The Story Behind Y.O.U Oxford: Building a Sustainable Shop

Have you ever wondered what it takes to bring a business from online into “real life”? 

When we first had the opportunity to bring our organic cotton underwear to an in-person shopping experience with our pop up shop in Oxford’s Covered Market, we were starting from scratch! 

Being a small business, we couldn’t afford to fit out a shop with lots of new fittings and display cases so we had to get creative! We were also on a mission to keep the environmental impact as low as possible and were determined to gather as much as we could from second hand and sustainable sources.

When we moved into our more permanent location, still in the Covered Market in Oxford’s city centre, we gradually brought everything together with the help of local friends and family.

Before our current shop became Y.O.U Oxford, it was occupied by a card shop who had acquired all sorts of fittings during their time there which were left in the unit when they closed. This helped a lot and meant we had a useful range of displays to use as we got more stock in. 

Our cart & spools

We wanted to create a more natural feel in the shop than the usual plastic displays, so we scouted around for items we could repurpose or use from elsewhere. Sarah got our wooden cable drums second hand - as well as wheeling the biggest one from outside one of the Museums in Oxford where it had been left by workers! A local wood reclaim business made our till from reclaimed scaffolding boards and we were lucky enough to be able to buy our lovely cart from one of our favourite local businesses when they were closing down. That became the centre piece in the shop and it definitely brought with it the lovely vibes from it's previous home at Indigo. 

Hangers & displays

The next challenge was figuring out how to best display all of the underwear. Because of all our different organic cotton knicker styles and bra designs in a range of sizes, we have a lot of stock to display so we needed to ensure we could get everything out and hung up. We want to be as inclusive and accessible as possible, so we make sure we have at least 1 of every size in every colour and style available on our rails, from UK 6 to 24. We also use recycled cardboard hangers rather than plastic ones to minimise our footprint and create the more natural look we wanted. 

Once we had managed to get all of our stock out and on display, we decorated with bunting, dried flowers, plants, and of course brightly coloured underwear!

Our fitting rooms

Once the fitting rooms had been built, we decided they needed to be brightened up a bit so our lovely shop team member Keda covered them in uplifting messages and pictures of all sorts of bodies! From the beginning, Y.O.U Underwear was designed to be an inclusive brand and we wanted trying on our underwear to be an enjoyable experience - rather than leaving customers feeling insecure.

Since then, we’ve also added our community board where we display upcoming events, customer reviews, and notes from our community.

Learning as we go

The shop has evolved a lot in the time that we’ve been there, we’ve gradually built up our stockists to provide Oxford town centre with a unique range of sustainable gifts, cards, and kitchen, bathroom and beauty products, alongside our super soft undies. We like to think of ourselves as a creative marketplace for Oxford’s ethical shoppers!

We know that our Oxford customers love to shop local businesses and we are proud to bring them brands like Reversible Robin, Neve’s Bees, Charlotte Spencer, and Hooked by Marta and make Oxford’s independent community even stronger.

The importance of Y.O.U Oxford

Opening an in-person shop has been the best decision we’ve made as a business and we’ve been able to learn so much from connecting with you all face to face. We've been able to host some brilliant workshops, been involved in late night shopping events, and become part of a wonderful local community of independent shops in Oxford.

Thanks to all our customers and don't forget to pop in if you're passing!

Go behind the scenes at Y.O.U Underwear with more of our blogs:

Look back on a year at Y.O.U in 2025

Find out how we improved our score with our B Corp recertification

Spend a week with the team at Y.O.U Underwear