White Coco luxury fashion: 'I've been coming to Harrogate for 30 years and knew it was great for independent shops'

It’s a little touch of personality, that little point of difference, that has become a signature of the brand and its collections of thoughtful and beautiful fashion, homewares and gifts.

Until last month, there were just three White Coco stores, all down south - one in Summertown in Oxford, one in Hungerford in Berkshire, and one on the King’s Road in Chelsea.

Now there is also one up North, at 20 West Park in Harrogate, a prime location slightly off town centre (a few minutes’ walk), overlooking the Stray, and close to upmarket food emporium Weetons and high-end interiors store OKA.

Sophisticated Harrogate is the ideal choice, the Hampstead of North Yorkshire, the Cheltenham of the North, home to footballers and Emmerdale actors and even some cast members of All Creatures Great and Small, during filming in spring and early summer.

It is the perfect place to grow, says Sally Boddington, owner of White Coco, the fashion and lifestyle brand she co-founded 12 years ago. Indeed, she has known the town for decades, thanks to friends who live there.

“I've always thought it was a good place for independent shops,” Sally says. “We've been going up there for over 30 years. And then my son married their daughter, so she runs that shop now.

“I've been waiting for one that was in a good position,” she says. “We're more of a destination shop. I mean, it's lovely to have the footfall of tourists, but actually, people come, and we do a lot of personal styling, or help find things for Christmas, or whatever,” she says. “It's turned out to be brilliant, even better than I'd hoped.”

The Harrogate store is set out in the same way as the White Coco shops in Summertown and Hungerford. “We've put the signature little coffee bar there for the husbands, or anybody, actually. On a Saturday we put a newspaper there and they sit there and read, which works very well.”

Sally knew there were customers to be found in Harrogate because of online sales and because Harrogatonians visited White Coco at Spirit of Christmas, the shopping fair that takes place in early November at Olympia in London, and came to the London store, begging for one to be opened in their town.

Originally from Nottinghamshire, Sally qualified and worked as a microbiologist and biochemist for 10 years before having children. Her grandparents had a lace company. “I think that's probably where it stems from,” she says.

She founded White Coco with her friend Sarah Buckley, who has since retired. They began with fairs, then opened the first Hungerford shop nine years ago, then the one on the King’s Road in 2020, and then in Oxford last year.

They came up with the name while sitting on a beach in the Maldives. They already knew where to buy, thanks to a friend who had a shop, helping her and accompanying her on buying trips to Paris. When she sadly died, they decided to launch White Coco, a name they chose because they loved neutral colours, winter whites, beiges and mochas (which still always do well).

“But we very quickly moved to colour as well,” Sally says. “We're actually known for our colour. We put all the different colour sections together, which everyone loves.

“The one colour we don't really do is black, and the French can never quite believe that I don't buy much black. But honestly, people do not particularly want it, not our demographic anyway.

“Not that I do particularly follow the trends, because I feel that we don't always have to do that, but this year, the plum/mulberry colour is massive.”

Sally put’s White Coco’s success down to its three USPs. First, reasonable prices. “I feel very strongly about keeping that price point where it is, because it helps, especially in the conditions at the moment, and people appreciate that. The average price of a top is £60.”

Customer service is another USP. “We're very much there to help, very much not going down the self-service checkout route,” she says.

The third USP is stocking products that are a little different from the standard. “That's what we try very hard to do,” Sally says. “I try to find white shirts that have a point of difference, and we sell an awful lot of those, people always want those.”

This ethos can be seen throughout all the collections, from clothing and accessories to homeware and gifts.

Buying is mainly in Paris, with 30 per cent of products now made especially for White Coco, including the Tammy cords and the Isabella faux fur coat.

“We have sole import rights for things like our hugely popular Piper cords with the pockets on the front, a big bestseller. But I also buy from all over, and in this country as well now.”

To attract young shoppers to the Harrogate store (managed by Sally’s daughter-in-law Laura Boddington), coming soon is jewellery brand Bijoux de Mimi. “We have a big mother and daughter demographic, which has worked really well in the Chelsea shop,” Sally says.

There is also a lovingly curated selection of books to buy, covering cooking, interiors, travel and more, with book-signing events in-store.

So what next for White Coco? Sally says she does not want to over-expand - “because we don't want to be High Street” - but they are looking at Edinburgh, and she has just signed on a three-month pop-up shop in Burford in the Cotswolds, not far from Jeremy Clarkson’s pub The Farmer's Dog.

Check out the Harrogate store at West Park and whitecoco.co.uk