Time for Tees (From The Northern Echo)

Time for Tees

Fashion graduate Carli McNaught talks to Andrea Jones about leaving the riches of Savile Row to put the tea back into Teesside.

CARLI McNAUGHT: Decided to turn over a new leaf

TAILORING for the King of Saudi just wasn’t a young entrepreneurial designer’s cup of tea as she strove to make her mark on the world.

So former design student Carli McNaught decided to return to her native North East to fashion her latest venture, a unique emporium called The Olde Young Teahouse.

Situated among the high street giants in the heart of one of the busiest shopping centres in the region, The Olde Young Teahouse, in Grange Road, Middlesbrough, is just the place to slip away for a relaxed cuppa and a chat.

With its eclectic mix of wooden tables and chairs, olde worlde pictures, freshly cut flowers and sugar cube bowls with silver tongs, it has all the retro-styling and appeal of a cosy welcoming front parlour, but with an artinspired vintage twist.

The Olde Young Teahouse

An old record player nestles neatly in the corner with a stack of original vinyls for customers to choose between Forties crooners and Sixties rock and roll. For those who prefer the wireless, it is set to the mellow sounds of smooth radio.

Fine china teapots with matching cups and saucers adorn the counter tops and impeccably decorated cakes sit alongside freshly-baked scones with an impressive list of sandwiches, bagels, pancakes, crumpets and tea cakes, all served up on china plates, accompanying a mind-boggling range of teas from across the world.

“We currently have over 60 different teas at the moment, but get in new samples all the time,” says Carli, a graduate of Cleveland College of Art&Design. “They sell really well but The Earl Grey Blue Flower is our best seller. We go through at least an urn a week.

“I spent a lot of time in tea shops when I was working in London and realised that there was a definite opening at home for the same kind of thing. Since opening, The Olde Young Teahouse has gone from strength to strength.”

Born in Saltburn-on-Sea, Carli, 23, moved to London after graduating with a BA Hons fashion degree from Cleveland College of Art & Design, to take up a position with renowned Savile Row tailors Chester Barrie.

“I was asked to manage the opening of Chester Barrie’s first concession in Regent Street, which was quite a daunting prospect,” says Carli. “To get the opportunity to do my tailoring training actually on Savile Row was absolutely amazing.”

Working with the rich and famous, Carli found herself suiting and booting everyone from soap stars to the King of Saudi Arabia. “It really was the high end of fashion,”

she says. “I could quite happily have stayed there but there was quite a lot of waiting around for clients; you might just get one person a day who would come in and spend thousands of pounds which meant that there was a lot of time spent doing nothing, and I’m someone who needs to be doing something and learning all the time.”

During her breaks, whiling away the hours in the capital’s tea shops, Carli found herself inspired to turn her flair for business into her own venture by combining her love of art and tea.

“City centres are full of coffee shops, but the coffee crowd are totally different from tea lovers,” he says.

“Coffee gives you an instant buzz, a caffeine kick on the go, but tea is something to be drunk slowly, savoured over a chat with friends.

“Many people still think that tea is for the older generation, but it is gathering a strong following among the younger generation and we have people from 16 to 65 coming in to see what we have on offer.”

AS well as the popular Earl Grey, Assan and Darjeeling leaf teas, The Olde Young Teahouse stocks an entire global mix of speciality teas from India, Japan, Sri Lanka, China and the UK.

“Tea is more of a way of life than a drink,” says Carli.

“We have everything from rose petals tea to our most expensive, Japanese Sencha, which costs £75 for 500 grams.”

With seating for 21 and plans for expansion, Carli is also making the most of her contacts with students and tutors at her former college. “We get a lot of people from Cleveland College of Art & Design coming in here, so I decided to use one of the walls as an exhibition area inviting photographers, textile designers and artists to showcase their work in the shop. The shop has also been used as a meeting place for tutors and for modelling shoots by some of the current students.”

With such a successful idea under her belt, Carli is already thinking of expanding across the region. “We are the only traditional tea shop in Middlesbrough, the nearest being at York, so I would love to open up another in Durham and possibly look to franchise the brand across the country,” she adds.

“The Olde Young Teahouse really has exceeded all my expectations and running my own business really is my cup of tea.”

■ For details CCAD of courses contact on 01642-288888 or visit ccad.ac.uk