A group of first-time shop owners are set to breathe new life into an area labelled Glasgow’s Covent Garden.

Three new tenants have just opened shops on the upper floor of De Courcy’s Arcade in Cresswell Lane. They include a vintage clothing emporium, a boutique offering retro-influenced crafts, and a designer clothing exchange.

Their aim is to evoke the spirit of the Virginia Galleries, the lost and much-lamented city centre mecca for vintage fans that closed in 1998.

Carrie Maclennan, who co-owns new outlet Made In The Shade Maisonette, said: “I’m 30 and I don’t have anywhere to shop that excites me in the same way that Virginia Galleries did back then.

“I think this is along the same lines – it’s putting a bit more of the indie spirit back into De Courcy’s. I think it’s going to work out well as a little indie shopping community.”

Four of the six units on the upper level of the arcade, which had closed to make way for a restaurant that will not now be going ahead, have so far been let.

The Made In The Shade Maisonette gives a permanent home to the 1950s-inspired boutique market launched in May 2008 that attracted thousands of shoppers to regular events at The Lighthouse and Glasgow University Union. It is dedicated to showcasing and promoting vintage lifestyle items and off-beat designs and crafts by up-and-coming designers.

Interiors and homewares designer Clare Nicolson, 28, said: “We’ve styled it like a cosy autumn living room.

“We’ll change it seasonally – we want it to be different for us, the customers and the designers.”

Fellow De Courcy’s tenant Alan Brooks decided to set up his own vintage clothing shop after taking voluntary redundancy from his job as a national manager with a gas supplier.

He wants his boutique, Not Now, Cato!, to appeal as much to male vintage fans as well as female ones.

Mr Brooks says: “I felt that in most of the vintage shops you felt you were in a girls’ shop, but I’m trying to do a 50-50 mix – to have a place that guys feel comfortable in.”

Meanwhile, the labels on offer at the third new store, a designer clothing exchange called Just ... For You, will provide more up-to-date stock, but still at bargain prices.

The shop is the first business venture of mother-of-three Justina McLaughlin, who previously worked for high street fashion stores including Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Monsoon.

She has so far amassed about 80 garments ranging from luxury brands such as Gucci and Armani to Ted Baker and Diesel.

Ms McLaughlin also plans to also commission a machinist to fashion plus-sized versions of designer outfits.