QUEEN OF HERTS

To celebrate our 20th Anniversary, Deryane sat down with Drapers Magazine to reflect on her incredible retail journey over the past two decades—and what’s still to come! She opens up about the challenges she’s encountered along the way, and how she’s tackled and grown from them. Deryane also shares exciting details about our anniversary celebrations, including the upcoming fashion show and our exclusive perfume collaboration.

Keep scrolling to read the full article and catch a glimpse behind the scenes!

DRESSING FOR SUCCESS

The founder of independent The Dressing Room, Deryane Tadd, reveals the highlights and challenges of 20 years in business
 

Nestled in affluent commuter city St Albans is the award-winning independent womenswear boutique The Dressing Room. Its entrance at 6-8 High Street is decorated with canary yellow daffodils when Drapers visits, as the spring weather finally starts to make an appearance. The brainchild of founder Deryane Tadd, The Dressing Room has become a staple that locals and shoppers from beyond the city can rely on for “cool girl” brands such as Ganni and Damson Madder, as well as more luxe, refined labels including Day Birger and Munthe. The business will celebrate its 20th anniversary in May, and has grown from stocking 10 brands to offering an innovative roster of over 100 labels, presided over by 20 staff members. “The store actually opened on my birthday – 11th May,” Tadd recalls. She is celebrating the milestone by connecting with her community of customers through events including a dedicated pop-up area in store in collaboration with Day Birger last month, a catwalk show next month and the launch of a new fragrance in partnership with perfumery Ampersand. This year, Tadd will also explore new categories such as handbags, and will continue to deliver the personal touch that drives loyalty with The Dressing Room’s customers.

"The Dressing Room has become a staple that locals and shoppers from beyond the city can rely on for “cool girl” brands such as Ganni and Damson Madder, as well as more luxe, refined labels including Day Birger and Munthe"

However, as any independent retailer will understand, it has not always been plain sailing. Tadd has witnessed the independent landscape evolve, and has overcome myriad hurdles, including a malicious cyber-attack in 2024 that temporarily forced The Dressing Room’s website offline and impacted sales. She has also pivoted to innovative Sale and returns strategies, and is facing industry-wide challenges, such as this month’s employment cost increases. The early morning sun floods the 2,500 sq ft store, which is merchandised neatly with colour-coordinated palettes. The left side of the store is filled with casual denim pieces including jeans and dresses, alongside leopard-print tops, bags, shoes and other accessories, while the back is a riot of colour with holiday-ready striped dresses in pinks and greens. The till kiosk and changing rooms sit to the right of the store. Tadd greets me in a plum suit from favoured brand Day Birger. The store stocks dresses, shirts, trousers, skirts and boots from the Scandi staple. The Dressing Room line-up boasts more than 100 brands, including Rails blouses, trainers from Veja and jeans from Paige.

The category that Tadd is currently most excited about is handbags: “I’ve relaunched the whole bag area – I’ve got brands called Cala Jade from Oslo, Norway, and US-based Naghedi. For me that’s a very exciting development within the business, and we are pushing an area that we have not pushed before.” Accessories, which includes handbags and jewellery, make up 15% of sales, clothing totals 40%, footwear 15%, and denim between 25% and 30%. Expansion into new categories is an opportunity Tadd is not afraid of exploring, and for the retailer’s 20th anniversary, she has joined forces with perfumer Ampersand to launch The Dressing Room’s own fragrance, which will be available in store and online for £59 for a 50ml bottle. At The Dressing Room, retail prices range from £42 for a Damson Madder T-shirt to £629 for a Munthe embossed leather jacket. The average selling price is £145, and average spend per customer is £240-£265. Tadd says having a varied brand selection helps to bring in new customers: “It’s good to have that mixture of brands that keeps it vibrant. I want that younger customer coming through as well, so it’s important for me that I’m finding those younger, up-and-coming brands that will bring that younger demographic in, and then she’ll grow with us.”

"Expansion into new categories is an opportunity Tadd is not afraid of exploring, and for the retailer’s 20th anniversary, she has joined forces with perfumer Ampersand to launch The Dressing Room’s own fragrance, which will be available in store and online for £59 for a 50ml bottle"

Tadd prides herself on getting to know customers on a personal level. This is made possible by the close-knit team of 20 staff that work a mixture of part and full time. When she first opened, she had only one other member of staff. One customer introduces herself as “Granny Ganni”, emphasising the close relationship Tadd has with those who shop with her. “I know my business and my customer inside out,” she proudly declares. Owning one store with a well-trained team of retail staff ensures The Dressing Room’s service stands out in this crowded market. The styling service is the store’s superpower: “I trained everyone to be able to style. You’re just not going to get that on the high street or in a big department store.”

"Owning one store with a well-trained team of retail staff ensures The Dressing Room’s service stands out in this crowded market"

Before founding The Dressing Room, Tadd spent time in roles such as operations and buying director, and assistant manager at retailers such as Knickerbox, Warehouse and French Connection franchises. Her time at French Connection from 1997 to 2004 helped to fuel her styling knowledge. Emma Hill, founder and managing director of London-based brand Damson Madder, affirms: “The Dressing Room has built strong relationships with customers, who trust in their edits and recommendations. They have created a strong in-store experience – it has a welcoming boutique feel but also has a solid online presence.”

This level of service is working, as turnover rose 17% year on year in July to December 2024. The business has been profitable since year one, and Tadd is planning for the best year ever this year. The spring/summer collection is trading at a 15% increase year on year so far. The store accounts for 65% of overall turnover and the website 35%. The website previously accounted for 45% of turnover. However, at the start of 2024, it fell victim to a cyber-attack by a hacker, which flooded the site with 80 million malicious links. The business was not held to ransom, and the attack was resolved by the website undergoing a full security audit. Tadd says The Dressing Room had to start building its online presence all over again: “Our Google domain authority [a metric that predicts how well a website will rank in search results] was previously around 50, which is high for an independent within the industry. When we discovered that this malicious attack had happened, it had been knocked down to around 24. It meant we were eliminated from the first page for all search results, and the site was blocked by Sky, Virgin Media and BT when you tried to access it. Since then, we have been rebuilding the domain authority with content, SEO, strong copywriting, blog content and link building.”

Beanie Pender, women’s wholesale sales executive at Oldstrom, an agency based in London’s Shoreditch that has worked with Tadd for two years on Danish womenswear brand Dea Kudibal, agrees that “challenges such as bugs, website hackers and trying to keep the website as a trusted platform” has been a hurdle for Tadd. However, Pender praises her ability to use her online platform: “Deryane has taken those four walls [of the physical store] digital by successfully keeping up with the consumer’s buying trends, with her ecommerce site and proactive Instagram.” Tadd says the site was down at various points throughout the year, and concedes that the estimated loss of turnover was “significant”. However, she has successfully rolled out measures to prevent such attacks in the future. “We have amped up our security, do monthly trawls on the website now and have a tool in place that disallows any malicious links. It’s all now under control and we’re in a much healthier position.”

Returns average around 32% for the business. Tadd calls them a “bug bear”, and is often left exasperated by Sales “because our customer moves very quickly and she’s very trend driven”. After finding that around 50% of Sale items were returned because shoppers would over-buy online, in December 2023 Tadd launched an in-store-only Sale, which then extends online three or four days later. “It was a risk that could have backfired, because a lot of our online customers are further afield [Customers travel to the store from Surrey, Winchester, Liverpool and Wales.]” However, the decision has paid off, as customers are visiting the store and “getting what they actually want, rather than just buying it to secure it”. Tadd says she “holds her nerve” when the brands and other retailers launch Sale early.

The Dressing Room, like all businesses, have to weather the rises in minimum wage and National Insurance that are being rolled out this month: “The recent Budget is a real kick in the guts for retailers.” Tadd says cutting staff is not an option because “the success of the business is based on our service culture”. Nor will she increase her retail prices. Instead, she is seeking out brands with better margins: “Keeping an eye on margin really is the main thing that we can do.” She reduced her buying budget to ensure stock is “right-sized” following the change in online trade, but explains this will adapt as the online business continues to recover. To keep customers engaged, Tadd wants to drive more in-person events. This includes an upcoming ticketed catwalk show to be held at the Georgian Assembly Room in St Albans on 11 May – The Dressing Room’s 20th birthday.

"To keep customers engaged, Tadd wants to drive more in-person events. This includes an upcoming ticketed catwalk show to be held at the Georgian Assembly Room in St Albans"

This ability to showcase a “unique eye” for trends and brands is praised by Dana Ostergaard, head of international sales at Danish womenswear label Baum und Pferdgarten, which is stocked by The Dressing Room: “As an independent retailer, they excel at showcasing emerging trends and building a loyal community.” The Dressing Room’s growth in the past 20 years is undeniable, and Tadd’s vision to serve up affordable and aspirational product is a masterclass in fashion retail. “I feel really proud to have got to this point. It’s been blood, sweat and tears, and I’m looking forward to what the future holds. We’ve overcome some hurdles that I didn’t envisage, but we’ve come out stronger,” Tadd beams.

If The Dressing Room continues to react to trends and respond to the needs of its customer, it will remain a leader in independent fashion for decades to come. 

WORDS BY JADE BURKE
PHOTOGRAPH BY ROGER BOOL