A1 Authentics pre-loved clothes shop in Festival Place

Basingstoke’s first vintage and pre-loved clothing shop, A1 Authentics, is opening in the previously vacant unit opposite Starbucks in the town’s main shopping centre on Saturday, March 21, for environmentally conscious shoppers.

The store will specialise in vintage, pre-loved, collectable and reworked clothing, alongside a selection of new, tagged items pulled from the end of fashion ranges.

Founder Ali (Alistair) Buckman, from Chineham, said he and his team had been “working around the clock” to get the unit ready.

Mr Buckman started selling clothes online through platforms such as Vinted and live‑commerce apps including Whatnot and Tilt, where sellers auction items via livestreams.

“The vintage and pre-loved clothing world is getting bigger and bigger,” he said. “There are products people want, but they are not always in the obvious places. The principle behind what we are doing is sustainable clothing.

A1 Authentics in Festival Place (Image: A1 Authentics)

“We want this to be the first of many shops,” he added. “In the UK, we’re a bit behind the likes of China and the USA in terms of live commerce, other than eBay, but now places like Tilt and Whatnot have made it possible. The new shop will be a place for people to come and actually see what we’re selling, which is what they’re used to doing in the UK, as opposed to just buying something you can only see a picture of online.”

Mr Buckman says that buying second-hand is increasingly mainstream as concerns grow about fashion waste. “Sustainable clothing is becoming more and more accepted, a lot of pre-loved clothing is in really good condition still, and we are saving it from going to landfill,” he said.

He claimed that “30 per cent of clothes on the planet don’t ever get worn” and that “there are enough clothes on the planet to last the population at least 100 years”, and said he prefers to shop second‑hand himself. “Personally, I haven’t bought new clothes in about two to three years. Hopefully, this can change other people’s minds too,” he said.

“We use the term ‘rescue fashion’,” he added. “We offer a range of vintage, pre-loved or collectable or reworked clothing. We also have brand new, as‑tagged items which are pulled out of fashion houses, usually because it’s the end of the range. This makes up about 30 per cent of our stock.

“There is nothing like it in Basingstoke. There are a lot of charity shops but the clothes in there tend to be what people don’t really want,” he said. “Our clothes come from all over the world, from Italy, China, loads of places. We buy in bulk.

“Sustainable clothing is growing in the UK, so hopefully we’re a bit ahead of the curve with our shop. Everything is very, very good quality. I’m quite passionate about it. Ultimately, I’m more into looking after the planet and educating people that these are really good, clean clothes.”

Among the labels he says shoppers can expect to find are designer brands such as Gucci, Prada, Lacoste and Moncler, alongside one-off vintage pieces, including a 1984 official LA Olympics uniform item made by Levi’s. “And no two days are the same – that’s a key point – once it’s gone, it’s gone. You never know what you’re going to find,” he said.

Mr Buckman already runs a fishing tackle shop in Crowthorne and says that experience has helped him prepare for his first fashion unit. The Festival Place shop will operate initially on a six‑month pop‑up licence.

“Festival Place have been great, they love the idea and hope it will draw more people to the shopping centre,” he said. “Basingstoke is my home, so it’s nice to do something like this in my home.”