FH Stories | Remade Reloved

Folkestone’s businesses have always thrived on creativity, collaboration and community. 2020’s challenges have demonstrated this quite visibly in the ways they have adapted and innovated to keep trading, with notable examples being the new Old High Street website and the Made in Folkestone marketplace, both of which bring local traders together on one digital platform, so they can still reach their customers when their shops have been physically closed.

Now local business owner Marie Bruce, is doing her bit to save the Christmas shopping season for Folkestone and Hythe-based creatives by launching a new digital marketplace for them to sell from.

Marie is the owner of Remade Reloved, a producer and seller of bags and accessories made from second-hand fabrics. Unable to keep her Folkestone-based business running during the first lockdown, when the second lockdown loomed she realised that Christmas was going to look very different for her shop, as well as those around her.

“I had seen a few articles about the impact of the pandemic on small businesses across Kent, and I thought about how I might be able to use my website to help others like me. So that is when I focused my search for people and businesses who might want to sell their goods, and it didn’t take long to find dozens of local sellers who had been impacted by the pandemic and the lack of Christmas markets.”