It's a 70-minute cab journey from central Paris – a far cry from the dreamy French fashion houses of Chanel and Schiaparelli – but I'm surprisingly excited to visit new fashion store Lefties. And the first of three Lefties stores opens in the UK in a couple of weeks' time. Can new store Lefties step up and deliver the Zara aesthetic for those who can no longer afford Zara? No doubt to the delight of new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Lefties has chosen a northern city for its UK launch. 'We do not see any place in the UK where we could not be,' Lefties' global director Xavier Ruz Riera has said.