Second-hand treasures: the art of curating, reclaiming and story-telling

Despite my best intentions, Dulcify Journal in both its online and print form has very much been on the back-burner for the past couple of years as I adjusted to becoming a mother and navigating a whole new world with a little one. I couldn’t bear the thought of diving back in before I was ready and risk doing things half-heartedly. It is such a privilege to have conversations with creatives, for people to be open and share their experiences with me and I am always so conscious of trying to stay true to them and to give their stories the time, care and attention they deserve. Picking back up where I left off with the journal feels like a huge step but one I finally feel ready for.

Sitting in well-thumbed notepads are a whole host of conversations with creatives from a couple of years back. Some are almost finished, some are completely untouched and some are still a series of thoughts that need to be revisited and shaped into a piece that spotlights the skill and artistry of the creative. Time has moved on and with that, so have people’s lives - their focuses and priorities - so there is now an added dimension of researching to see where those creatives are now and what’s changed since we last spoke.

I will come to each of those conversations but for now, I thought I would share a more recent conversation with Maddy, co-owner of skout; a meeting that was sparked when I became a regular browser of their beautiful shop during my maternity leave. So a really warm welcome back and thank you for continuing to be here, especially following a long pause - it is not at all taken for granted and is so very much appreciated.

On a sleepy Monday in mid September, I made my way to the (then) newly opened Norah in Newhaven and found Madeline, co-founder of skout, waiting for me at one of the corner tables. Over bowls of granola and home-made cookies, we chatted about thoughtful curation, the art of story-telling and slow living - through reclaiming, repurposing and restoring objects.

For those who are unfamiliar with skout, it is a second-hand goods shop based in Stockbridge, Edinburgh. It’s somewhat of a treasure trove with an ever evolving array of stock - each piece carefully chosen with an emphasis on craftsmanship, sustainability and longevity. Maddy told me, ‘Each piece is handpicked for its style, quality and story’ - something that is so apparent in the beautifully arranged window displays, carefully sourced haberdashery and thoughtfully curated clothing.

Skout is a family business - run by a mother (Sue), daughter (Maddy) and auntie (Sarah). I’m always curious to learn how creatives end up in their fields and started our conversation by asking Maddy to tell me a bit about her background. She told me that she comes from a family of collectors and makers and that growing up, she had a natural artistic ability. On finishing school, she enrolled in the Leith School of Art where she did a foundation year. She explained, ‘I needed to try and test out different things and discover which avenue to go down’. While at LSA, she attended a degree show and costume design piqued her interest. Laughing she told me, ‘I was so excited by it - performance costume is totally wild.’

She added thoughtfully, ‘It really fed this creative path for me because there are so many possibilities… and growing up around interesting objects, which each have their own history, really lent itself to performance costume because every costume is part of a story.’

She trained and graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in performance costume design during the pandemic - a really difficult time to complete a creative degree and to enter the workplace. Reflecting Maddy told me, ‘Although I loved costume design, I didn’t love the costume industry’ and so she decided to pause and reconsider her creative path - helping out with the market stalls that later led to skout as it is today.

Here I asked Maddy if she could tell me more about her wider family and their creative pursuits. She told me, ‘My mum is one of five, so we are a big family and everybody has always been very creative. I remember going to family members houses when I was younger that were just filled, top to bottom with interesting objects, artwork, colours and textures. I loved it.’ She continued, ‘My family are creative but in very different ways. My grandma made clothes, costumes and toys. My brother is a tattoo artist. We have authors and illustrators, crafters and gardeners, printmakers and musicians - we really cover many different creative sectors. Even the ladders and clothes horse we display stock on in skout were built by my great grandad.’

Through more sips of coffee, I asked Maddy about the makings of skout and she explained that it began as a humble venture at flea markets. Laughing she said, ‘It definitely wasn’t an overnight decision to open a shop’, telling me it ‘bubbled and brewed’ for quite some time. She explained how being a family of collectors, things have a lifespan and once something has had its time in their home, they will pass it on for it to have its next life. She recalled one particular visit to her auntie’s house where ‘we saw how many gorgeous items she had been collecting, and we suggested selling some things to make way for more treasure hunting’. From there, they did their first stall together and it did incredibly well - Maddy described a moment where they’d almost sold out after an hour and thought, ‘wow, people really like the things my auntie collected’ and perhaps there was something in that. Soon, their family hobby of going to markets and car boot sales quickly became a huge part of their lives and for several years they sold their goods like this, garnering attention, and leading to requests for a physical shop.

Looking back, Maddy told me that at their peak of doing the most market stalls, they reached a point where they needed a separate space that wasn’t their home. She said, ‘My dad was despairing at the amount of stuff we had collected… we’d accumulated so much stock that there wasn’t room to eat on the kitchen table - it was covered and the spare bedroom was rammed - you couldn’t even walk in. Every room in the house had stock stored somewhere.’ Opening a shop was not something they’d originally considered but with increasing requests, growing popularity and a lack of space to store stock, conversations started to happen in the family.

Reflecting, Maddy said, ‘It wasn’t our idea - it was something that the community and people planted for us and we went for it.’

From here, we went on to discuss how they found the home of skout. Maddy told me that they’d viewed a lot of places, originally securing a space in Bruntsfield but the offer fell through at the last moment. It was a huge blow but one that led them to their current space in Stockbridge - the site of a beauty salon.

Maddy reflected, ‘the only reason we got that space is because the estate agent who had been showing us around various sites really believed in what we were wanting and what the vision was. He phoned us and said ‘There’s this place, it’s not on the market yet but I’ll show it to you and you can see.’’ She continued, ‘I do believe having studied at ECA and done a creative degree, that the skills you develop are totally transferable. You have to see past the white washed walls and the bright, dental blue lights and just look at the shell. It was quite a big renovation, we had to get the ceiling and floor ripped out, the walls plastered and painted and convert the spray tan booth into a changing room. We had to change everything.’ Maddy led on the design - which was very much inspired by their family home. She told me, ‘I’ve grown up in homes that have a lot of character and I did want to create a shop that felt like home.’ She added, ‘It’s tapping into that world of nostalgia and creating a space that is eclectic, charming and comfortable.’ What’s interesting about skout is that it is a culmination of styles, similar to the items they stock - there’s cottagecore elements, a sprinkle of Nancy Meyers’ aesthetic, Western and also Scandinavian touches, and yet it all comes together to create a space that feels relaxed and welcoming.

I asked Maddy how she’s found the experience of running skout so far. She told me, ‘I think we are lucky that we are in a time where people are gravitating towards things that are genuine and have stories. People are chasing the feelings of the past and nostalgia because everything right now is fast - fast fashion, fast living.’ Maddy described to me how one of her favourite things about having the shop is when she sees older generations shopping alongside uni students and how fascinating it is to watch different people interacting together. She recalled a conversation she witnessed between an elderly regular and two children in the haberdashery section, with the lady explaining how you would use certain wool for different knitting projects. Maddy told me how special it is to ‘see these combinations of people passing on nuggets of information.’ She continued, ‘building connections, especially with the older community, is so important - in the shop they have space and grace to be heard and to share their stories.’

I asked Maddy how they curate their items in the shop and she explained that they all source goods - something she feels has attributed to the appeal and success of skout. Although Maddy, Sarah and Sue have slightly different tastes, all their values align. She told me, ‘I love homewares and I’m currently living vicariously through those who come in search for things for their homes… And I’ve always loved fashion, so I probably am the driving force behind the sourcing of clothes.’

She added, ‘My auntie specialises in the textiles and haberdashery which is something I have a part in having studied that at uni but that’s her real passion and expertise and my mum’s very good at sourcing jewellery, she’s had some amazing finds over the years and we call her a little magpie - she’s got a great eye for it.’ I asked Maddy where they go about sourcing stock for their shop and she explained that it’s a real mix between house clearances, markets, people you know, salvage yards, auctions and holidays (much to her dads horror). She told me, ‘France is somewhere we love to visit on holiday - they have always been ahead of the game in appreciating second hand goods and they really value craftsmanship and quality so that’s the place to go’. They’ve even been known to save a broken sleigh about to be thrown in a skip and restore it back to health.

We finished by touching on plans for the future. Maddy told me, ‘When we opened, we had envisioned we’d be closed on Mondays and that would be it but when we saw how much stock we were processing, we had to reassess this. The turnaround of stock is beyond anything we expected. With any small business, you have to be sensible about it - we are selling via our website online, we have started hosting craft workshops, we are constantly sourcing, which then all needs researched and processed (including repairs, restoration, cleaning and mending), and that’s all before opening up our shop doors! There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes.’ She continued, ‘We’re not looking to build an empire, we are actually looking to keep it to one shop and put time into cultivating one space. It’s hard because there’s a natural inclination to think let’s do all these different things and add all of these bells and whistles.’ She continued, ‘I’m actually very content with it being what it is and not having to be anything other than what we are.’

A really huge thank you to Maddy for taking the time to talk to me and to Sue and Sarah too for letting me write about their story. And to Gemma McNaughton for letting me share these photographs. You can find skout at 45 Deanhaugh Street, Stockbridge, EH4 1LR or via their online shop here.