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Beloved independent dungaree brand Lucy & Yak to take over former Oklahoma site in Manchester

What a great brand to step into one of the city's best locations.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 18th June 2023

Popular ethical fashion brand Lucy & Yak is set to take over the former Oklahoma site in the Northern Quarter.

The beloved retailed, famed for its colourful dungarees, has snapped up the High Street unit that was left empty when lifestyle and gift store Oklahoma closed after more than 20 years in Manchester.

Signs for Lucy & Yak have now appeared all over the brick building, ready for its opening in July.

The people-focused brand was founded in Brighton back in 2017, and was named on The Sunday Times: Fast Track ‘Ones To Watch’ list in 2020.

Their eye-catching pink-painted stores are now expanding across the UK, with new openings in Bristol, Norwich, Cambridge and Nottingham, but this will be the brand’s first foray into the north.

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The six new shops are part of Lucy & Yak’s plans to have more of a physical presence across the country, with more locations already planned this year.

Each shop will act as a Re:Yak Hub to push their circularity initiatives.

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Lucy & Yak preparing to take over the former Oklahoma Manchester site
Lucy & Yak preparing to take over the former Oklahoma Manchester site. Credit: The Manc Group
Signs up in the old Oklahoma site for Lucy & Yak
Signs up in the old Oklahoma site for Lucy & Yak. Credit: The Manc Group

Lucy Greenwood, co-founder of Lucy & Yak, said: “We are so excited to be coming to Manchester next month, and can’t wait to be a part of the city’s vibrant culture and art scene.

“The new store will be another hub for creativity and a touch point to engage in person.

“As Northerners ourselves, we’re very excited to have the opportunity to reach even more of our community in the North and continue building our Re:Yak in-store clothing buyback scheme, and upcycling and repair workshops.”

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Lucy & Yak will open on High Street on Saturday 22 July.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

Shopping

IKEA are hosting a wide range of FREE Christmas activities this winter

Thomas Melia Thomas Melia IKEA Christmas events Ashton under Lyne

The flat-pack champions are putting on lots of fantastic events for IKEA members and customers to get involved with this Christmas.

What better way to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year than to get stuck in with some festive arts and crafts while spreading Christmas cheer?

Even better still, it’s all free!

IKEA have hosted many free events across the holidays and they’re back again this December running a whole host of holiday craft and creative workshops over at their big Ashton-Under-Lyne branch.

Credit: IKEA

Although there may be no seats left at Santa’s breakfast table on Saturday, 7 December, visitors who book now can expect to decorate some delicious decorations at their ‘Gingerbread Creations’ workshop from 11:30am to 4pm.

The following day, you can try your hand at sprucing up your own Christmas tree (once again 11:30am-4pm) by making personalised ornaments with the help of their ‘Tree-rific Decorations’ event on Sunday, 8 December.

There’s also a chance you can show off your ultimate seasonal style in another free festive event which is even suitable for those who might not have a creative streak in them.

Start curating your best snazzy outfits and frocks this festive period, with the homeware retailer putting on a weekend set to feature more Christmas jumpers than any fashion week ever has.

If you aren’t all Christmas-sed out, from 13 to 15 December, you can also embrace the festivities by sporting your best seasonal stuff in-store from 9am until 5pm for their ‘Festive Wear Weekend’.

Credit: IKEA

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Once again, all these free festive activities are suitable for everyone, especially families, so why not treat yourself to a nice day out and embrace the holiday season in true Swedish fashion? Quite literally.

You’ll have to act fast if you’re planning on getting involved though, as the Scandinavian furniture company is making way for a total of seven free Christmas activities; their ‘Saint Lucia’, ‘Santa’s Christmas Eve Plate’ and ‘Winter Wreaths for Adults’ workshops are all fully booked already.

Anyone looking to stock up on Christmas activities and squeeze in some quality time in their ever-so-hectic December calendar can do so on IKEA’s website HERE.

Featured Images — IKEA/Zboralski (via Wikimedia Commons)

Shopping

Bents Garden Centre – the Christmas wonderland that everyone, including Molly-Mae Hague, obsesses over

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson

Don’t ask us when it happens, but there’s a point in life where you favourite place on earth becomes a garden centre.

And garden centres don’t come much fancier than Bents Garden Centre, an enormous sprawl of a building filled with the obvious stuff (like, you know, garden plants) but also so much more.

The Warrington favourite is never more popular than at Christmas, when it turns into a twinkling wonderland and people from across the north west make the pilgrimage.

There are colourful decorations spilling out from every corner, from themed baubles to fairy lights to festive soft furnishings.

Bents Garden Centre does not hold back on its decorating – this year alone there are Alpine dining scenes, a life-size car with presents spilling out of the boot, and an arctic landscape with polar bears and igloos.

That’s on top of a whole display inspired by an ice cream parlour, and others that take inspiration from woodland and The Grinch.

There’s also a winter food market, where wooden lodges sell everything from Yorkshire pudding wraps to bratwurst sausages to beef brisket sandwiches.

Inside Bents Garden Centre at Christmas
Inside Bents Garden Centre at Christmas
Inside Bents Garden Centre at Christmas
Inside Bents Garden Centre at Christmas
Inside Bents Garden Centre at Christmas
Inside Bents Garden Centre at Christmas
Inside Bents Garden Centre at Christmas
Inside Bents Garden Centre at Christmas. Credit: The Manc Group

In the outside space there are heated dining globes, decorated with plants, blankets and bunting.

Bents garden centre is so popular, it even had a fairly famous visitor a couple of years ago, when Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury popped in for a day out, documenting the whole thing to her (at the time) 1.7m YouTube subscribers.

She proudly showed off a trolley piled high with food-themed baubles, in the shape of cakes, doughnuts, gingerbread men, candy canes, and even a giant pink lollipop.

She said: “Don’t ask me why we’ve never come here before. It’s SO cosy.”

Molly-Mae added: “This garden centre, Bents, in I think Warrington, it’s unbelievable. I don’t know why we’ve never come here before.

“It’s kind of like a farm shop too, they’ve got food and food stalls. I am so excited to come back here with a baby next year, like it’s so special.

“It is quite expensive I’m not gonna lie, to get all the decorations and things, but we’ll keep them each year and reuse them.”

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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