A WORCESTER clothes shop has closed its doors after almost 16 years of trading in the city.

Stripes Fashion and Beauty Salon, in The Foregate, has closed – however, will fans of the store can continue to order online.

Sisters Jenny Plant and Claire Wright, who ran the store, announced the closure on its website.

They said: “We are sorry to have to let you know that we have decided to close our Worcester store and beauty salon after almost 16 years in the city.

“This has been such a difficult decision to make, but with the challenges ahead we feel that this is the right time for us to close our bricks and mortar store and to focus on the online side of our business.

“As many of you know, we both live in Nottinghamshire (100 miles from Worcester) and have young families so we decided that in the current circumstances now is the time to close our doors.”

The post continued: “Stripes has been the most incredible journey for us, watching our business flourish, meeting and working with so many wonderful people along the way.

“We have always been lucky to have a very talented team who been a huge support to us and brought their creativity and skills to the business.

“It has been a privilege to get to know all of you and we really value the support and friendship you have shown us.

“We will continue to go buying to keep an eye out for new brands and will be bringing lots of lovely new stock to our online store from July as the fashion industry begins to re-open.

“We have lots of new ideas for ways to show our collection through social media so hope you will be able to keep in touch with us that way.

The family-run independent store and beauty salon opened in 2004 with the aim of replicating the clothing stores in Paris and Copenhagen.

The business grew in 2012 to include in-store beauty rooms.