Within five months of opening, the success of North Shields boutique Ānela has already surpassed co-founders Jo Stott and Brogan Owen’s expectations. “We’ve had women travelling all the way from London and Edinburgh to see us. Demand has been so strong that we’ve had to keep buying in new stock. We’ve even designed our own-label collection.”
Catering exclusively for modern mothers of the bride and groom, their 900 sq ft appointment-only store is heavily focused on experience. The founders say the store echoes the treatment daughters receive while shopping for wedding dresses, but specifically for the mums: “We couldn’t find anywhere dedicated to them,” says Stott. “Mothers deserve their own appointment and their own celebration without feeling like an afterthought.”
The pair was also determined to break away from more traditional mother-of-the-bride wear to create a product mix that today’s women actually want to wear: “There has been a very fixed idea of what a 50-year-old woman should look like,” says Owen. “But mothers want to show their shoulders; they want to wear colour and have fun with fashion again.”
Unforgettable experience
Ānela’s customers are each given a dedicated hour-long one-to-one appointment, where they have the entire space to themselves. They can come alone or bring their daughters or partners, but the focus is always on creating a relaxed environment where they can feel confident and fully focused on their own outfit for the big day.
Each session begins in the boutique’s light-filled lounge, where Stott and Owen ask questions about the wedding and – crucially – how the mother of the bride wants to feel on the day. “It’s often about finding the right answers early on, building rapport and removing any anxiety,” says Stott. “Everything is about making our mums feel comfortable and creating an experience that’s completely centred around them.”
Customers are then guided through the boutique’s range, which includes modern occasionwear pieces from brands such as Kevan Jon, Richard Designs, Gabriela Sanchez, Maisonel and Sonia Peña. The offer also includes headwear by Max and Ellie and LH Millinery. “We work with designers who might lean towards more classic occasionwear, but we’ll often buy the less traditional styles from their collections because that’s what our customer wants,” says Owen.
The co-founders buy together, visiting Harrogate Fashion Week to source new brands and travelling outside of the country to supplier showrooms. “We love buying together – we have a fun dynamic and naturally balance each other out.”
The pair have just returned from a trip to Barcelona, where they were personally invited to view a new modern mother-of-the-bride capsule. “The brand discovered us through social media,” says Stott. “They had three shops in England that they wanted as stockists, and we were one of them.”
Yet getting the buying right has proved to be one of the pair’s biggest challenges – especially in the beginning: “Making sure we had the right designers wasn’t always easy because, as a new business, we didn’t know who was going to walk through the door,” says Owen. “But we knew exactly what we wanted to offer from the start, and we’ve stuck to that vision.”
To fill in any gaps, Owen – a trained fashion designer – also created Ānela’s own-label capsule, which launched shortly after the boutique opened. Its debut designs are all named after the co-founders’ family members and have been hugely popular with customers. “Everything in the range is designed to be comfortable enough to wear all day while still feeling elevated,” says Owen. “There’s a focus on colour, architectural details and beautiful draping that flatters the body. The fabrics are quite simple, allowing the cut and construction to do the talking. We want women to feel glamorous, but in a timeless and classy way.”
Prices at the boutique range from £300 to £1,000 while pieces from the Ānela label cost between £500 – £800. But according to the owners, price is rarely a deciding factor: “It’s somewhat irrelevant to many customers,” says Stott. “If she feels amazing in something, she’s going to buy it.”
Break with tradition
Both Owen and Stott are well in tune with what mother of the brides want having previously worked in the wedding industry for many years. Stott ran a successful bridal boutique for 10 years, later moving into bridal consultancy and, more recently, celebrancy through her business, Love Jo. Owen, meanwhile, studied fashion design before working alongside bridal designers creating bespoke gowns. Later, she managed a bridal boutique before moving into consultancy herself.
The pair first met in 2018 when Owen interviewed for a role at Stott’s bridal boutique. After working together for several years, Stott sold the business and went on to train bridal retailers around the world. Owen later followed a similar path, and they both found themselves helping bridal retailers deliver the very best customer experience.
But it wasn’t until both experienced shopping for mother of the bride wear personally in 2025 – when Brogan got married in Las Vegas and Jo’s daughter Abbie married in Northumberland’s Kielder Forest – that the idea for Ānela was born: “We suddenly became the customer and experienced first-hand how difficult it was to find somewhere dedicated to mums,” explains Stott. “With all our experience, we realised there was a big gap in the market that we could fill.”
Building a business
Plans for Ānela – meaning ‘angel’ in Hawaiian – quickly snowballed when the pair found the perfect unit inside a recently restored Victorian building also housing independent bars, restaurants, an event space and even a wedding venue. “We didn’t necessarily want a traditional shop front – we wanted somewhere that felt like an experience,” says Stott. “The Exchange 1856 is a beautiful setting with a wonderful feel. Customers can come and spend the entire day here; they can celebrate special events and even get married. That was a really big selling point for us.”
But the available space, positioned on the ground floor of the building, was formerly a printer’s and required a complete transformation. Fortunately, Stott’s husband – a builder – was able to help create the calming sanctuary the pair had envisaged. “The unit was originally bright blue and orange, so it looked nothing like it does now,” says Stott. “In just two months we completely stripped it back, built the fitting rooms and rewired the electrics. We all pulled together, and it was amazing how much we got done in such a short space of time.”
Ānela soft launched in February, with awareness quickly spreading through word of mouth, social media and partnerships with local wedding venues. “We’re trying lots of routes that aren’t traditional bridal marketing,” says Owen. “We’ve hosted open days with wedding venues and are looking at future collaborations with other businesses. We’re also advertising and appearing in business magazines, local publications and podcasts. But we’re seeing more and more mothers discovering us through TikTok.”
Happily ever after
Despite only opening this year, the founders are already thinking well beyond Tyneside. Their ambition is to build Ānela into a recognised national brand, opening further boutiques while branching out into wholesale with their own-label. “We don’t want Ānela to remain as just one boutique in North Shields,” says Stott. “We’d love to have numerous stores around the country.”
Working with other independent retailers is part of the vision, although the pair are keen to grow at the right pace. “We’d like Ānela to be stocked in a small number of carefully chosen boutiques,” says Owen. “We want to work with fellow retailers who share our vision and can help move the mother-of-the-bride category forward.”
For now, however, it’s the day-to-day interactions with customers that continue to motivate them. “I genuinely love coming to work every day,” says Owen. “Seeing the transformation in the mums who come through the door is the most rewarding part of what we do.”
Alongside Ānela, Stott continues to run Love Jo – one of the country’s busiest celebrancy businesses – meaning she still spends much of her time helping couples celebrate their weddings. “Our ultimate ambition is to help redefine modern mother-of-the-bride fashion,” she says. “Everything comes back to celebrating women and making mothers feel every bit as special as everyone else on the wedding day.”
But for both founders, the most exciting part of the launch is being on the cusp of change within the industry: “Mother-of-the-bride fashion simply hasn’t evolved in the right way alongside the needs of modern women,” Owen concludes. “We’re here to help make that happen.”