Sweet charity

With the high street feeling the economic winter chill, Lara Masters discovers that you don’t need to spend a million bucks to look a million bucks

If, like me, you think you have a unique sense of style and are a little bit edgy and eclectic, then clothes shopping in charity shops is perfect for you. I checked out around 20 charity stores round London for this piece and in every one there were several garments that screamed Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City.

The main problem with buying clothes in charity stores is finding something you like that happens to be in your size. I’m a size six so have problems finding things that fit me even in high street stores.

If you’re a more average size (12-16) there’s much more choice but you have to be patient and sift through all the racks if you want to bag a bargain while curing cancer and heart-disease.

However, I bumped into charity-shop addict Jessica Kellgren-Hayes and she was flaunting one of her many charity-shop finds: a stunning ruby-red silk dress (£20 from Tenovus cancer charity, Gloucester Road, Bristol). Jess has a wardrobe full of clothes, many of them designer, that she has picked up
from the charity stores that she frequents and her tip was that university towns often have many smaller-sized clothes, as well as a glut of gowns from end-of-year dances in their charity shops.

As for access, charity shops are usually cramped inside, which is not great for wheelchair users, but I found the staff attentive, particularly when I had become attached to half the shop and was dragging it around with me.

If you haven’t been to a charity shop in a while, you might be surprised to find that prices aren’t quite as low as expected, but this is largely because we are now used to buying ridiculously cheap goods at places like Primark and Asda, where we can find an entire outfit including shoes for under £20.

My silver lurex tube skirt was a whopping £6.99 (Marie Curie, Ladbroke Grove); it would have cost less new from Hennes but will Hennes look after me when I’m 106 and don’t have quite as much in the way of charm or teeth as I once did?

Ultimately, shopping in charity stores is not as easy as high street shopping and takes some dedication but what you get in return are clothes that are original and the priceless feeling that your precious buck is going to a good cause.