‘Mum’s £2.50 fab frock finds inspired my vintage fashion business’

Ally Mangan was used to turning up at a party in an outfit that had cost a fortune: “And mum would turn up in an absolutely gorgeous dress that she’d found for £2.50 in a charity shop – and look amazing!”

What Ally – winner of the first Randox Grand National Women in Business Award – didn’t realise then, what that her mum Pat’s eye for a bargain would inspire a successful vintage and preloved fashion business, and a community of caring among its customers.

Ally, 57, from Formby said:

“She would be so proud. And she’d probably take over. The business means everything to me because it gave me a reason to get up in the morning when I lost my mum and then, my dad; it’s given me a sense of purpose, and it’s given me back my life. I always say it was a gift from my mum.”

The founder of Loved By Ally is an official partner of this year’s Randox Grand National Festival, having been declared its inaugural Women in Business winner, an award set up to honour the creativity, resilience and ambition of women-led businesses across the Liverpool City Region.

Her brand will be advertised around the racetrack during the three-day festival, Ally will be a judge for the online Ladies Day Style Awards, and, among other things, she will be a guest of the Aintree chairman on Ladies Day.

It’s an exciting time for the mum of four grown-up children whose business came about by accident, but which emerged, primarily, through love.

She added:

“It’s because of mum that I started doing this. I lost my mum during lockdown in 2020, and she loved shopping in charity shops. She used to volunteer in one and she absolutely loved shopping in them. I’d stand outside, going mum, I’m not going in there, you know the way you do. Unlike me, she wasn’t a big shopper.

“Mum loved buying homeware, she loved her house to be lovely, but she wasn’t one for shopping for herself. Like many of her generation, she put everyone else first. It was only when I lost her, and I was going through the clothes in her wardrobe, that I realised almost everything there was pre-loved and, like I say, she always looked fabulous.

“It made me think twice about how I viewed second-hand fashion and, of course, there was a real surge in preloved and vintage clothes when people started shopping with different sellers on Instagram and TikTok during Covid. If anything, it’s more popular now to buy vintage and preloved fashion than it is to shop on the high Street.”

It was Ally’s youngest daughter who suggested she start selling the clothes.

She added:

“I was obviously not in a good place when I lost mum, and my youngest daughter suggested selling a few bits to give me a hobby and something else to focus on, and that’s how it all came about.

“It fitted in nicely with honouring mum because it was all about preloved clothing, something mum used to buy. It seemed natural.

“I’m not Instagram-savvy, but it just seemed to grow, starting it as hobby and to get speaking to people again, and it just grew and grew.”

Ally now has her own Loved By Ally website – which she is set to relaunch – selling preloved and vintage clothes, with occasional new ones added to the collection, and she live-streams Instagram events where she displays her range and builds up a supportive online community.

She said:

“It’s not just about the clothes – although it’s good how sustainable pre-loved fashion is and how it saves so much going to landfill. I have built up such lovely relationships with the women who shop with me, and I believe in empowering women,” says Ally.

“There’s nothing better. Loved By Ally helps to get women together and show that all shapes and sizes are beautiful, and they support each other.

“In the live sale, I have a loyal following and it’s like a night out. You have girls who are single mums who use it for company, someone to talk to at the end of the day when the kids have gone to bed; there are so many women, from all over the place, from Ireland and as far away as Copenhagen.

“And even though they’ve never physically met each other, they have all become friends and chat and comment when I show the clothes, and it’s so lovely.”

Ally also does styling one-on-one, or you can go along for a ‘dress up’ and shop with a friend. “I had a girl from London who came to choose a wedding dress last week.”

Ally recently attended the Grand National Festival Weights Lunch at St George’s Hall and wore a vintage 1950s dress teamed with a pillbox hat.

As for what she’ll wear to Ladies Day on April 10: “Let’s just say it’s Gatsby-themed.”

Ally adds: “It doesn’t matter whether you like sportswear because retro sportswear is amazing, or dresses because you can look immaculate. Clothes from the 50s and 60s were so well-made.

“And having the business selling them makes it a joy to go to work every day; I feel like the luckiest woman in the world.”