British fashion retailers abroad are often marked by their attempt to export a format with little, or sometimes no, adjustment to local conditions.

Precursor, a modestly sized 375 sq ft shop in the Marais district of Paris, makes a virtue of this tendency, making much of offering British fashion even though it does not have a UK base.

Set up by owner/operators Jill Moore and Laura Parks, the shop is laid out on the basis of providing British store design, fit-out and fashion in one of the most historic areas of the French capital. Moore, who used to be a retail buyer, says: “It was a year in the making and the most obviously British feature is the floor, which we have painted with back and white diagonal stripes.”

She adds that the store benefits from exposed brick and stonework and the original timbers that are found in many of the buildings locally. “We’ve gone for a scaffolding look for the displays,” she says. The store also has a number of bespoke features with one-off black and white prints on the walls and pink hands that protrude from the perimeter and are used to display accessories.

From a product perspective, the shop carries solely British fashion and English is spoken “unless completely necessary”. The collection is aimed at 18- to 35-year-olds, according to Moore, who says that in the first four weeks of trading, the shop has also benefited from the pink pound - the result of the Marais’ substantial gay population.