Women's fashion name returns to Shrewsbury's high street
The Mystique name was lost three years ago but has been reborn in a new standalone lingerie and swimwear shop
A women's fashion retail name synonymous with Shrewsbury's high street for four decades has returned to the town centre.
Mystique was based at Abbot's House in Butcher Row but the name was dropped in 2023 as part of a rebrand following a takeover of another business in the town.
It has now reopened at 6 Market Street as a standalone store after branching out from Carvèll on the Square where its stock was housed for the past two years as its ground-floor lingerie department.
That two-floor store at 13 The Square has now closed down and the Carvèll name retired.
The new-look Mystique carries an expanded collection of lingerie, post-surgery underwear and swimwear alongside a range of sustainable and pre-loved designer fashion alongside a bra-fitting service.
The wider designer womenswear floor that Carvèll on the Square stocked will not continue and was cleared before the move.
Owner Debbie Carvell, a former primary school teacher who was a customer of the shop long before she owned it, bought Mystique Lingerie and Swimwear with her husband Paul in April 2019.
It traded from Abbot's House at 13 Butcher Row, which is grade I-listed Tudor building dating back to the 1450s, and the couple introduced the business's first e-commerce site.
In 2022, they bought a second independent boutique, Carol Grant, which was based at 13 The Square and both businesses were subsequently rebranded in 2023.
Carol Grant became Carvèll on the Square while Mystique was renamed Carvèll Lingerie and Swimwear before the lingerie business left Butcher Row in 2024 and joined its sister retailer in the unit at 13 The Square.
Ms Carvell said: "We are fifty yards from the old door and still in sight of it. What has changed is the focus.
"Lingerie, post-surgery and swimwear is what we are best at and what people have always come to us for, and the new shop is built entirely around that.
"Bringing the name back was the easy decision.
"We changed it on the sign in 2023 but nobody in Shrewsbury ever changed it in conversation - people still say they're popping into Mystique.
"When a town has held on to a name for forty years, the sensible thing is to put it back above the door.”
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