A not-for-profit boutique and training centre selling clothes by up-and-coming designers has closed down due to financial difficulties.

A not-for-profit boutique and training centre selling clothes by up-and-coming designers has closed down due to financial difficulties.

Fashion Enter, which opened in Vicarage Field shopping centre around six years ago, yesterday.

The shop, part of a wider fashion company of the same name, sold a variety of women’s clothes by budding designers and ran an alteration service as well as a number of workshops.

Manager Syreeta McQueen said the current retail climate combined with problems securing funding meant the shop had been struggling to stay afloat.

“We really don’t want to shut down,” she told the Post. “We’ve loved being here, Vicarage Field management have been fantastic and the people who came here have been wonderful.

“However being a not-for-profit shop in today’s retail climate is extremely tough, and without outside funding, which we’ve been unable to secure, we sadly couldn’t continue any longer.”

Joni Newell, 15, took part in three workshops at the shop last summer: fashion, photography and cheer-leading.

Speaking days before the closure, the teenager said the shop was a valuable asset to Barking town centre: “There’s nothing else like it in the area - me and my friends are so sad it’s shutting.

“The courses were fantastic and gave us loads of skills and confidence. I hope it opens again.”

Syreeta and another paid staff member will be relocated to other parts of the Fashion Enter company, which runs fashion apprenticeships at the University of East London and has a clothes-making factory.

It is hoped ‘pop-up shops’ and training schemes will be held in Barking in the future.

For more information email syreeta@fashion-enter.com.