A Burnley entrepreneur, whose business turns over £2m a year, is going back to her roots by opening her first ever shop in her home town.
Briony Gorton, owner of Talliah Rose, will be opening her first permanent clothing store at The Mall in Burnley town centre.
The shop is set to open to the public on Saturday 26 March, with a soft opening for family and friends on Friday 25 March.
Briony Gorton, 26, says she is “excited” about the new business venture and to bring her online business into the physical world.
She said: “I am so excited to renovate this store and open our doors to you at the end of this month.
“It is so important to me that we launch our first store in the town where my love for fashion and retail all began when I was just 16.”
The shop will be stocked with both imported goods, as well as clothing of Briony’s own design.
Briony says the clothing will be affordable and include jeans, dresses, swimwear, shoes and beyond.
She said: “It’s going to be a mixture of some of my own things and some things which have been imported but everything is amazing quality and I am going to keep it affordable for the town as well.”
Initially, Briony didn’t plan on opening a shop and she always wanted her business to remain online - but the pandemic and lockdown changed her perception.
She said: “At the beginning I didn’t want a shop as I always wanted it to be online.
“The main reason I have come back to this town is because I used to work in retail here as a normal sales assistant.
“It’s so nice to open a shop just a few stores down from where I used to work."
As a teen, Briony worked as a retail assistant in River Island, a job she held for four years.
She said: “That’s when I realised it was the fashion industry that I really wanted to work in.
“My business has gone from there. It’s just been amazing and a roller coaster journey.”
Since, then she has created her fashion and retail business from scratch, launching Talliah Rose in 2016, aged 20.
She started with just £100 “pocket money” from her Saturday job and turned this into £100,000 in just six months.
She said: “I have this amazing business and I really did start it with £100 pocket money at 20.
"People presume that you need to have thousands to start a business, or to come from a wealthy family, or take out a bank loan.
“I’ve never borrowed money or took out a loan. This has all been through hard work and dedication.”
Briony, who went to St Augustines High School in Whalley, invested her £100 into buying fabrics which she then transformed into bikinis.
She said: “The first thing I ever made was a bikini with Swarovski crystals on the bottom and an orange top.
“That is essentially what made this brand and I still have people who wear it, tagging me in pictures of it, to this day.”
Now, the business ships internationally and turns over around £2 million a year – and they have far more than just bikinis on sale.
The business has amassed 211,000 Instagram followers while Briony herself has achieved ‘influencer’ status on her personal account, with 223,000 followers.
Briony now has plans to dominate the high street in other cities.
She said: “The goal for me is to have shops in city centre.
“In the future, we will be branching out into cities. Hopefully, by the end of the year, we will have opened one or two shops in city locations - Burnley will be the only town I open a store in.”
The former Burnley College pupil said she anyone can achieve their business goals if they are determined and hard working enough to make it a success.
Briony, who is currently living in Manchester, said: “There’s no reason why a person can’t do something. I’ve come from a very normal, working class background and it’s just been a graft.”
“I have always said it’s about tunnel vision. You can look anywhere else or listen to anyone’s negative opinions.
“There’s no luck involved, it’s all about hard work and consistency.”
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