It used to be almost an insult to remark that someones clothes looked as if they came from a charity shop, but many fashion-conscious women in Haverfordwest have a secret - their designer outfits all come off the rails at Oxfam.

The Haverfordwest store, managed by Jean Rees, is rapidly developing a reputation for stocking only the most exclusive of brands - but at a fraction of the cost - and buying them helps Oxfam do its vital work in some of the most ravaged parts of the world.

At present Oxfam is organising an emergency appeal to help relieve the suffering in Afghanistan.

The situation there is now critical, with food supplies about to run out. Oxfam is hoping to respond by:

q Providing food such as wheat, pulses, and oil for those desperately in need;

q Making water available through well digging and irrigation and offering sanitation and hygiene advice

q By distributing seeds to ensure that the wheat crop is planted in time for next season. Oxfam hopes to reach 290,000 people across the various provinces of Herat, Kandahar, Bandakshan and the region of Hazarajat over the next eight months.

q Just 50p will feed a child for a week.

Oxfam in Haverfordwest is aiming to help fund this campaign through its ever-successful shop.

While the shop, in High Street, has remarkably successful sales of mens, and childrens clothing, as well as bric-a-brac and a very popular book section, together with its range of new goods from countries all over the world, it is the womens clothing department that is the most popular.

Among its beautifully colour-co-ordinated rails are designer gems from some of the top couture houses, plus a wide-range of items from well-known High Street stores.

All the clothes hanging on the rails are specially selected for sale by Jean and a hard-working team of volunteers.

Bags and bags of used clothing - up to 50 a week - are dropped off at the shop or collected from the various clothing banks around the area and brought to an Aladdins cave of couture above the High Street shop.

There they are carefully sifted through with only good quality items in pristine condition deemed good enough for sale.

They are cleaned, pressed or steamed and necessary repairs, such as split seams or missing buttons are attended to. Only then are they presented for sale.

Jean is responsible for the eye-catching window displays and has developed a special colour-coded system for the rails inside the shop to show off the clothes to their best advantage.

Unfortunately, much of the clothing donated to Oxfam is not of saleable quality and while some of it is sent to a recycling unit, Oxfam has to pay retail rates to have the rest off it collected by the binmen.

Other items are sent to an Oxfam depot for distribution to other Oxfam shops. The busiest times of the year for this already busy shop are changeover weeks. These occur twice a year when, in the space of a single weekend, all the rails are cleared of the 900+ items they carry and the shop thoroughly cleaned as the autumn/winter collection replaces the spring/summer one - or vice-versa.

The Haverfordwest shops 25 volunteers work day and night that weekend, but their hard work is worth it - the shop took £1,100 in ladies clothing sales alone during the first week of the autumn season this year! Said Jean: I work on the principle that, if people are kind enough to donate quality clothing then it is up to me and my volunteers to get the best possible price for them, to help Oxfam in its fight to eliminate world suffering and poverty, both in this country and the Third World.

A lot of people are under the impression that Oxfam is a charity shop that provides charity for its customers.

But to clarify this we are all working to make money for the charity and not to sell things as cheaply as possible.

Oxfam Haverfordwests manager Jean Rees (right) makes final adjustments to a superb mother-of-the-bride outfit by Jacques Vert, as modelled by Joan Rees. This ensemble would retail at over £300 new, but is on sale at Oxfam for less than £60. This is probably one of the most expensive - and exclusive - items for sale in the shop, where prices start from as little as £3.99.