The team
Two people, one shop and one flight of stairs. Rhian buys the clothes and Cerys makes them fit.
Owner and buyer
Rhian spent nineteen years buying for department stores in Cardiff and Bristol, watching good clothes go to the sale because they had been bought in the wrong sizes. She opened Magpie & Thread in 2014 with six labels and an overdraft.
She still does all the buying herself, and all the styling sessions. Her rule: if she would not wear it to the Abergavenny Food Festival in the rain, it does not come into the shop.
Alterations, upstairs
Cerys spent twenty-six years at a dress factory in Pontypool, finishing as sample machinist, until it closed. She took the room over the shop the following week and has been there ever since.
She alters clothes from anywhere and writes the price on a ticket before she starts. If she thinks you should not spend the money, she will tell you so.
How we buy
We do not buy a label that stops at 18. Everything we stock runs from 6 to 22.
Small runs, so you will not meet your jumper in the deli queue. When it is gone it is gone.
Each label and maker has a name on the card, and we can tell you where it was sewn.
Our sale is twice a year on what is left. Nothing is marked up in order to be marked down.
The kettle is on and the fitting room is free more often than you would think. Thursday evenings are by appointment, for anyone who works.