Karen Baines is owner of the Sweet Dreams Bra Studio and shares her advice with other specialist lingerie retailers and fitters. Whilst many retailers have already decided that they will not open until 4th July, she shares her experiences and legal advice she has taken.
I have been thorough in getting advice from a lawyer at FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) that we cannot open on 15th June. As Bra Fitters/Lingerie shops are in the hairdressers/beauty salons/nail technicians group we have to wait until 4th July.
This is because cubicles are not allowed to be open on 15th June. So no trying on of goods and people aren’t allowed to touch the goods either. The instructions from Government (below) which many people have failed to read or misinterpreted because there were 33pages! Most people have read 3 or 4 pages and interpreted it to suit them and are planning to open. In doing so this opens them up to being fined thousands of pounds – two hairdressers tried opening in Milton Keynes and one in Aylesbury and received the fine.
I do feel that it is the lingerie industry’s responsibility to be aware of this and if they hear of a lingerie shop opening on 15th June, they should be advising them not to. As we have staff furloughed we aren’t even allowed to advertise that we can take orders and send them out to them.
It would be tragic if all my girls have stayed well and then they catch it from a customer. So I have all the PPE ready for 4th July (if the date doesn’t get moved by a second spike of Covid-19) with strict rules of us being masked and screened and the customer masked. Plus we can only open for 3 days a week due to the goods having to be rested a day in between for Covid-19 to die on them. This is also an important fact that shop owners have failed to read on GOV.UK.
I’ll leave all this information in your hands. I understand this is really awkward to tell people about this, but they face being fined and then maybe not being able to re-open due to lack of money. I know it is frustrating but we have always run Sweet Dreams by Lawyer’s advice from FSB and they have been extremely helpful in many situations.
Best wishes to you all.
Love Karen, Carol, Tracey, Nicky and Jodi.
Sweet Dreams Bra Studio
