At Christmas last year, Cathy Wood’s family home in Manchester was disturbingly quiet. Her daughters, 19 and 21, were revising for exams. She says she and her husband “hardly saw anything of them … I was a bit fed up.” Bored and frustrated, she bought a 45kg (99lb) bale of secondhand clothes, without knowing what she was going to do with it.
She is speaking from her lounge, and behind her the room is crammed with rails of brightly coloured clothes. Wood, 62, enjoyed shopping for vintage clothing with her daughters, and had even discussed getting a shop with a friend, but the rents put them off. A week or so after the bale arrived, she booked a stall at West Didsbury Makers Market.
