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 ‘Charity Chic’ is back with the second programme in this brand new series inspiring you to get involved with the shopping experience with a conscience, from both sides of the counter. In this latest programme Amy Lamé meets the man behind the country’s very first charity shop - Joe Mitty. Also, find out why our charity shops are eclipsing the fashion boutiques of Paris and get some more top tips from our resident style guru John Scott (from ITV’s This Morning).
In 1949 the country’s first ever charity shop was opened by the development agency Oxfam, on Broad Street in Oxford. It’s first manager and grandfather of the charity shop movement, Joe Mitty, comes into the studio to discuss his 33 years of service for the organisation and how it started all those years ago.
 He recalls, "I had this feeling when I joined Oxfam that there were no boundaries. Human frailty was such that there was a lot of suffering throughout the world, and I thought that if I had an opportunity to sell something there were no boundaries and we would sell anything that was given to us." This gave birth to his defining motto: ‘If you can give it, I can sell it’ and he’s certainly had to live up to this commitment, selling everything from books and records to motor cars and even the occasional donkey!
Carrine Ivanikau moved to the UK from Paris several years ago and immediately immersed herself in bargain hunting from the nation’s charity shops. As the French don’t have a culture of charity shops, it came as something of a shock to Carrine when she discovered items from her favourite designers selling for just a couple of pounds. She says, "50% of my wardrobe is from charity shops and 50% is from designer shops. As I work in fashion you’ve got to change quite often and I don’t earn enough to buy from designer shops everyday." Today her friends regularly come to join her in the UK for shopping trips around the charity shops, snapping-up bargains to take home to France, proving once and for all that whilst Paris may be chic the UK has the charity chic!
 Fashion student Natalie Holtz volunteers her time with a local branch of Barnados charity shops, where she uses her skills to transform plain clothes into unique fashion items. Using discarded buttons, fake flowers and bits of wool she overhauls the shops clothes, giving them a new twist and often doubling their retail value. She says, "I do like my charity work. I think it’s an important thing: that everybody can do something. I can’t afford to donate much money because I’m a student so I think this is a way to do something good, something I enjoy and there’s loads of children who will be helped by doing this and that’s lovely."
In this jam-packed programme we meet more charity shop lovers, like Jason Cox who’s always on the lookout for a new jumper for his collection; we hear about people who steal from charity shops; This Morning’s fashion guru John Scott assembles a trendy outfit for summer days on the beach. If you want to know how to sell a donkey in a charity shop or how to out-chic the French for under a tenner, then tune-in to ‘Charity Chic’ only on Community Channel.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 03 March 2006 )
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