I feel very lucky to be able to look back and see how far Fermanagh has come in terms of style and the range of outlets we now have. I don’t mean to sound like one of those people that says ‘in my day’ but all joking aside in the not so distant past Fermanagh had very little to offer the fashion conscious. If you wanted a specific trend you either had to go to Belfast to get it or make it yourself.

I am lucky enough to have lived my latter teens in the noughties and all the latest styles were readily available to me; however we certainly didn’t have the same choices then as we do now. In my primary school years, a time when I used to record the top 40 off the radio, there was no such thing as a DVD, the only Chinese available was in Enniskillen and you were nobody if you didn’t have a Tamagotchi. I remember when Erneside was half the size it is now and the only clothing shops we had to choose from were Exhibit, Tammy Girl and at a later stage New Look. Dunnes Stores used to be somewhere you dreaded going to as your mother forced you into sensible jumpers and trousers, not like now where you can get quality trend led fashion.

There were no famous high-street names like Monsoon, River Island or Topshop but somehow we managed to survive. In my early teens I don’t remember anyone complaining about our lack of stores but at the same time that was the 90s where you were either a Goth, a grunger or lived in sports gear. I chose the latter and me and my friends would rarely be seen without our adidas poppers.

Nowadays we have so much choice that it’s not necessary to travel up to Belfast as we have most of the main high street brands and plenty of individual trendy stores like Walker Clothing in Irvinestown and Calle 33 in Lisnaskea to give us a bit more uniqueness.

Our local hairdressers and beauticians offer exactly the same treatments and techniques as the big city salons and in fact at half the price. I get angry when people class Fermanagh as backward and although we have a bit of catching up to do we can give any city a run for its money in terms of style. There are plenty of individuals in Fermanagh rocking their own unique sense of style and I find it refreshing to see individuals up the town standing out from the crowd rather than crowds of people in Belfast all trying to be something different.