Trying on all the styles of the Liberties

A variety of clothing chops in the Liberties offer different styles, fashion trends, sustainability, and even social aid for people in the area.

On different streets in the Liberties there are several retail stores that sell well-priced clothes with a variety of designs, textiles, and brands.

On Meath Street you’ll find Liberty Clothing, run by the O’Neill family.

This shop just opened last year, but the O’Neills have been selling clothes for 30 years. They started inside the Liberty Market until they were able to set up their own shop on Meath Street, just beside the market.

They also own Miss Libo, another clothing shop in the same street.

“When it comes to the community, it’s great for people to come in and have a chat,” Gerry O’Neill, part owner of the shop, says. The O’Neills have built a connection with locals and their fellow vendors.

“It’s the banter that’s in the Liberties that you don’t get in many other areas.”

Their business sells a variety of clothing from gowns, shirts, suits and other in-trend apparel collected from different suppliers.

After years in the business, Barbara O’Neill, also part owner, has honed her skills in knowing what is in fashion and how to know if the clothes are of good quality.

“Over years, you gather your suppliers and their quality and you just become an expert at your job,” she says.

While the O’Neills concentrate on the latest trends, others in the area choose to sell vintage. For clothes from the 1970s backward and other pre-loved items, there is Betty Bojangles.

Located in Thomas Street, Betty Bojangles is run by Charlie Rankin, who has been in the business for five years.

“Vintage shops have stopped clothing going into the landfill because we sell them – we collect secondhand clothes,” Rankin said.

Vintage shops are at the forefront of the trend of reusing and recycling clothes, he says – they’ve been doing it for decades.  

The Clothes in Rankin’s shop are handpicked by himself from home clearances or from homeowners downsizing their houses.

Vintage shopping is also a niche for some owners.

Kiki Forester of Space Out Sister sells vintage nightware and loungeware – but also “new lingerie with a vintage twist”.

Space Out Sister has been in business for several years on Francis Street, and was created out of Forrester’s “dream and original idea over twenty years ago”, she says.

Its unique mix it has drawn media attention over the years.

“Vintage shops focus on conscious shopping and always in hope that customers will wear vintage or pre-loved for many more years, an anti-fast fashion movement,” Forrester says.

Like Rankin, Forrester says vintage shops promote sustainability rather than over-consumption.

“We are all about re-use, re-cycle, up-cycle and slow conscious shopping to help create a better world with less damage to the environment.”

Kiki Forester

While other shops focus on selling fast fashion trends and promoting sustainability, charity shops located in the Liberties provide social aid for the people in the area and beyond it – including Enable Ireland, Oxfam, Vision Ireland and Dublin Simon Community.

Mark Sweeney, the chairperson of Charity Retail Ireland, says charity shops have been part of Irish culture for decades. They have become community hubs, where people shop, socialise, and support good causes by donating items and buying second-hand items to support the circular economy while also supporting that work of the charity.

According to Sweeney, most of the items in Charity shops are from members of the public who donate their pre-loved items they no longer use. Other charity shops collect their items from donation banks.

Sweeney says that unlike vintage shops and other clothing stores, “Charity shops are generally fundraising outlets to support the work associated with the charity.”