Luxury brand shoppers flock to Tunbridge Wells charity store after donor hands over £50,000 worth of designer gear that includes Gucci, Prada and one of Meghan Markle’s favourite designers
- The clothes include pieces by one of Meghan Markle’s favourite labels, Erdem
- They were donated to mental health charity Mind’s store in Tunbridge Wells
- Pick of the bunch was a luxury silk skirt worth £1,180 by Canadian brand Erdem
Charity shops are used to sorting through donation bags full of dusty clothes, bric-a-brac and, sometimes, plain junk.
So it must have come as quite a surprise when a haul of high-end clothes from big-name designers was donated to one store.
The clothes, worth a total of £50,000, include pieces by one of Meghan Markle’s favourite labels, Erdem.
Other items in the generous donation to mental health charity Mind’s store in Tunbridge Wells included a Prada skirt, a Chloe handbag, a Gucci wool coat, Rupert Sanderson heels and a Mulberry dress that was on sale for £425 despite being worth £900 new.
Customer Margaret Mercer browses through some of the £50,000 of designer clothes given to the Mind Charity shop in Tunbridge Wells
The pick of the bunch was a luxury silk skirt worth £1,180 by Canadian brand Erdem, favoured by the Duchess of Sussex. Shoppers could still find a bargain as a pink floral skirt was up for grabs for £245 yesterday.
Staff at the Kent charity shop hope to make at least £15,000 from selling the luxury goods that would have been bought for about £50,000. Many of the items, which were donated last week, still had their original price tags and appear to have never been worn.
Shop manager Alison Homewood, who has worked at Mind for 14 years, said: ‘It’s fantastic to get all this stuff, it has just caused a huge interest. We have had Prada, Gucci, Mulberry, Kate Spade and a lovely houndstooth check Burberry style coat by Gucci which went for more than £400.
Alison Homewood with shoes by Rupert Sanderson. The pick of the bunch was a luxury silk skirt worth £1,180 by Canadian brand Erdem
Alison Homewood with a Talbot Runhoff dress. Staff at the Kent charity shop hope to make at least £15,000
‘We also had a beautiful Valentino dress we sold for £650 in plain black with a gorgeous ice-cream pleat in pale blue, yellow and pink. We are really, really busy, but we’re not complaining.’
She added: ‘It is a regular donor and she donates stuff to us on quite a regular basis.’
Only a quarter of the designer items remain after staff unveiled the special collection in the shop window last week.