Liverpool clothes and fragrance shops owner shares ‘Scouse brand pride’

‘We started in Liverpool, so that’s where we’re happy and my parents are very happy as well’

The owner of two popular St John’s Shopping Centre clothes shops and a fragrance store has shared his “pride” of operating a successful Scouse brand. Ritik Sauri, from Childwall, first took over his family business when he was 18, moving back to Liverpool after studying business at university at the beginning of covid.

Miskyra and Kyra’s Kloset are two of Liverpool’s most popular fashion brands, being on the scene for more than 25 years, and known for selling everything from dresses to loungewear, hoodies, jackets, party pieces and summer casuals. The shops also have colour coordinated stores to make shopping a better experience for customers.

Ritik’s family have more than 30 years of experience in the retail industry. The business was first owned by Ritik’s mum, Reena, 52, and dad, Raj, 56. When the business was set up, it operated in markets all over the country including Liverpool, Ormskirk, Blackpool and Southport.

After closing both shops and the markets in 2007, the family decided to move the business back to Liverpool and open a shop in St John’s called Fever, which was based on the upper floor selling women’s clothing. However, it was in 2017 when they relocated to the lower ground of St John’s and opened Miskyra, formerly Catwalk, until 2020 and Kyra’s Kloset, formerly Rebellious, until 2024.

Speaking to the ECHO about taking over the business in 2019, Ritik said: “I was just trying to take it to the next level because my parents had built it so well and so high. I was just trying to build it up more and make it an e-commerce, after I went to university in 2019.

“When the lockdown hit in 2020, my course went online. So I just came back from university and finished my course, I came back and just put all my time and effort into building Miskyra’s online presence up.”

The 25-year-old added: “We pride ourselves on having a lot of designs and a lot of styles of clothes that nobody has. So Miskyra manufactures a lot of its own stuff here in the UK, Paris and Italy.”

Ritik’s parents are now semi-retired after decades in the industry. Ritik said: “My parents are very proud and very happy. Obviously, there are struggles, there are issues sometimes with the business, you’ve got to try and get through them.

“Even in our shop in Kyra’s Closet, there’s a sign on the wall that says ‘Scouse and Proud’. So that shows that we really do, pride ourselves on being a Scouse brand.

“This is where we were born, and even though we do ship all over the world now—our website ships all over Europe, all over the US, all over Australia – we do pride ourselves on our UK customers. We started in Liverpool, so that’s where we’re happy and my parents are very happy as well.”

He said: “Even when I go out with my mates, if I go to town or if I go out to events, I always see Miskyra clothes on people. It’s funny if I see someone has bought something from [the shop]. Some of my mates even say to me, ‘how do you know where that’s from?’ I know where they bought it from or they recognise me from Miskyra.”

The family also have a fragrance shop called My Dubai, which was originally a Miskyra & Co store. It was a clearance outlet, selling leftover clothes from Miskyra and Kyra’s Kloset but now sells more than 600 unisex perfumes, as well as household Items such as diffusers, candles and air fresheners, body sprays and deodorant.

Ritik told the ECHO the inspiration for this shop came from his dad’s craze for perfume and aftershave. He said: “We were going to vacate the unit, and then my dad changed his mind and said, ‘Why don’t we try perfumes?’ Because Dubai and Arabian perfumes are so on trend at the moment, everyone wants them.”

“So we decided to open the biggest and the widest collection of Arabian perfumes in, Liverpool city centre. Nobody’s got the variety that we’ve got.”