08/09/2026
Pull up a chair, mash a brew this is a long one!
❤️ The real reason Astra exists.
I don’t think I’ve ever really told this story properly.
People see Astra now. The colourful clothes. The fandoms. The events. The shop. The absolute chaos behind the scenes 😂
But Astra actually started from something much deeper than just loving geeky clothes.
Many years ago, I was in a god awful marriage.
It was abusive. It was controlling. And for a long time, my life didn’t really feel like it belonged to me.
My choices weren’t always mine. What I did, where I went, what I spent, even the things I liked could become something I had to justify.
Eventually, I escaped.
I left with very little and started my life again in a different city.
And there is one completely ordinary moment from that time that has stayed with me ever since.
I walked into a clothes shop.
I was standing there on my own, looking through the clothes, when suddenly I had this realisation!
I could buy whatever the hell I wanted.
Nobody was going to tell me it was too bright.
Too bold.
Too childish.
Too geeky.
Too silly.
Too expensive.
Too big.
Too small.
Nobody was going to roll their eyes or make me feel stupid for liking it. Or not allow me to.
I could choose.
And that might sound like such a tiny thing, buying a jumper.
But when you’ve spent years having pieces of yourself controlled, being able to make a completely insignificant decision simply because you want to feels enormous.
So I bought myself a bright red Tinkerbell jumper. ❤️🧚
I loved that jumper.
And I genuinely don’t know whether my ridiculous obsession with Tinkerbell started before that day or because of what she came to represent to me 😂, but I’ve adored her ever since.
Because when I look back now, that jumper represented freedom.
It was me beginning to find me again.
And somewhere along the way, that feeling became part of the reason Astra Designs UK exists.
I loved geeky things. I loved fandoms. I loved clothes that were different.
But when I started going to events, I noticed how little there was for women particularly women who didn’t fit in petite size bracket.
I wanted to change that.
I wanted another woman to walk past my stand, spot something connected to a fandom she absolutely bloody loves and have that little moment of:
“OH MY GOD. I NEED THAT.”
Then I wanted her to look at the sizes and discover that, yes, we actually made it for her too.
Not told she can have the T-shirt but not the skirt.
Not made to feel like geek fashion stops at a certain dress size.I wanted women to have choice.
Wear the bright colours.
Wear the fandom skirt.
Wear the character everyone tells you you’re “too old” for.
Wear the dress.
Wear the leggings.
Wear whatever makes that little geeky part of your soul ridiculously happy.
Because clothes don’t have an age limit.
Fandom doesn’t have a dress size.
And nobody else gets to decide what brings you joy.
That frightened woman standing alone in a clothes shop all those years ago probably couldn’t have imagined what would eventually come from buying one red Tinkerbell jumper.
She certainly wouldn’t have imagined building a business, travelling around conventions, creating clothes for other women and now opening an actual shop.
But maybe that’s why this means so much more to me than selling clothes.
Astra was built on the idea that you should be allowed to be unapologetically you.
Perhaps, without ever realising it at the time, it started with a red jumper, a little fairy
and the moment I realised nobody could tell me what I was allowed to choose anymore. ❤️✨
