Disorderly conduct for shop owner Mark Howard
Jul 30 2010 By Emma McKinney
Named as one of the world’s best unique stores, an independent shop in Birmingham is a huge draw. Emma McKinney reports.
Mark Howard switches on some ambient music and turns on the lights to proudly reveal the latest collection adorning the shelves of his fashion empire.
It may only be a small store, tucked away in Needless Alley, off New Street, in Birmingham city centre, but Disorder is making a big statement.
It seems the shop is winning the battle against High Street giants and has won adulation from some of retail’s biggest critics.
TV guru Mary ‘Queen of Shops’ Portas named it Birmingham’s Best Independent Retailer in 2007 and at the city’s Style Awards last year it was also crowned Most Stylish Independent Retailer.
Fashion bible Vogue recently named it as one of the world’s top unique stores, declaring it “one to watch”, SixtyNine Magazine defined it as “supercool” and The Guardian cited the shop as “one of the top five reasons to visit Birmingham”.
But Disorder’s road to success has been met with its fair share of rocky patches since it was first launched by Mark and his wife Thiri back in 1998.
When nearby Tesco was being developed, the shop found itself hidden behind a shroud of scaffolding, with shoppers struggling to find it for more than three years.
And when the scaffolding finally came down, the couple had no time to breathe a sigh of relief, as shopping mecca The Bullring emerged – producing yet more competition for the shop to battle.
But for Mark and Thiri the fight for survival continues and they believe they have two winning attributes – a loyal clientele (some people travel from all over the globe to buy their goods); and a unique product.
Disorder doesn’t conform to fashion trends and seasons – instead it produces hand-made clothes, each painstakingly tailored by top seamstresses, and they use their own creative genius to produce T-shirts, belts and other clothing adorned with screen printed art, with no two items being the same.
“Each design literally starts from an idea, we just design what we feel like and run it until it runs its own natural course,” says Mark.
“One customer once said Disorder is about art just as much as it is about fashion, which we agree with.
“We love to create an understated piece of design that has subtly broken every rule in the style book.”
Funky and original, it’s clear from the collection that the pair know their stuff, but surprisingly neither of them come from a fashion background.
