I'm loving this story of a Sunderland fashion favourite: Sgt Pepper's at Christmas in the 1970s

If you went bargain hunting at the famous clothes shop 48 years ago, you would have noticed a facelift at the Sunderland store.

The latest fashions in 1976

This Echo archive photo shows the staff outside the new-look premises two weeks before the big day in 1976.

Here are the assistants, left to right: Stephen Barrass, Jenny Hutchinson, Christine Baldridge and Roy Bambrough.

A new suit for £15

Sgt Pepper’s was one of the best known names on the Sunderland fashion scene around 50 years ago.

You could get a suit for £15 or trousers for £2.

In a 2018 Sunderland Echo story, it made the top ten in a list of shops you would most like to see back in the city.

Binns got 15 votes in top spot with Joplings on nine votes in second spot and Woolworths third on eight.

And in a story from 2020, historian Philip Curtis told us: “Over the past half a century, most of the units in Maritime Place have changed hands but perhaps the most popular outlet there in the 1970s was the boutique.

‘Always packed with teenagers’

“There was Sgt Peppers, which always seemed to be packed with teenagers looking for the latest in fashions.”

Share your own memories of Sgt Pepper’s and tell us if it was your favourite shop for a Christmas outfit back in the day.

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