Huddersfield architecture firm puts new interior design service to work creating “UK’s biggest bridal experience”

When a business launches a new service, it often starts with relatively small projects. Not so for Farrar Bamforth who, having traded as an architectural practice since 1976, has only recently diversified its offering through the appointment of Sophie Clarkson as Senior Interior Designer. The project? Creating the interior designs for Dotty Bridal’s move from a 3000 ft2 store in Holmfirth to a 16,500 ft2 building at Navigation Walk in Wakefield. Scaling up to more than 5 times the size, there’s absolutely nothing small about that!

Sophie said of the project:

“It’s been an incredible project to work on and has really allowed me to use my experience in retail design to translate Dotty’s vision into the built environment.”

“I knew that moving to Farrar Bamforth and being responsible for setting up and leading the new interior design service would be an exciting challenge, and I’m delighted to have had such a significant project to get my teeth into.”

Of course, almost 50 years of architectural experience within Farrar Bamforth plus Sophie’s 14 years in interior design, meant that the service was always going to hit the ground running and the firm has always strongly believed that it punches well above its weight (MD Tony Bowling maintains that they can compete with any larger, big city practice due to its straight talking approach and agility as a business).

Dotty: the biggest bridal experience in the UK?

It seems that there’s no ceiling to Dotty Bridal’s ambitions either. Led by owner, Shannon Martin (who many will recognise from her appearance on The Apprentice in 2023 and her decision to leave the show to focus on her business), Dotty Bridal has become one of the region’s most successful bridal boutiques. Having called its store in Holmfirth home for 10 years, it has vastly outgrown the building and the move to larger premises was vital for implementing Shannon’s vision for the business: creating the biggest bridal experience in the UK.

Shannon knows this business better than anyone, so an essential part of the process was working with her to understand exactly what her customers need. Sophie’s design incorporates an analysis of customer touchpoints and journeys through the space, creates solutions for the new experiences Shannon wants to be able to deliver to brides and their parties (including something quite different, which is currently under wraps), and offers seamless brand transition, ensuring that Dotty’s established brand translates to the larger space while retaining its values and character.

She also wanted the entire store to be presented beautifully and ‘Instagrammable’, rather than have a designated staged area. This doesn’t just enhance the bridal experience, meaning that brides can make the recording of their journey their own, it offers the business itself a wealth of marketing and content resources, which is extremely important in this retail sector. It also works with the distinctive architectural features of the Grade II Listed building (close to the growing cultural hub in Wakefield of The Hepworth gallery and Tileyard North), which Farrar Bamforth was instrumental in locating for Dotty.

Having produced a design guide, renovation of the building is well underway with plans to open later this year.

A project closer to home

Sophie has seen plenty of variety so far. As well as Dotty Bridal, she has worked with Medequip Assistive Technology Ltd to remodel its staff canteen at its Coventry site, plus a project much closer to home, redesigning the studio at Farrar Bamforth’s own premises at Bates Mill in Huddersfield. Tony Bowling said “If we can’t take advantage of having our own in-house interior designer, what can we do?! We moved to Bates Mill in October 2023 to accommodate our growing business and, being architectural, we thought we had pretty good ideas about spatial design. However, Sophie has taken it to the next level, considering the many requirements of the space, proposing solutions to enable us to be more productive, and creating a truly inspiring studio environment to work in.”

“Seeing what she can do first hand and how she’s improved the way we work through her designs, makes me excited to roll that out to our existing and new clients.”