rallied to support one of their favourite new local businesses.
InHoos
Such was the success of HOOS that in 2022, a sister store inHOOS opened. Also on Great Western Road but at the St George’s Cross end, inHOOS is a very stylish, sleek and colourful Scandi showroom with the most beautiful furniture and accessories.
I meet Karen here and the store is just a delight with beautiful window displays put together by Eleni, the amazing store manager. The furniture Karen stocks will not be found anywhere else in Glasgow and the West as Karen had to travel to Denmark and be interviewed to be given exclusive rights as a retailer for these up-market Scandi brands
Karen also uses her shops to help new creators and artists showcase their work, hosting pop-up events in both stores to give new emerging brands a West End venue. It’s clear she loves doing this and enjoys working with others to create new opportunities and collaborations.
Like so many of the West End business owners I speak to, Karen really values her place in the West End community and appreciates the support of her customers. And providing a trading opportunity to others is something she clearly considers very important.
So, what are Karen’s plans? Well HOOS goes from strength to strength with new lines arriving regularly. The inHOOS brand is still being nurtured. That business is just two years old, born at the end of a global pandemic and surviving through some extremely challenging retail times.
Sourcing the Best
Karen and Eleni pride themselves on being able to source and supply the highest quality of home furnishings with excellent customer service throughout the whole selection, ordering and delivery process. They are also busy planning several interesting events later this year – so sign up to their mailing list and watch this space.
But most of all, Karen is just a fabulous role model. She has created this amazing new career and she is fully living it. A refreshing and positive person to be around, Karen’s plan is to keep right on with her new life: selling beautiful items to her valued customers right here in the West End.
RACHEL SOFIA
I first met Rachel of Rachel Sophia Studio at an Interiors Showcase Event in Stirling in February of this year. Rachel was exhibiting as a new designer and had the most amazing unique handmade textile knitted lampshades and cushions on display. We hit it off straight away as Rachel is based in the heart of the West End. It also helped when she confesse to being an avid Westender Magazine reader. Clearly this was a young woman of excellent taste! I said we would keep in touch.
So, what can I tell you about Rachel and her work? Well, Rachel is incredibly articulate, talented and focused and talks of knitting and textiles with a passion that I have genuinely never heard before. She may just have graduated from Glasgow School of Art last year but her heartfelt passion and commitment to her art of knitting is beyond enthusiastic. And rest assured Rachel’s knitting is absolutely an art. This is not the chunky knitting some readers might remember as the hobby of their mothers – this is knitting on an entirely higher level. This is Michelin Star Knitting!
And where did this passion for Knitting come from? Well though Rachel grew up in Bridge of Allan, her parents had both studied at Glasgow School of Art and as a child she had visited the famous Rennie Mackintosh building The Mack with them. Their influence and their love of GSA meant that Rachel knew she wanted to study there and only there.
Art Studies
She studied for one year at Glasgow Clyde College – a year she credits as invaluable preparation for her Art School Studies – and then started at Glasgow School of Art in her second year. Sadly, by then the Mack building had been destroyed by fire but Rachel feels privileged to have seen the building in its full glory. There is no doubt that the artistic support from her parents as well as the inspiration from studying at GSA has left its mark on her. She absolutely loved her studies although described her art school years as more challenging and more intense than she ever envisaged. When Rachel started working with textiles and first created her knitted products, she felt instantly that this was her niche, her art and she has never looked back.
Rachel uses a reconditioned hand cranked ‘Dubied’ machine. These Swiss machines are no longer produced but are sought after for fine knitting. Rachel describes how the machines are hand powered, weighing 150kg. Her machine has no motor and uses no electricity. She manually sets the machine being careful of the temperature and humidity in the room as that affects the machine and the final product. Rachel listens to the noise – the tone – of the machine as she works to understand how the machine is performing. She speaks of her knitting machine the way one would expect a classical musician to speak of their instrument. She’s absolutely fascinating to listen to.
‘New’ Knitting
Knitting is such an old skill and is being produced in an entirely new way by Rachel. Her product lines include cushions and lampshades, and she has sourced lamp bases which allow her to sell complete lamps. The shades are so refined and artistic. They make fabulous functioning lamps but even unlit are a work of art in their own right. And as you would expect the products are sustainable and environmentally friendly. The yarn used is dead stock yarn, yarn made from off cuts from factories which would otherwise end up in landfill. This means that the pieces created are original, as there is a very limited supply of each yarn.
Since starting her own business, Rachel has launched the Rachel Sofia website and has work on sale within Dykes and Dykes on Chancellor Street in the West End. She also had a recent Pop-Up Shop at Karen Harvey’s inHOOS store which gave her an amazing venue and platform to showcase her work.
Rachel is so appreciative of all the opportunities the West End retailing community has given her. Like Karen, Rachel’s enthusiasm and joy are truly infectious. I have absolutely no doubt that she is going to have an amazing career. Westender is honoured to be the first magazine to interview Rachel of Rachel Sofia Studios. I’m absolutely certain we will not be the last.
hoosglasgow.co.uk
inhoos.co.uk
rachelsophia.studio
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