Second-hand designer fashion has always been in demand, but now it’s moved from eBay to a High Street shop near you. Jenny Laue talks to the owner of the newest dress agency.

THE black and pink sign above the window announces it’s a dress agency. A peep through the window shows that it’s more a treasure trove of vintage fashion.

The Little Black Dress Agency in Yarm High Street is a new venture turning the economic downturn to its advantage and tapping into women’s desire to be fashionable, thrifty and green at the same time.

Opened in April by local lass Katie Moulding, the shop floor may be bijou and may only have one fitting room, but what it lacks in space, it makes up for with fabulous fashion finds.

There is Max Mara, Chanel, Chloe, Moschino, Matthew Williamson and Armani, just to name a few, and some of them never worn and with the sales tags still on.

Fashion is something that has always interested Katie. “I used to work in a shop exactly like this in the school holidays,” says the 30-year-old petite blonde. “But it was five times this size. That really got me interested in fashion and the two ladies who own that shop have actually given me loads of help and advice on setting up on my own.”

But setting up shop wasn’t as easy for Katie as she had thought. “I looked at three different premises.

The other two fell through, unfortunately, but this one is ideal because the other two were too big and I worried whether I could fill them with stock.”

As it turned out, there was no need to worry. Katie, who lives in nearby Hurworth, has a very supportive network of family and friends who’ve helped to get the business going in all sorts of ways. The initial stock, for instance, came from friends of friends or aunties of friends: her sister Hannah did the PR and her brother- in-law helped with some carpentry in the shop. Others were roped in to hand out leaflets and somebody else gave out business cards to clients. “I’m extremely lucky and grateful,” she says.

And business seems to be booming, with clothes flying out of the shop as soon as they’ve been put on the rails.

“At the moment, I’m sticking to the high-end designer labels because they’re made so beautifully. They will always be popular. Vintage clothes just fly out,” says Katie.

“Yarm is great for this sort of thing because it is quite agricultural here. There are a lot of horse people who have the most fabulous designer dresses. A friend of my mum’s, for instance, has brought in a lot of Matthew Williamson and I’ve already sold most of it.”

But what of the name, The Little Black Dress Agency? “I just thought that every woman has a little black dress in her wardrobe and that that would help to remember the name.”

■ The Little Black Dress Agency, 119 High Street, Yarm, 01642-789555 or 07799-021066.

Worn out, play on

TOP sports brand Nike has launched a massive global recycling initiative to encourage sports shoe recycling called Re-use a Shoe and the Nike Factory Store at Dalton Park outlet centre will be a prime destination for the shoe recycling initiative.

To celebrate its launch, the store is offering an extra ten per cent off a new pair of shoes for one week when you bring your old pair back for recycling.

The offer starts tomorrow and ends on Saturday, May 2.

Look out for the special shoe recycling bins at Nike Factory Store.

■ For further information please call 0191-526-6157 or visit the Dalton Park website at dalton-park.co.uk