cc

Travelled to Manchester yesterday, jumped into a hire car and visited a place called Rawtenstall, which is about 18 miles north of the city. It's a small Pennine-side town and probably not the first place that you'd think of when seeking out your fab gear...if you're female. Yet, there's an indy called Sunday Best (again, perhaps not a name that makes you think fashion) selling everything from Moschino to Religion (a big brand I'm informed) in a store whose interior is like the most chi-chi parts of designer Manchester. It seems such an odd location, but there again, it has been going for 38 years, so it must be doing something right. And it's just opened a first floor for young fashion shoppers. It's impressive, dark and full of Gothic stage-set trickery combined with a Banksy-like approach to trompe l-oeil graphics. If you're in this part of the world, and I can't imagine why you might be, go visit (alternatively, take a look at Sunday Best online).

Returning to the city, the contrast provided by the newly-opened Helly Hansen store, in the Arndale centre, could hardly have been more stark. This is the UK's first standalone store for the brand beloved (they tell me) of North-Western fashion pundits. Maybe so, but you can't help but wonder at the POS that has been used on the shoe wall at the back of the shop. Each of the technical-looking pieces of footwear has been put on a clear acrylic plinth on the front of which are details of why it's worth buying. All well and good, except that unless you have very good eyesight (I don't) then the font was far too small to read.

A spokesman said that it was "techie stuff" and that therefore it didn't matter that you couldn't read it. The obvious riposte to this is if it doesn't matter, why is is there? Such carping aside however, Helly Hansen has all the attributes of a Scandi-brand - a large, somewhat anonymous white sales floor, large mono-chrome graphics and a lot of brightly coloured clothing - perhaps that's what they like in Manchester, although why it should be so wildly different from London is not immediately apparent. Plans are in place for more stores....in Glasgow, Liverpool and maybe Leeds. Nice touch putting a graphic at the door that reads: "THE FORECAST CALLS FOR RAIN." Where else would this be more likely to happen?