Welcome to Milton Keynes Joules! 

I say welcome, as if Milton Keynes is my home! I’m a Yorkshire Lass through and through but when I found out that I was going to be in the area when a new Joules shop launched, I was there with bells on.

I adore Joules. Their clothes and ethos are the epitome of our life. We are an outdoors family. We spend our lives walking our labrador, by the river, in the mud. We need waterproof clothes, wellies and warm jumpers and like to have a bit of style as we rock the ‘pulled through a hedge backwards’ look with our hair. My little man also horse rides and those of you with an interest may know that Joules started out over 25 years ago with Tom Joules selling his own design of Polo shirts with bright colours and velvet trims at equestrian events and country clothes. 

Little man and I love to be warm and cosy when we’re at home. Who doesn’t? The change in the weather really has me excited for lighting our wood burner and snuggling. We love lazy mornings, slow pancake breakfasts, and family roast’s at this time of year, more than any other… All reasons why the new Joules collection ‘Sunday Lunch’ is yet another favourite with me.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to take my time looking at the collection and talking to the lovely staff as Joules opened a shop in Milton Keynes for the first time. 

The new Joules shop is within ‘The Centre:mk’ which is a shopping, well, centre, in the heart of Milton Keynes. It is filled with popular and trendy shops and restaurants and is the perfect home for the brand. It’s also good to note that the shop is open until 8pm, Monday to Friday and so is perfect for an after work peruse. 

As I had been invited, I was able to spend a long time looking at the clothes, talking to the staff about the collection (they all knew what they were talking about and were happy to walk new customers through the brand which is unusual for the first day on the job) and as I wasn’t there just to shop for myself or my son, I took note of the men’s wear, girls collection and baby clothes and accessories.

I also got to take part in a fun competition, using the biggest tablet computer I’ve ever seen! It’s in this new shop for the next week or so and then will be moving to Northcote Road, Clapham, London and so get to Milton Keynes quickly.

The competition is to design a pair of wellington boots. You can customise the sole, the trim, choose the background colour and add prints and shapes. The winner will receive a 3 night, luxury break at a Golden Oak Tree House Cabin worth £5000 and lots more!

10 runners up will each receive a Joules £250 gift card and the winning welly design will go on sale at Joules.com. 

You can design up to 5 pairs which is 5 chances to win. I wish I’d had another go! Hey ho. Just for taking part, I recieved an email with a £10 off a £40 spend voucher. Bonus!

I’ve just heard that you can take part online from next week and so if you’re not local to either of the stores, you can still have a go.

Here’s my design. A winner? What do you think?

The new shop feels spacious and bright. Even on a busy day, like today, there was enough room for me to try on  a new gorgeous winter coat. Indeed, I wasn’t the only one and we didn’t get in each others way despite using the same space and mirror. Saying that, they do have beautiful changing rooms at the back of the shop!

The walls are white with brick detail in areas and the floor is a dark wood effect with a checkerboard area that reminds me of tiled entrance halls in lovely, traditional English houses.

As well as their hugely successful clothes and accessories, the new shop has a small but perfectly formed area to showcase some of their homewares and also their bath and body products.

The Homeware display has a mix of styles to suit. There are colourful plates and egg cups that feature chickens, with matching cups and tea towels, perfect to keep out on a shelf to add colour to your kitchen but equally usable and practicable for a cup of tea, an egg and soldiers and the tea towel to be used by someone else so that you can enjoy a quiet sunday brunch.

There are also Joules signature style floral tea towels and then some funky mugs ‘roll with it’ and ‘alright treacle?’ and again, matching tea towels. 

Joules could, and indeed should (please!) open shops purely for their homewares. The above is a teensy taster of what is available. The chicken range goes on to include cake tins, aprons and oven gloves and the floral products are stunning. They also have a great set of crockery featuring a fox, badger, cow, pheasant, dog, and of course, the Joules symbol, a hare. 

Look on line at Joules.com and check them out. Did you know that Joules sells bedding, stationary, gardening gloves, pet beds, toiletries, candles, blankets, cushions and doorstops? Me neither and I am a big fan! As with all of their products, this new Milton Keynes Joules store offers a click and collect service whereby you can order anything from their website and have it delivered to the shop for free. No waiting in all day and you’ll receive a text and email to let you know when your shopping is ready for collection. If you order by 1pm, your order can be ready the next day after 4pm, Monday to Friday (mainland UK only). That’s an excellent service in my opinion. 

If you live in or around Milton Keynes, I urge you to take a trip to the new shop. If you need any other reason, other than the fabulous products, this store only is offering 15% off any purchase during their first week. This offer ends on Sunday 4th October.

Now to the clothes. I didn’t have time, nor do I have the skill to showcase the entire range but I chose my favourites.

The shop is good size and has a lot of different styles to suit anyone. Their classic and understated, women’s wardrobe staple, stripy tops are available in a range of colours and with jewels to add a twist. Florals of course feature heavily but there are a good mix of brights and subtle patterns.

Soft, fun and cosy animal jumpers are available in dark  green (westie dog), mustard (sausage dog), light blue (Pheasant), navy (horse) and my favourite, grey with a hare. Plain, luxurious longer length knits are available and beautiful tailoring is complimented with detachable faux fur.

 

Joules makes fabulous tailored shirts and I love the collection available at the moment. I enjoyed seeing and feeling the quality of their Chelsea Boots and Brogues and their new range of leather handbags and purses. Don’t forget Wellies. I fell in love with a pair with purple ditzy print. *Sigh*

 

 

Menswear features a fantastic and excellent quality Wax Jacket that will keep you warm no matter the weather. A subtle fishing lure print makes for a fun shirt, gorgeous tweed bags and flat caps are available and the best name for a pair of underpants that I’ve ever seen – ‘Crown Jewels’. I must apologise though. After looking through my photo’s, you can tell my demographic! Single Mummy of a little boy. I’m afraid I was a little selfish when picking my favourites. There’s nothing else for it. You must go and take a look for yourself.

Boys! I’ll let the photo’s speak for themselves. Gorgeous. My little man may have a new shirt in his wardrobe. If you read my blog regularly, you might be able to guess which one…..

Now, the girls clothes would fill my daughter’s wardrobe if I had a daughter! Little touches of sparkle, tailored jackets, warm jumpers and even a tutu. I love that the clothes allow little girls to be little girls and not emulating 18yr old nightclub outfits. They are classic and classy. Accessories that would be great stocking fillers if you are thinking that far ahead. I am so not.

The baby clothes are equally as pretty, both boys and girls with gift ideas from boxed vests, pretty muslin cloths for when you’re out and about and bandana bibs with a built in teether. Brilliant!

Finally, a peak at some of their toiletries. They had hand wash and moisturiser sets that smelt divine. Also bath fizzers and reed diffusers. All were packaged beautifully for you to pamper yourself or give as a gift. These soaps and the bath soak caught my eye as they come in very ‘on trend’ jars that could be reused in a number of ways. 

What a fabulous day. The staff were so friendly, knowledgeable and thoughtful – as I was using my crutch, a lady offered to take my chosen purchases to the till for me so that I didn’t have to carry them around. One of these is my new winter coat. I’ll take some photo’s soon but it is really, really fab. I hadn’t even noticed it and was considering two others. A lovely lady (who’s name I really wish I had caught) suggested what is now ‘my’ coat and quite obviously her suggestion was spot on. 

Enjoy you new shop guys.

Oh and to my Yorkshire readers, particularly those in North yorkshire………A little birdy mentioned that a new, bigger and better shop may be coming to Harrogate to replace the lovely but very small existing Joules shop. Fingers crossed all goes to plan is it will be Joules’ 100th shop and it sounds very exciting and only half an hour from my house. My bank balance is doomed!

Love