A PARADE of fashion spanning 100 years will celebrate a Haworth shop’s centenary and help improve conditions for people with dementia in Keighley.

The event, making 100 years of Firth’s Boutique, will raise money for the Dementia Friendly Keighley (DFK) charity.

The show takes place in Laycock Village Hall at 7.30pm on March 16 and will feature models wearing clothes from different decades since 1918.

The display will provide an insight into how the female form and clothing has changed throughout the years.

Nikki Milner, current owner of the store, said:“ The fashion show in Laycock will be the grand finale of our centenary festivities, but we’ll be getting the ball rolling with a preview day and evening at the boutique on Friday March 2.

“Many of the vintage fashions will be available to see, as well as new spring and summer collections. “Also on offer will be makeovers by Younique and Neals Yard skin care treatments.

“A holistic therapy room will be launched by the granddaughter of Ada Firth, the original founder of the boutique, and of course there’ll be nibbles and fizz for our customers.

“Tickets for the fashion show, as well as tickets for a ‘Grand Raffle’, will be available and the event will run from 9am until late.”

Explaining why she was supporting DFK, Nikki said: “I know many people who’ve been affected by dementia, including family, friends and customers.

“I understand how much support is needed, especially for carers.

“I walked past DFK’s unit in the Airedale Shopping Centre recently and saw lots of people inside enjoying time together and being supported. I thought ‘that’s where our money is going, they will use it well.’”

The fashion show itself on March 16 will be the third such event Firth’s has run at Layock Village Hall.

Nikki said: “It’s an ideal venue. It has a lovely atmosphere and provides great support for the events and great food.”

Tickets, which are available from Firth’s for £12.50, include the cost of a canapé supper.

The audience will be taken from the women’s suffrage look of 1918 through the 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s and finish with the Girl Power of the Spice Girls in the 1990s.

Costumes from these decades will be modelled on the catwalk and some will also be available to buy.

Firth’s Boutique was set up during the closing stages of the First World War.

The business’s founder, Ada Firth, who was 37 at the time, took vacant possession of the premises in Main Street, opening shortly afterwards. Ada’s daughter Mary took over in 1947 as the country was recovering from the Second World War.

Despite post-war austerity, Mary kept the shop running with fashions styled on Dior’s New Look with its cinched waistbands and full skirts.

More recently Mary’s daughter Ann has been the proprietor, guiding the business into the new millennium until it was sold in 2006.

While the shop is no longer owned by Ada’s descendants they remain involved, with Ann’s sister Jane regularly helping out in the boutique and working as a model in its fashion shows.