Welcome to all of our new customers. Thank you for signing up to our newsletter.
It's always an exciting time of year with the new season deliveries coming in thick and fast. Here is a a taster of what's arrived already...Consisting of New Prima Donna and Empreinte. Our Opening Hours in October: Monday- Saturday 9.30-4.30 Wednesday 10-3 We'll continue with hours until further notice. October is Breast awareness month. We'll be posting on our social media channels throughout, highlighting how to check your breasts along with any charitable initiatives and promoting our bra bank facility. And as always we'll be holding our October Care Day... Our Next Care Day will take place on Wednesday 14th October from 10-3. To book an appointment click on the link below and choose 14th October selecting a time of your choice. Appointments You are still able to book online and over the phone. Book Appointment Thank you again for your continued support and for keeping our high street a thriving one! It really does mean everything x Wow, what a first week we have had!
Thank you to all who have already been in and shown their support, not only to us, but to all of the businesses within the Town. We cannot tell you how much we appreciate your loyalty and support. If you haven't had time to visit yet, rest assured the Town Centre is ready for you! There are social distancing measures in place both inside each premises and outside to keep us all feeling safe and secure whilst shopping in our glorious town. In a week's time our door will be open for trade and we cannot wait! Obviously we will all have to get into the groove of a new "norm" after our 3 month Lock Down period, there are posters in the shop with what we are doing to aid your experience during this time. I'd also like to reassure you all that we have read through the guidelines and have put all necessary precautions in place to ensure the safety of ourselves and our customers: Hand sanitizing stations around the shop; Closing the centre changing room to adhere to 2 metre distancing; Tape to guide you around the till area; Deep cleaning routines at the beginning and end of the day, as well as thoroughly cleaning changing rooms after each customer has used them. AnnouncementIt is with a heavy heart that I announce that my best friend and surrogate sister Karen, will be leaving our beautiful boutique at the end of the year.
As many of you know us personally, you'll be aware that we both have young families and during this 12 week period, it has given us lots of time to reflect. Karen has therefore decided that she would like to spend more time with her little ones and will therefore be stepping back in order to do this. I'd like to take this opportunity to wish her all of the love and luck in the world! Our daily exercise during these times are precious ...Huge numbers of women don’t wear a sports bra. What will happen if I don’t wear one?
Here we have the non-wired momentum bra from Anita, it's super supportive and is available form D-G. Next, we have the wired version of the Panache sports bra which is order-able from B-J. Both are award winning and give maximum support. Make sure you invest in your chest, especially when exercising ladies.
Hello everyone, we do hope you're all OK in isolation. Thank goodness for this glorious weather!
As you know, we are closed but have been popping in to collect the mail and listening to answerphone messages. We've also almost finished delivering any outstanding orders for those of you who placed them with us before the whole world almost ground to a halt. Thank you again for your patience. We have had such understanding customers and we have tried our best to get everything out to those who've asked. For anyone who is still waiting, we are in uncharted waters and have been assured we will receive all goods in due course. Stay in touch either through our contact form here, or indeed on any of our social media platforms where we regularly check in and share all things light-hearted at the moment. Make sure that you sign up for our newsletter on our home page Stay safe everyone and hopefully we'll see you all again very soon. xxx It is with the great sadness, but due to the current situation and following advice from the government to protect our customers, friends and family, we have made the very difficult decision to temporarily close the shop from today.
Although the shop will be closed from Saturday 21st March, we will still be posting regularly to our social media channels (click on the icons at the bottom if you're not already following us) and are happy to post out or deliver any purchases and orders. You can still buy products from us through those channels, getting that much needed lingerie fix! We look forward to reopening and seeing you all again, as soon as we possibly can. Thank you for all the continuing support. We feel so blessed to be part of such a wonderful community. Please keep in touch in whatever way you can. If you call the shop, we'll be checking messages regularly 01270 626429. Alternatively you can email us on [email protected] or simply comment on our posts as you see them. Take care of yourselves and each other. Lots and lots of love, Foundations x A warm welcome to all of our lovely new subscribers. In this edition we wanted to let you know how we're getting on under 1 roof since the Congleton Closure. We'll also be talking about International Women's Day, Mother's Day and of course our new Spring Stock, like this bright and bold Mango colour of Madison from PrimaDonna, pictured below. Let's step into Spring in style and banish those winter blues. How we're getting on Lots of you have called and messgaed to wish us well, so a huge thank you to all of you who have checked in with us, it's really appreciated. Our Nantwich branch has had many ladies from Congleton spending their Gift Vouchers and placing orders with us, so again, please continue to shop with us, it's always nice to see those familiar faces. On February 29th we sponsored Crewe Women's Day. It took place at South Cheshire College and was organised by the charity Motherwell. We shared our story, our passions and heard from other inspirational speakers. To see more on this, take a look at our Facebook Page and Insta Stories.
And just in case you didn't know, it's Mother's Day on Sunday 22nd March. Lovely gifting ideas starting at just £7.99, there's plenty to choose from. We've also got a competition running on Facebook throughout the month of March. To be in with a chance of winning: bags, candles and accessories, click the link to enter. It is with a heavy heart that we're announcing the closure of our Congleton shop.
Kate, Karen and all of the team would love it if you came in before we close on Friday 31st January to say your goodbyes and wish us well. Foundations Nantwich will continue to trade as usual, therefore we do hope that any of our customers who haven't shopped with us there before, choose to do so in the future. Your loyalty points, gift vouchers and outstanding orders will all be valid and dealt with in the Nantwich shop. Much love and many thanks for your loyal custom and support over the years. Karen and I would like to tell you a bit more about how we started working in Foundations and why we're so passionate about lingerie, so grab a brew and come and find out more....
In 2015 - almost 5 years ago - Karen Flannery and I took the plunge and left our teaching careers to run a long-standing business in the centre of Nantwich. Foundations is situated on Hospital Street, across the road from Jepsons which by the way has been trading there since 1955! My family have run this menswear and now ladies wear business since I was born.We have fantastic neighbours too, PINK being our newest and of course the BEST children's shop in Nantwich, Bizzy Bods. We are blessed to be part of a great community, with so many awesome businesses on our doorstep including coffee shops, clothes shops, interior design shops, gift-wear and so many others. We above all love all of our wonderful customers, old and new who continue to support our local community by shopping locally time and time again - some up to 30 times Anyway, back to our passion... it's so easy to get up and come to work in the morning because we sell so many gorgeous items, we struggle NOT to get excited about our stock - oh and here really should thank the brands that we stock and support us throughout PrimaDonna, Empreinte, Fantasie, Aubade, DKNY, Calvin Klein and many many more! I digress, we try on pretty much everything that we buy and so do our staff. Generally keeping many items for ourselves. But ladies, this is great because if we wear it and love it, we tell you! It helps us understand your needs and what suits your figure, style and most importantly your bust! Our love and passion for great lingerie reaches far and wide, with customers from all over the country buying from us, yes we can post your lingerie too! Our message got as far as Mr Gok Wan himself, who invited us to join him on his One Size Fits All tour back in September. Here he not only championed the High Street but also pointed out the importance of great fitting underwear. So a huge thank you to Gok Wan and his team for repeating our mantra! So ladies, if you need lingerie or swimwear that's perfect for you, book an appointment or pop in. We know boobs! Another element of our business that we like to shout about is our Care days, now "What are these?" I hear you cry. These are days that we book in advance with our Anita representative. For ladies who have had surgery, whether it's a lumpectomy, removal of lymph nodes or a mastectomy, we, along with our wonderful brand rep Serina will give you a 1:1 service like no other. Keep your ears and eyes peeled for our care days in the future because we have been recognised as "Excellent" in this field, nominated for best shop in the care sector of Stars Underlines Best Shop Awards in previous years. Karen and I (if you know us) love to exercise. We've competed in triathalons, half marathons (not a marathon yet like Vanessa Campin - well done you) and even pole but you'll have to ask Karen and Kate Carney about that one! My point is, we see sooooo many ladies on a daily basis wearing the wrong sports bra or no sports bra! OUCH is all that springs to mind! Please, please, if you enjoy exercise, look after those boobs, come in for a fitting and you'll notice immediately the difference that it makes! Karen and I are mums of 4 little people between us. We enjoy working for ourselves, being flexible around our families - you may have seen some cheeky monsters lurking in the shop on occasion! And because we've been through this huge change in our lives - becoming care givers for people other than ourselves - we know what new mums have gone through and are going through. When we bought the shop, Karen was pregnant and was then a breast-feeding mother. So funnily enough we have lots of nursing bras! Like I said earlier, if we've worn the bras and lived in them, and believe me we've all LIVED in some bras, our knowledge of the products are first hand. So ladies, to sum up...if it's boob related, we're here for you. Make time for you, like the 7500 ladies we've already helped. You deserve it! Like one of our customers has said in her review - "My boobs are now in the right place thanks to Foundations" Come on ladies, this could be you! Van De Velde - the family name whom own Primadonna, Marie Jo and Andres Sarda, have been designing and creating lingerie since 1919. They began by making bespoke garments for independent retailers and in 1940 began producing specific lines. But it wasn't until 1980 that they became a "Brand" as we know today. Their motto has always been "Fashion with Functionality".
Today a line of lingerie takes approximately 18 months...from concept to shipping. During this process 45 employees (including pattern makers, production engineers and material sourcing specialists) plus 6 designers and a brand manager embark on a journey of mood boards and fashion books. The material and lace is sourced from only the finest suppliers and then no less than 120 prototypes are made of which only 25 are then selected. These are then taken on a "Test Trip" to gain feedback from the commercial sector. From this: 32, 34, 36D models are made for the "Fit Test". Many wear tests are done to check the wear ability and wash ability of the product. Once these tests are complete, further sizes are created in the C cup and the E cup and the whole process starts again! This is all done in Belgium where there is the freedom to make the alterations necessary before the product is finally signed off and technical books are made for mass production. It's all in the detail. The technical drawings and material requests are all incredibly precise to ensure that each product is made to the exact specification to guarantee the fit. For example, 20 stitches must be present every 5cm to give the right amount of elasticity for that particular product. Each product file that is sent for production outside Belgium is at least 45 pages long per line. All materials are sourced from Europe and are tested in Belgium. No lace or embroidery is cut by robots, it is all done by hand. Production of each line takes approximately 2 months, all of which are checked by hand for quality control. You will not find PrimaDonna, PrimaDonna Twist, PrimaDonna Swim, Marie Jo, Marie Jo L'Aventure or Marie Jo Swim in any department store. The Van De Velde Family and their share holders only sell to us, the independent lingerie specialists, because they know that we are the best in our industry. They want every woman to be fitted correctly in the best bra - their bra - for their body. Foundations have to agree. PrimaDonna and MarieJo products are truly beautiful and practical and if you care for your lingerie and swimwear correctly, they can last for years, making the price of these garments much more inviting. Why spend £15 on a bra that doesn't fit, is uncomfortable - and therefore rarely worn - which will probably end up in the bin? Yes £87.99 is a lot of money, but if you come into store to get fitted properly (a free service that we offer) think this: 1. Is it comfortable? Yes! 2. Do I look slimmer and do my clothes fit better? Yes! 3. Is it beautiful and makes me feel special? Yes! 4. Is it worth the price tag? Yes!!! This is not a statistic that we have discovered online, this is from serving and fitting ladies for the last 4 years. An uncomfortable and "cheap" bra is worn a couple of times before being relegated to the bottom of your lingerie drawer, destined only for the charity bra bin. A good fitting, high quality bra is washed and worn relentlessly until 1 day - normally 18 months later - it hasn't given up the ghost, but you just know you need a new one as you've literally lived in it. Work it out "per wear" then you'll feel better: If you, like the customers we've spoken to, wear it every week (and this is only once, assuming you have other bras to work around) for 18 months, that works out than less than £1 per wear, compared to a £15 bra that's worn twice which is £7.50 per wear. It's all in the maths ladies...Invest in your chest! |