Mia Gonzalez-Noda has finally realised the dream she’s harboured since she was 21 – to own her own clothes shop.
It’s fair to say that life has taken Mia, now 41, on quite a journey. Aged 21, and originally from Derby,she decided to enrol on a fashion business course in London to prepare her for opening her own shop. But the course was cancelled and she ended up moving to Edinburgh to work for a wine shop chain.
“I started down a different path, going back to university to complete a degree in herbal medicine and a masters in public health nutrition, during which time I met and married my husband Sandy,” Mia explains.
A job in community health development in the Borders meant she was travelling 70 miles a day to get to work and back. “Our two children were in childcare for more hours a day than an adult spends working,” says Mia.
“It was at that point that we realised something had to change.
“We found a house in the historic coastal village of Elie in Fife and I knew the time was right to reawaken my dream to run my own business.”
Mia’s original plan had been to open a shop in St Andrews but the rents were high so she held off.
“In the meantime we focused on Sandy’s joinery business and renovating our house. Then I noticed a property in Bank Street in Elie had become vacant and decided to take the chance.”
And just a few weeks ago, Mia finally realised her dream by opening Piccadilly Lilly, selling women’s clothing and accessories, jewellery by Scottish designers, and hand crafted interiors made locally, some created by Sandy in his workshop.
“I love looking for great things to sell while hopefully helping to support other small businesses along the way,” she smiles.
“It can be hard juggling family priorities when the business is so young but I’m living my dream and it’s wonderful,” she says.
“My advice to anyone with a long-held ambition is to just say do it, as long as you want it enough and are prepared to put in the time and hard work. Mind you, a small amount of blind faith and determination will help as well!”
Elie’s colourful history
Elie harbour dates back to the 16th Century.
The original burgh comprised the linked villages of Elie and Earlsferry, which were formally merged in 1930.
It is said that MacDuff, the Earl of Fife, crossed the Forth from Earlsferry in 1054 while fleeing from King Macbeth
James Braid, the five-times Open champion and course designer was born in Elie.
The stone-built Lady’s Tower was built in the 17th Century by Lady Janet Anstruther as a changing room before bathing.
Elie’s golf course has a periscope in the starter’s hut taken from submarine HMS Excalibur which was scrapped in 1968.
The famous Floral Clock in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens was originally constructed in 1903 using the clock mechanism salvaged from Elie Parish Church.
Fife Coast Railway served Elie from 1863 but was closed and dismantled in the 1960s.
North Berwick is only seven miles from Elie by boat, across the Firth of Forth, but by car it is 74 miles.
