By Martin Couper
AN online clothes shop that has supplied dresses to stars of the new James Bond film has been banned from opening in a shopping centre – because it is too sexy.
Sexy Little Numbers has been operating over the internet for four years and has been popular with a host of celebrity clients including Dame Judi Dench and another Quantum of Solace star, thought to be Gemma Arterton.
So when owners Robert and Wilma Chrystal decided they would open a real store in their local town, they didn’t think they would have any problem.
But stuffy bosses at the Kingsgate Shopping Centre in Dunfermline have told them no – because the clothes they sell are too racy for their family environment.
Now Wilma has hit out, claiming her stock is no different to other high street stores.
She said: “They thought our stuff was a bit raunchy for them. But we deal in dresses and shoes and body jewellery. OK, we do knickers, but if you go into Primark and they sell thongs and G-strings. We are nothing like Ann Summers.”
The couple – who have also sold underwear to glamour model Jordan in the past – have rubbished claims they’re clothes are too risqué and say that they provide a wide spectrum of fashion which caters to a distinct range of tastes.
Wilma said: “My designer dresses are not off the shelf items. The company make them to order and people who buy these dresses will be hard pushed to find someone with the same dress.
“What are we selling that is so bad? We don’t sell adult toys, we don’t sell bondage wear, some of the shoes might look fetish but they are more along the Goth line.
“No one has the right to say what a shop can sell and what they can’t sell. You walk into the Kingsgate and there’s people selling knives and everything. That will affect kids more.”
Recently, the couple dealt with British film icon Dame Judi Dench and another female cast member, believed to be Gemma Arterton, when both were looking for glamourous dresses for the movie’s premiere.
The anonymous starlet has already purchased two slinky dresses for the occasion while Dame Judi Dench is due back to finalise her clothing arrangements.
Wilma said: “She’s (Judi Dench) not bought anything yet, but she’s coming back.”
And Robert added: “Wilma actually spoke to Daniel Craig too but she didn’t believe it was him – she said ‘No way are you the real Daniel Craig’. But eventually the girl she was dealing with told her it was actually him. It was quite comical.”
But the Chrystals, from Kelty, Fife, were less than amused when a proposed move to the Kingsgate shopping centre in Dunfermline was blocked by stuffy bosses because the clothes they sell were too racy for the family environment.
The Chrystals have customers as far flung as America, Australia and Asia, using eBay as a method of promoting and distributing.
And they had hoped that opening a store would save them from the £12,000 a year fees they pay to the online auctioneers.
But after eight months of wrangling with the shopping centre bosses, they were finally told they would not be opening.
A spokeswoman for the Kingsgate Centre said: “Sexy Little Numbers was deemed inappropriate for the vacant unit due to the nature of its business.”
