By Francesca Scott, Third Year, English
Sparks Bristol has been my favourite vintage shopping spot in Bristol since my first year at university, so I was excited to speak with Linda Bennett, who owns BristolSaint, about her journey through sustainable fashion and her experience working within Sparks’ collaborative retail space. Bristol students love second-hand clothing, but it can be easy to resort to Vinted for a vintage fashion fix. Our conversation reminded me of the importance of collaborative, sustainability-led spaces like Sparks, where shopping feels personal, curated, and community-driven.
Partnering with Bristol-based arts charity Artspace Lifespace, Sparks Bristol opened in May 2023 inside a former M&S in Broadmead. Artspace Lifespace specialises in repurposing ‘meanwhile sites’, unused buildings which are transformed into creative spaces for artists, independent traders, and community projects. But Linda’s story begins long before Sparks opened its doors.
Linda founded BristolSaint in 2012 after studying Fashion Promotion and Imaging. After graduating, she initially pursued fashion illustration before moving into resale at a time when the industry looked very different: Etsy was still emerging, and ASOS Marketplace had only recently launched.
Long before ‘reseller’ became a widely used term, Linda was already building a space for herself within Bristol’s second-hand fashion scene. She occasionally hosted pop-up shops at The Cloakroom on Park Row, a converted Edwardian public toilet that Bristol City Council offered free of charge to artists, small business owners, and event organisers. Alongside this, she also began selling online through ASOS Marketplace where, at its peak, around half of her customers were based in Europe. Brexit, however, dramatically altered the viability of overseas selling, as customs fees often left customers paying import charges nearly equal to the cost of the garments themselves.
After ASOS Marketplace declined, Linda found herself searching for new opportunities within the fashion industry. While browsing online, she came across Sparks, which had recently opened as a sustainable department store and community hub, and she quickly signed up as a volunteer. Reflecting on the opportunity, she said ‘it was just one of those things that came along at the exact right moment.’
Through Sparks, Linda connected with a wider network of independent traders and creatives, gradually becoming more involved in the space itself. What began as volunteering eventually led to paid shifts within the fashion department, before she finally launched her own BristolSaint space there in February 2024. Despite years of selling to an international customer base online, the brand name has always remained ‘BristolSaint’.
‘It was the right decision. I was selling online all over the world, but when people think of Bristol they have a certain image, and I wanted to showcase that within the brand name. Bristol has a distinctive voice and it is a city I am very proud of.’
Linda explained that the brand’s black-and-white logo was also a conscious choice, designed to remain minimal and open-ended rather than impose a particular aesthetic onto customers. She told me: ‘I didn't want to be overly suggestive of what my brand was, and I never really over-styled anything. I wanted the clothes to speak for themselves.’
Linda hopes the traders create a space where everyone can find something that suits them. As she puts it: ‘When you walk in, you should be able to see a little bit of each of us.’ Sparks Fashion CIC is made up of independent traders including BristolSaint, Bee Sam, Sloth Shop, Salvaged and Campervan Vintage. After years of working mainly online, Linda explained that working at Sparks has given her a sense of community that she previously missed in her work.
That collaborative ethos is closely tied to the conscious, sustainable approach that Sparks fosters and that shapes so much of what Linda does. Because she does not drive, all of her stock is sourced either locally or elsewhere within the UK, and she stresses the importance of durability and longevity within fashion consumption. Having avoided fast-fashion retailers for over a decade, Linda remains dedicated to selling ‘true vintage’ and believes quality garments naturally encourage more sustainable habits.
In recent years, there has been increasing debate surrounding deadstock clothing and whether brands that overproduce garments should still be celebrated for reselling excess stock. On this, Linda told me: ‘The clothes are out there now, and with enough clothes for the next six generations, as long as we keep everything cyclical, we are making a difference.’
Bristol is full of vintage shops, but collaborative fashion spaces like Sparks Fashion CIC remain rare. What makes Sparks special is not simply the clothing itself, but the sense of community between the traders, creatives, and customers who pass through its doors. In an age where it can be tempting to rely on apps like Vinted for all our fashion needs, there is still something uniquely valuable about visiting a thoughtfully curated physical store. This is especially true in a space where knowledgeable sellers like Linda are on hand to share the stories behind the clothes and offer the kind of personal knowledge and interaction you simply do not get from scrolling through an app.
So now exams are over and most of us have more free time than we know what to do with, I would really recommend stopping by Sparks — and Linda’s shop in particular — or checking out her website: https://bristolsaint.com/
Featured Image: Linda Bennett
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