Helen Sykes Fashions, Leeds: End of an era as director of popular Yorkshire family business open for 44 years announces permanent closure

Ann Wray’s daughter, Natalie Jackson, 44, worked part time at the business growing up before going full time in 2003.

It began in the room of a hotel in Leeds and due to its increasing success, they were able to buy a bigger space in a terrace space in Leeds, then move to the space they have occupied since on Stanningley Road.

Mrs Jackson,

from Leeds, graduated with a Physics degree and previously had a job as a computer programmer at Halifax Bank before she quit to work full time at the fashion shop.

Over the years, the business has built a popular reputation among clients - from Yorkshire residents to celebrities and business women. Helen Sykes Fashions was always a physical shop and the owners never sold their clothes and items online

With a large space of 7,000 square feet, in September 2023 the owners announced that they were planning on relocating to a smaller premises which would take three months to renovate.

However, at the end of 2023, Mrs Jackson’s mum suffered a serious fall which resulted in their decision to close the business.

“My mum fell and broke her pelvis which is a really slow and long recovery; it’s going to be twelve months possibly until she’s going to be back on her feet properly and I’ve got two children,” Mrs Jackson.

“It’s very difficult when it’s your own business because you’ve got to be there most of the time.

“It’s such a sad decision because there’s the memories we will treasure forever; we had three generations working together for over 10 years but sadly we lost grandma in 2017, then mum’s sister we lost in 2020, but she stopped working with us in 2018.

“It’s been wonderful, the clothes are amazing. We go off to Paris on a buying trip, we go off to Dusseldorf, we go to Milan, so we are very different from other shops.”

Mrs Jackson’s grandmother, Helen, was born to a wealthy family in Athens, Greece, where she had chaperones who escorted her to parties and gatherings.

Her husband, Bill, was a soldier from Leeds who spotted her at a party and fell in love with her.

When he tried to woo her by taking a tank outside her mansion and calling out her name, she fell for him.

“Her mum was absolutely mortified as you can imagine, but grandma was so independent and feisty and decided she was going to go off and marry him,” Mrs Jackson said.

“Her mum said she was absconded from any inheritance. She wasn’t getting a penny from the family at all, she was getting nothing whatsoever and grandma was 17 at the time, but [your age] was hand-written on passports and it was done with a fountain pen.

“She went over the ‘17’. It was a continental seven with a bar across the middle and she made it into a ‘9’ so it looked like she was 19 so she could go off and get married.

“She’d gone from this amazing 10-bedroom villa in Athens to living back-to-back in Holbeck. But her pride would not let her go home, she wouldn’t apologise to her mum, she wouldn’t go back and she made it work.”

Helen started her career working as a buyer at the very popular fashion shop Henry Burges located in the centre of Leeds in the 1960s. Helen spoke six languages, so she climbed up the ladder to a manager role at the shop.

She soon grew confidence to set up her own fashion business along with her daughters.

Mrs Jackson reflects on memories of the business.

“When I was little I used to go on buying trips with [grandma] because she needed somebody to go with and mum and Carolynn were busy in the shop and we worked very hard,” she said.

“It sounds very glamorous, it’s not, you literally go to Paris on back to back appointments, you’re lucky if you see the Eiffel Tower from the taxi on the way to the first appointment and that’s it. You don’t do any sightseeing, it’s work work work and we’ve always had this real strong work mentality.

“But grandma and I used to sneak off without telling mum or Carolyn, we used to go to this place called Angelina’s which is the most beautiful little delicatessen, a bit like Betty’s but a French version. If we did all our work, we would sneak there for half an hour on our way back to the airport.”

The announcement of the closure has left many of their loyal clients heartbroken as the business.

“Some of them, their mums or grandmas, bought from my grandma at Henry Burges, so it’s just been a family thing,” Mrs Jackson said.

“You become very close to them, you’ve done all the family affairs, you’ve done all the weddings, all the happy times in their lives and they’ve shared it with you.

“It is very difficult, there’s been a lot of people in tears and then I just think there’s so few places now to buy our type of merchandise.

“Although the closure is sad, it also reminds me how lucky we have been to have worked through the most incredible decades of fashion, and to have had the opportunity to work in a family business with three generations.

“It truly has been my pleasure to look after every client that has walked through our doors and to make them feel a million dollars in at their special occasions.”

Talking of her future plans, she said: “I want to spend some time with mum, I’ve got two children and you’ve got to work every Saturday and I need to spend a little bit of time with my family now.”

She has listed a few clothes and items on social media for a sale before the business closed for good on Saturday, January 6, 2024.

“Since I’ve announced the closure, everybody has come in to say farewell, even if it’s just to bring flowers and to say how sad it is,” Mrs Jackson said.

“But they’ve all bought a little something as well because obviously the clothes are still beautiful. So we’ve got very little left.

“We don’t sell online, it’s not for us, it’s not something I would ever want to do because I just love the experience with the clients, it’s just something I love and they love as well.

“I put something on Facebook and within a couple of minutes it had gone within five minutes because they are such unique things. So what we have got left I will continue to post on social media and I imagine they’ll just get snapped up very quickly.”

Mrs Jackson has kept the door open for the future of Helen Sykes Fashions.

“I might set it up again when the time is right, when the children are older,” she said.

“Grandma set it up when she was 50, I’m 44, there’s time yet. When the children are older and mum’s totally better, I will never say never because I’ll miss it terribly.

“But at the moment sadly family comes first. It might be the end of an era but maybe given enough time we would start again.”