Anyone who spends any amount of time in Hazel Grove knows that the Dress Agency on London Road is an important part of the community.

Known for its eye-catching window displays, the idea of the shop is simple: bring in clothes that you want to sell, the shop sells them for you, and you each get 50% of the money.

The shop opened in 1994, and will be celebrating its 30th anniversary later this year.

We caught up with the Dress Agency's owner, Nova, to talk about what's changed over the last 30 years.

"I moved to Hazel Grove when my son was about four, and he's 33 now", she said.

"All my family were moving this way, so we set up here too.

"Hazel Grove has changed quite a bit. There's not as many independents now, which is sad.

Nova, owner of The Dress Agency, has been in Hazel Grove for almost 30 years (Image - Johnathan Cowden)

"I think that's because of rent, and maybe COVID didn't help. I'm just stubborn. That's why I'm still here.

"But pandemic was hard. Really hard, but we got through it. We've been through the recession as well in 2008, but we survived that too."

Nova also talked about how the clothing business has changed over the last 30 years, and how the Dress Agency has adapted to that.

"For me, it's a lot better because people are more into their second-hand items, and they think more about the environment.

"I think it's less that we've adapted to it, and more that it's adapted to how we want to be anyway.

"I always try and tweak it and make it current, like going online, doing more social media, and we're planning to do more prom dresses next year as well. I get bored, I have to change things around a lot anyway, so that works out well."

The Dress Agency is based at 75 London Road, Hazel Grove (Image - Johnathan Cowden)

And how is the Dress Agency is going to celebrate this milestone?

"We're going to have a big party in October. I can't do it in September, when the anniversary actually is, but yeah, we're going to have a big party here.

"We'll pop it on social and we'll get everybody coming in, because we do have late nights, but we've not been having them lately. For a long time because of the pandemic, people got out of the swing of it."

The Dress Agency is open from 10am to 5pm, Tuesday to Saturday, and can be found at 75 London Rd, Hazel Grove.

You can also check the business out on Facebook and Instagram.

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