A year ago today, we watched our shop in Bangalow, our beautiful space, filled with all the clothes, homewares and European linen we had joyously collected over the past two years, fill with smoke from the fire which started in the cafe adjoining us.

Jo said to me at the time: ”How are we going to get the smell of smoke out of the clothes”?

Little did we know the fire was actually destroying the clothes and everything else. We lost the lot….

But fortune favours the brave (we hope) and, a year later, we have another beautiful space, three times the size, filled with some of our old favourite clothing labels and some exciting new finds.

It took us 13 days of listmaking, continual phone calls and hard manual labour to create our new premises, at the front of Jo’s house.

We aren’t quite as visible -  no shop window – but our mannequin ‘Lulu’ sits on street level, next to an A board with some witty anecdote (occasionally), or advising the latest arrival of clothing or homewares. Thanks to Sarah, she’s brilliant with chalk.

You enter through the porch, adorned with an exquisite wrought iron door, made by Jo’s brother-in-law, David, as a gift following the fire. As you climb the silky oak stairs, you are not quite sure what you are going to find. Everyone is pleasantly surprised because our new shop is, dare I say, even more beautiful than its predecessor.

That is us, Jo and Debbie, millar & more at your service, with a lot of help from our much loved co-workers Sarah, Daniella and Ali.

As well as creating a new premises, we’ve created this website, where you can find some of the beautiful things we have collected.

We’d love you to share your stories of how you’ve triumphed over a setback in your life.

While people thought the fire was an absolute tragedy, we refused to look back, we looked forward.

We think women are amazing!

Jo and Debbie