Back in 1995 the internet was just starting to get going and people were still talking to each other instead of looking at cat videos on Facebook. The Exchange & Mart was still one of the few ways to advertise to the trans-community in the UK, and the mobile phone was still the size of a brick (the must-have - along with Filofax - remember them?) the stuff of yuppies and Delboy.
Back then Sue Sheppard a trans-woman living in Folkestone came up with the idea of starting a business catering for the needs of cross-dressers and other transgendered folks. She’d recently been involved in a fashion show in Thanet raising funds for charity. Here she found many t-girls were asking where to get clothing and other specialist items. By fortunate coincidence, she was involved in a project for a charity phone-line which was next door to the Enterprise Agency, which was there to help Start-up businesses. The rest is history, as several months later, with the financial backing of Kent Enterprise Agency, she signed forms in Business Point, Ashford, Kent that bought Fantasy Girl (as the firm was known then) into existence.