Long before the vintage clothes world exploded onto the stage, Jenny Abbott set out to bring the best of them to Corsham’s High Street, selling pre-loved clothes with a commission going to the previous owners. Over 30 years on, Jenny’s shop – Frock Follies – is still growing in size and popularity.
How did this start?
With great excitement. I’d worked as a medical secretary in London on a salary that didn’t allow me to buy the labels I wanted to wear. But more than a passion for clothes, it was a desire to find work that fitted around my children that inspired my shop. That was over 35 years ago when I got married and, with two young children, we moved away from London and settled in Corsham. I initially saw a market for selling good-as-new children’s clothes and opened my first store (next to Theodora’s) in 1991. A lot of friends were involved, several I’d met at mother and toddler groups. Pretty quickly we expanded to sell women’s clothes and, as well as the shop – which was buoyant and buzzing – we held fashion shows to raise money for charity or the school’s PTA, with input from the local hairdresser’s Strawberry Fields and Coppins Jewellers. It was enormous fun and a great way to get to know people in the town. Over the years we’ve grown to just focus on women’s clothes and have been in around five shops on the High Street – in Green Ginger’s building, in a shop opposite the butchers, in the Weavers’ Cottages at the top of town (which was once home to the town’s first Fire Station in the 1800s). We moved as the model changed and grew and are now on Pickwick Road.
What do you sell?
Beautiful secondhand clothes, designer and top end High Street brands, usually no more than two seasons old and on a 50-50 commission basis. We computerise stock so customers can find out if we have labels they’re after. There is a real joy in seeing beautiful clothes that have been loved passed on to others and so loved again.  It makes economic sense and is good for the environment, too. If the clothes don’t sell after four weeks I do encourage owners to take them to the charity shops. I never ever want to see good clothes going to landfill. We are aware that there is a huge surplus of clothes in the world – apparently enough to clothe the next six generations and we know too many – tonnes – of wearable clothes end up in UK landfill each year.
We have a lot of visitors who travel to Corsham for a day out or to lunch, then they pop in to buy clothes. They've often bought from me on previous visits. The stock's all computerised and some call ahead and ask if I have a brand in their size. But I am aware that around only one in five of my customers is local - there's a huge local market that remains untapped. I think everyone who runs a business here knows that. While the High Street wants to maintain the magical feel that it has - and it's amazing that it's lined with independents - it needs to change with the times and sell its story. We can't just hope people will wander down the street and find us.
The beautiful clothes at affordable prices, and the positive impact on the environment goes without saying. I know I am competing with companies who sell secondhand clothes online. But online has always been a threat. We survived the rise of eBay for example. When we reopened after the pandemic, so many people were telling us they missed looking at clothes, feeling the fabrics, trying things on, quite apart from the social interaction that happens in a shop, something you simply don't get online. We really need people to think about the fact that the High Street just won't be here in the future if we use it less. It can't survive on occasional trips for coffee and a browse. Shop owners are not expecting favours. We want to help people understand what they stand to lose, and what they can gain by shopping here. The welcome they receive. The great conversations we have. The chance to connect with others.
Jenny was once served dinner by the actor Anthony Hopkins. She was an extra on Merchant-Ivory’s Remains of The Day, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro and famously starring a young Hopkins, Emma Thompson and James Fox. The filmmakers used Corsham Court for one of the scenes and Jenny was recruited when the filmmakers came down the High Street looking for women to join in filming for a day. The town has been a location for a whole host of productions, including Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Thackeray’s novel Barry Lyndon, BBC’s Poldark (the Aidan Turner version, with Corsham turning into 18th Century Truro) and most recently the film adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Riders.
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