Railway stations are usually home to ticket offices, fast food diners and waiting rooms, but this particular one houses a fancy dress hire shop...

Everyone loves the chance to dress up and become someone else for a change, whether it is a gladiator, a medieval princess, even Madonna or Geri Halliwell.

Realising there was a gap in the market for a good quality costume and fancy dress hire business, Maureen Pallot, 38, from Netley, decided to set her sights on setting one up.

After finishing a HND in Travel and Tourism at Southampton City College, Maureen started to set the foundations for her business, Express Yourself.

She says: "When I finished college I decided that I didn't want to work for anyone else, I wanted to run a business of my own.

"I have always loved dressing up. I love themed parties, and I love the difference that it makes to people when they are in fancy dress. They are far more confident than they might normally be.

"I started to travel around the country looking for batches of clothing for sale. I'm no good with a sewing machine, so I couldn't make anything myself.

"I found out about a woman in Penzance in Cornwall who had over 1000 costumes for sale. She had been a costume designer for theatres all over the West Country.

"I only expected to buy a few costumes from her, but when I saw what she had available I took the whole lot.

"It cost quite a few thousand, but luckily me and my husband Chris, had some money put away. I was worried that I was wasting my time by setting up a business such as this, but Chris was 100 per cent behind me and encouraged me at every step of the way.

"I had plenty of theatrical costumes, but I just needed more fancy dress. I found out about a woman in Bexleyheath who had fancy dress costumes for sale.

"For a while I was running Express Yourself out of our garage at home, but then I found the ideal location for the business in Netley train station.

"I have set it up so that there are five different themed rooms. There is the funky room which is 20th century costumes, ranging from the 1920s to the 1980s.

"Secondly there is a fun room, which is full of fancy dress, such as Austin Powers, Madonna, pirates and so on.

"Then I have a men's historical room and a women's historical room. The costumes here range from medieval, Edwardian to Victorian.

"Finally I have a uniform room, which has military outfits, tweed suits and tail coats.

"So far I have been doing especially well from people who want to hire outfits to go to medieval banquets and also murder-mystery parties.

"I am hoping to attract more local theatre groups, because I have every sort of costume here. I would be very surprised if we didn't have something someone wanted.

"My children, 11-year-old Keiran and Grace, nine, love coming to the shop as they can try on the outfits. Keiran especially likes the uniform room as he likes the fake swords and guns.

"My friend who runs an interior design company called AbFab Creations painted the decor of my shop, and each room is decorated to keep in with the theme.

"Dressing up is so much fun to do, and I have the costumes here for every occasion."

Express Yourself, is situated above Netley Train Station. Tel - 023 8056 0990