OVERSEAS APPAREL

Liam Jones

Owner of Overseas Apparel

A Personal Touch in the Heart of Cardiff's Arcades

For Liam Jones at Overseas Apparel, opening a shop in one of Cardiff’s historic arcades has been about more than finding a place to trade. It has been the fulfilment of a long-held ambition to create the kind of independent shopping experience that feels personal, memorable and a little different.

Liam’s dream was always to have a shop in Cardiff city centre, somewhere that could offer the kind of experience people might seek out when they are on holiday, discovering independent shops and finding something they would not see on every high street.

Now, with a shop in the Morgan Quarter, that dream has become a reality.

For the business, being part of Cardiff’s arcade history feels particularly significant. The Morgan Quarter has a long association with fashion and independent retail, and for Liam, there is an added sense of nostalgia.

“I used to visit as a kid, so to be able to have a shop here is a full circle moment for me.”

That connection to Cardiff is reflected in the way Overseas Apparel approaches its customers. Rather than defining a particular target market, the ambition is deliberately broad: everyone is welcome.

With Cardiff hosting events throughout the year, the shop attracts visitors from all walks of life, alongside its regular local customers. The aim is to create an environment where anyone can walk through the door, feel comfortable and find something that suits them.

That sense of openness is also part of what makes the arcades such a natural home for the business.

For anyone who has never experienced them, Cardiff’s arcades can be difficult to compare with a conventional shopping street. The city is home to more Victorian and Edwardian arcades than any other UK city, creating a distinctive network of covered passages filled with independent shops, cafés and hidden corners.

There is something almost nostalgic about wandering through them.

“Cardiff’s arcades give a Christmassy feeling, all year round” Liam says.

It is the feeling of exploring without necessarily knowing what you will find around the next corner and discovering another independent business along the way.

That element of discovery is something the owner believes should be celebrated. The arcades bring together an unusual concentration of history, architecture and independent retail, giving Cardiff something that many other city centres have lost.

Without them, they believe, Cardiff would risk becoming much like any other UK city centre.

The arcades provide something increasingly difficult to find on a modern high street: a place where independent businesses can exist alongside one another, support each other and create a destination.

With the cost of maintaining a physical shop making independent retail increasingly challenging, the arcade model offers businesses the opportunity to cluster together and benefit from the customers drawn to the area.

“I don’t think Cardiff would be even a quarter of what it is if we didn’t have the variety of businesses that we have in the arcades.”

For Overseas Apparel, that independent spirit extends to the experience customers receive once they step inside.

The business wants to offer a level of personal service that can sometimes feel absent from modern retail, somewhere customers can ask questions, have a conversation and understand the story behind what they are buying.

That personal approach is particularly important because so much of the business is made in-house.

Overseas Apparel handles almost every stage of the process itself, aside from the production of its materials. The business works directly with two suppliers, with visits to both factories and meetings with their owners helping to ensure there are no grey areas when it comes to how products are made.

The suppliers use fully organic materials, or cotton considered a better alternative to recycled material, while the products are vegan, Fair Wear, PETA-certified and GOTS-certified.

For the business, that means looking beyond simply creating something that looks good on a rail and considering the people, materials and processes behind it.

Once the garments arrive, much of the work continues under the same roof.

Every Overseas Apparel item is screen-printed by hand in-house by Liam, using water-based ink.

There is no mass-production approach to the printing process. Each T-shirt gets one attempt, making every finished piece slightly more personal.

“I have one go at each T-shirt, and that’s the personal touch and care put into each product.”

The creative process is similarly close to home. The designers are friends or family, while an in-house seamstress handles the cut-and-sew work in Llantrisant. Photography and videography are also kept within the same small network.

Even the materials used throughout the shop have been built by Liam.

The result is a business where the story behind a product is never very far away. If a customer wants to know where something came from, how it was made or who was involved, there is someone in the shop who can tell them.

That transparency is part of a wider philosophy: to keep as much of the business as close to home as possible.

And it is this combination of personal service, ethical production and independent retail that the business believes makes Cardiff’s arcades so important.

For customers looking for something personal, sustainable or made with care, the arcades offer an alternative to the increasingly standardised high street.

“There’s so much variety but also so much quality. There’s no fast fashion here.”

The hope is that Cardiff’s arcades will continue to provide a platform for that kind of independent business.

Local people, as well as visitors, are encouraged to explore them, discover the businesses inside and experience something that cannot easily be replicated elsewhere.

For Overseas Apparel, being part of that environment is about more than having a shop in a historic building. It is about contributing to the next chapter of a part of Cardiff that has already played such an important role in the city’s identity.

The Victorian and Edwardian arcades have survived because they continue to evolve, making space for new businesses while retaining the character that makes them special.

And for the independent businesses inside them, that sense of history offers something increasingly rare: the chance to become part of the story themselves.