Nicola Sturgeon helped launch a children’s sustainable fashion and clothing exchange store in Glasgow on Friday.

The initiative - ApparelXchange - is an independent fashion store for children, aged six to 16, in the Southside of the city.

It is one of a number of independent local fashion and clothing shops all within a few hundred metres of each other in the Nithsdale Street area.

The First Minister met the team behind the social enterprise venture and children from two local schools, Shawlands Primary and Castleton Primary, who the owners have been working with on education projects.

Sturgeon said: “This is a brilliant initiative. I’m delighted to see it take root here in the community.

“Fashion is not just for adults. Sustainable fashion is important, and the circular economy is important.”

The First Minister chatted with the children and heard about projects they were doing at school before helping the youngsters cut a cake to mark the opening of the store.

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She added: “The idea of this area being a fashion quarter in the Southside is really brilliant. Everybody involved is to be congratulated.

“It’s never easy to get something like this off the ground and running.

“The board, staff and everyone involved should be chuffed. I wish you every success.”

The venture aims to help parents with the cost of children’s clothing and reduce the environmental impact of throwaway fast fashion.

Izzie Eriksen, director of ApparelXchange, said: “It’s all about the impact of clothing on the environment and about the people who work in the industry and issues of forced labour.

“We want to enable people to access affordable sustainable fashion.

“People can be part of the change we need.”

She explained the community involvement and education element of the business.

Izzie added: “We have been working with Shawlands and Castleton schools with donations of clothing.

“We sell but we also give clothes away working with schools and social work distributing them.”

The firm also has a warehouse in the city storing donations for exchange and to give away.

The social enterprise will be funded by the customers who buy from the shop and the online store which is also run as an affordable fashion model.

Izzie said people come to them before buying new.

She added: “We do donations drives with schools and run sessions on the impact of fashion and what people can do to bring about change.

“We encourage people to share, swap, donate and buy second-hand.”

Maria Law, of Foundation Scotland, which helped with grant and loan funding for the business, attended the launch.

She said: “We loved the initiative and the recycling element. So much children’s clothing ends up in landfill.”

She said Foundation Scotland will offer continuing business support as the venture develops, with mentoring and free advice on issues like marketing available should it be needed.

She added: “We want to help them build a sustainable business. This is a new type of business and very exciting.”