A WOMAN is operating a designer handbag boutique from her Bishop Auckland home.

Dawn Huntrod set up an online shop with the help of the North-East regional portal, n-e-life.com

The boutique, Mfuko, (which means handbag in Swahili), can be found via n-e-shopping.com or at www.mfuko.com

She said: "Most of the products available on my site cannot be bought elsewhere online, they can only be purchased through large department stores such as Harrods and Selfridges, so I'm giving consumers the opportunity to buy designer goods from their desktop without having to leave the house."

Mfuko sells items by well-known designers such as Jean-Paul Gaultier, Natalie French and Frank Usher.

Ms Huntrod said: "As I didn't have the funds to set up my own shop, trading online was a much more viable option and n-e-life's shopping mall seemed the perfect place to showcase the site. The team at n-e-life have been fantastic."