After moving here last year, celebrity agent Cherry Parker has become fascinated with Leigh and its people.

So much so, she has decided to relocate her Notting Hill vintage clothing shop to Rectory Grove.

"I love Leigh, it's very trendy. The people here have individual minds, they're not sheep," explains Cherry.

"I came here and thought Oh my God, I have to move my shop here'."

Cherry's main line of occupation is managing the careers of various actors and actresses.

Suzie Verrico and Jayne Kitt from Big Brother 7 are among her clients.

Her other passion, however, is fashion. "I had a dressing- up box when I was four or five years old," says Cherry.

"I used to dress up in my mum's stilettoes and when I got older and everything started to fit, I carried on wearing it. I was always individual."

Hipnotique opens today, but passers-by have already noticed the rails of unusual clothing, glamorous hats, out-of-this-world shoes, handbags and jewellery.

"Everything in here is from the 1940s to the 1970s,"

explains Cherry as she excitedly works through the rails of clothes.

"They're either one-off pieces or designer items that have never been worn and everything is in mint condition."

It was while on a road-trip in America that Cherry chanced upon a warehouse in the mid-west, full of unwanted clothes.

"I'm a bit of a magpie,"

she says.

"But I tend to buy stuff that's never been worn. I want to aim for the unusual, higher end of the market.

It's about keeping it unique."

The opening of the shop coincides with a boom in the trend for vintage clothing.

"Retro is so now," says Cherry.

"The celebs are wearing vintage, so everyone is into it. TopShop has a vintage section that's very popular and people use Ebay to buy them. It all helps people to be individual. You can express yourself and have fun with it.

"I love vintage. One day I can be a Fifties housewife and the next a Sixties hippie."

It may just seem like vanity to some, but clothing can be as symbolic and artistic as a painting or ornament.

"When I open a box of stuff that's old or that has some history to it, I get so excited," says Cherry.

"Life's so humdrum and depressing out there, so people can come in here, have some fun and forget it all."

Hipnotique is based within Mod Art on Rectory Grove, Leigh.