New clothes shop coming to Worthing town centre

Opening on Saturday, November 18, Keep Boutique will be based in the town centre in the Royal Arcade, next to Munch café, and will sell quality pieces.

It will be run by Clare Kirkland, who has a background in styling services, wardrobe reading and helping people to discover what colours suit them best.

Clare said: “I’ve found that a lot of what’s on offer in the high street currently for women doesn’t offer anything personal. Some of the bigger chain stores don’t help anyone and can leave them feeling confused and miserable.

"People often feel that the problem is them, rather than what they’re trying on. What I’ve always tried to do is to give helpful advice based on that person. I get satisfaction in helping people to feel great.”

For more information about the store, visit keepboutiqueworthing on Instagram

In Keep, Clare hopes to offer customers very wearable, long-lasting items of clothing that are versatile and can be styled in many different ways.

She said she is not a fan of fast fashion, and hopes in her shop people can find one great piece, rather than several more throwaway items from other shops.

She added: “My ethos is that you should buy stuff you really love. You buy less, but you really love what’s in your wardrobe. You buy hardworking pieces that you would wear with lots of other things.”

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As well as her styling commitments, Clare works as a project manager in the technology sector, but will be scaling her work back a little when Keep opens.

It will be open from Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, and Sunday, from noon until 4pm. She has hired four members of part-time staff, and said the team has lots of retail experience to share.

Clare said she had always had an idea in the back of her mind that she would like to open a clothing boutique, but a ‘mid-life moment’ and seeing the unit up for lease in Royal Arcade prompted her to make it happen.

She said: “Seeing people look in the mirror, and feeling good and confident about what they’re wearing and how they look, is really satisfying. It can really bring about changes in people’s lives.

"I want to be able to offer people that kind of service.”

Going forward, Clare wants to offer more formal styling services, as well as become a part of the community by giving local designers guest spots in her store, holding swap shops, coffee mornings and more.