E boutiques are a global phenomenon, it seems that every man and his dog are selling their wares on etsy, folsksy or big cartel. Even celebrities are catching onto the trend with Alt model Audrey Kitching fronting shop after shop most recently Audrey’s Closet and Eva Spence from Rolo Tomassi setting up cute accessories and home wares brand  Night of the Living Thread. Don’t think for a second though that E boutiques stay just online, Oli Sykes frontman of rock band Bring Me The Horizon and owner of Drop Dead Clothing which has a huge online presence also now has a small network of stores on the high street. We as a nation and as a global community have been bit by the E boutique bug and here is the best bit anyone can set one up.


Etsy is an online marketplace which consists of thousands of little shops run by thousands of talented people. You can buy anything from skirts to vintage gravy boats and that’s the beauty of it. You can buy lollipops that look like planets or skirts with the tardis interior on them. 


Eboutiques however can be a very useful alternative to having a real shop as I found out when I contacted English clothing brand THFKDF to ask them some questions.


So why did they decide to begin their own online store?
As soon as we decided to start making clothes we knew we needed an online store, at that point it seemed the only way of being able to sell our clothes, to have approached stores about being stocked at that point wouldn't of made any sense as nobody would of known who we were. So setting up our own online store gave us the chance to start selling straight away

But why not have an actual shop?
I definitely think it's easier, the costs of running an actual shop would put so much pressure on, and being online takes location out of it completely, we sell to people all over the world and if we only sold out of a store we would eliminate that whole audience and only be able to sell locally or people committed enough to travel.

But maybe a shop one day?
We've thought about it, but something like that would be a long way off and depend on so many different circumstances, our aim at the moment is to try and get stocked in more shops worldwide

How do people find out about you?
We mainly advertise online, having competitions on facebook, instagram, tumblr etc works amazingly well and gives you the chance to gain thousands of followers who are then aware of your brand. We advertise in a few magazines as well, but you don't get the same feedback as you do from putting things out on the internet. But I think people see you in magazines and their mind set changes to thinking you’re a successful brand and that can be beneficial.

However, however good buying online is can anything really beat the high street feeling of searching the sale rack for that top at the back that’s 90% off, fits you like a glove and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Well, only time will tell but perhaps that feeling’s nicer than the shop assistant glaring at you or following you around the shop!

It’s obvious that the E-Boutique is going up in the world. It is probable that this is due to the sheer amount of things you can buy and sell from hand drawn comics to brand new skirts.  Every sub culture can buy and sell goodies together and enjoy a much wider scene. Perhaps this is the future of commerce because at least with an e-shop you don’t have to fumble in your wallet for the least crumpled fiver.