Harveys of Halifax top wedding guest dresses and jackets for SS25 trends from Joseph Ribkoff to Phase Eight and Joe Browns

For almost a century, independent, family-owned department store Harveys of Halifax has been coming to the aid of customers confused by how to dress for special occasions.

Harveys is legendary in Halifax, and has been used as a filming location for Happy Valley, Boat Story and Last Tango in Halifax.

It was founded in Dewsbury in the 1920s by Edgar Thomas Harvey and, by the 1950s, had three more shops, in Wakefield, Harrogate and Halifax, which opened in 1950 selling womenswear. After the death in 1968 of managing director Ian Harvey, Mrs Harvey Snr and current chairman Roger Harvey continued to build business throughout the 1970s and 1980s, focusing on the Halifax store and selling the other sites.

In 1988 Harveys bought the adjacent Tramways building and almost doubled the size of the store to 15,000 square feet, with departments for menswear and womenswear, accessories, cosmetics and perfumery, lingerie, linens and a restaurant. A cookshop and gift department opened in 1993. It continued to expand and extend throughout the 1990s and in 2003 launched home@harveys.

Now Harveys has around 30,000 square feet of selling space. In 2004, Tracy Harvey became managing director and the store remains entirely family owned and run.

Personal stylist Samantha Clifford has been working there for 14 years. She lives in Halifax, and joined the store after working as a sample sewing machinist. She has been a hobby sewer for 35 years, and even makes wedding dresses. This insight into how clothes work and fit is invaluable for her role as a stylist. “I just look at a lady and her figure, and know exactly what's going to suit and what's not,” she says.

If alterations are needed, Samantha can recommend a local service and explain exactly what is needed. “I pin things for them as well, to take away,” she says.

Some customers might have had breast cancer, others simply cannot face heading into Leeds. “I think it gets very stressful, and there's that much choice,” Samantha says. “They don't really know what their shape is, what suits them, or what to put together.”

Marketing manager Lauren O’Sullivan says: “It’s not just about showing them the latest fashions. It's really about getting to understand them and their lifestyle.”

There is an online booking service, which allows staff to find out a customer’s specific needs, perhaps what sort of wedding it will be, and when, before they get a rail together. But the team can also help people who simply walk in on a shopping quest, maybe for a dinner date, a black tie event, a wedding or any sort of special occasion. “They look a little bit lost,” says Samantha. “We'll set a couple of hours aside and just help.”

Lauren says: “What the team are really good at is making sure women feel comfortable and saying, ‘you know, there do not need to be specific rules about wedding guest dressing’.

“At a wedding, you're there all day, you're socialising, perhaps meeting a lot of people you don't know or you've not seen for a long time. Instilling confidence and making somebody feel good is just as important.

“If you're a bit self-conscious, you're fiddling. It’s easy when you're going to something formal to do something that’s not you. You feel like you have to spend a lot of money for an occasion, and I think you don't always have to spend the money. Sometimes it's just the way you style it and, especially for wedding guests, making sure that you can wear that outfit again.”

Samantha enjoys the “reveal” moments of personal styling, and tells how she recently dressed a client for a wedding in dress, shoes and handbag. “I asked her to step and look in the mirror, and she actually cried. She said, ‘I look nicer than I did on my wedding day’. And she set me off then.”

For this year’s summer weddings, Samantha says she is seeing pastels, navy and a lot of pink, especially bright fuchsia pink. Womenswear brands at Harveys of Halifax include Emme Marella, Phase Eight, French Connection, Nobody’s Child and Joseph Ribkoff, plus Joe Browns, Masai and Apricot.

“We can find something really nice that makes them feel comfortable, and enables them to express their individuality. Even Masai, which is more relaxed,” Lauren says.

Samantha says: “French Connection has some lovely dresses, and two pieces, because not all ladies always want you to wear a dress.”

Lauren adds: “The trouser suits are a bit of a different take. When they try it on, it can be much more flattering.”

“They do say, ‘well, I would never have tried that’,” says Samantha, adding that accessories and jackets can change a look. This year, many Harveys customers are wearing fascinators or a side clip and they like shoes with sparkle. Lower heels are allowing comfort, as are kitten and block heels.

Modern weddings go on all day and all night, and trouser suits are great for this, taking off the jacket later to show off a dressy top. And, with many guests staying over on site, it’s easy to have a change of shoes or a different night-time outfit.

Sam says that many women at first feel nervous about coming in for a personal shop, but that does not last long. “We help her get relaxed and then sometimes they can be with us for up to three hours, and they don’t want to leave.”