‘There’s nothing wrong with a man-brooch,” says Steven Bethell, the co-founder of the vintage clothing empire Beyond Retro, pointing to the 19th-century accessory fixed to his breast pocket. It’s in the shape of a beetle with golden legs poking out from its gem-encrusted body, a big trend in Victorian Britain. “I feel incomplete if I’m not wearing a brooch,” he says when we meet at a coffee shop close to the newest Beyond Retro in Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross, in the heart of London.
With 15 shops in London, Brighton, Bristol and Sweden, plus the first Finnish branch opening this month, Beyond Retro was flying the secondhand flag long before sustainability became a buzzword. Still, 20 years after Bethell and his wife, Helene Carter-Bethell, opened the firstshop on Cheshire Street, just off Brick Lane in Shoreditch, east London, it remains the blueprint for affordable, beautifully curated secondhand clothing. Bethell says the average price point for, say, a faux-fur coat or 60s shift dress is still about £20.
