Quality second-hand clothes store offers an incentive to donate

IT'S a second-hand shop with a difference – when you hand over your old glad rags and books, you leave with more than just a warm feeling of having done a good turn.

Every donation you make to Alexa K earns you a potential share in the newly opened store's profits.

The brainchild of former RAF wife Dawn Kirkwood-Niven, the shop specialises in designer and vintage clothes, alongside an eclectic mix of retro-chic home furnishings, collectable books and other "treasures".

Mrs Kirkwood-Niven – whose middle name, Alexa, gave the shop its title – accepts any donations she believes will sell in return for a 50/50 split of the profits. The 46-year-old said: "I take in a lot of vintage stuff, and a lot of in-season fashions, but I'll only take it if it's in excellent condition.

"We're not the kind of place where you just dump a bin-bag full of old bits on the doorstep.

"My daughter Holly is 24 so she's well up on all the fashions. She's brought in loads of her old dresses to sell and she's started to get her friends in on the act too."

The idea for Alexa K came to Mrs Kirkwood-Niven after working in an old-fashioned thrift shop at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire 20 years ago.

"My ex-husband was an RAF fireman and he was stationed down there and the thrift shop was the centre of the community," she explained. "All of my friends couldn't wait to come and visit me so they could go and take a look, so I've tried to replicate the feel of the place in Corstorphine."

Alexa K's has adopted the motto "Recycle, Refresh and Relax" and boasts an informal coffee shop within the Victorian unit on Corstorphine High Street.

Ms Kirkwood-Niven, a former nurse and property investor, said: "The back shop has got a lovely old Victorian fireplace and enough seating for ten. I'm running a coffee drop-in with home baking and regular art exhibitions.

"There's a few retirement homes nearby where the pensioners have come in with their old china which I've used in the back shop. It's a real eclectic treasure trove of clothes, gifts, books and handmade jewellery.

"I picked up a lot of the stuff in the old homes, such as a couple of 1950s telephones with the old metal dials in working order.

"Our footfall's been pretty good so far because we're right next to Corstorphine Primary, but we're off the main road so we don't get a lot of passing shoppers."

Fashion writer and Evening News columnist Lynne McCrossan is enthusiastic about the shop.

She said: "It's a really good idea because sometimes you can't be bothered with eBay, who take a really hefty cut of your profits.

"The only other alternative is car-boot sales, which isn't really suitable either if you've only got two or three things that you know are going to make a profit."