Almost everything about Working Wardrobe resembles a retail clothier.
The racks. The name brands. The fluorescent lighting. The vertical mirrors. A dressing room. The division between dresses, shoes, coats, accessories and other attire. A friendly staff providing one-on-one attention and advice on choosing an ensemble. Holiday music coming from a radio. A 1,000 square-foot downtown Everett location facing a parking lot.
Almost everything …
Working Wardrobe, however, isn’t a retail store. It’s a weekly charitable effort for Pathways for Women located downstairs in the Snohomish County offices of the YWCA.
“We’ve tried to set it up like a store,” said Candie Lambert, a member of the Mill Creek Women’s Club and one of several volunteers from the group that help at Working Wardrobe. “Even though everything is free, we want the women to feel like they’re shopping.”
Clients for Working Wardrobe are those mothers who are in Pathways programs. Many are residents of Pathways’ transitional housing in Lynnwood. All are mothers either going through substantial changes in their lives or are having difficulty supporting their children.
Working Wardrobe augments Pathways services by allowing clients to get three to four outfits to wear to job interviews or on the job. Clients can come by a couple of times per year to get outfits.
“It’s about getting these women self-sufficient,” Mill Creek Women’s Club member Jo Ann Anderson said.
Working Wardrobe has been the women’s club’s main charity for more than a decade, Anderson said. Mill Creek Women’s Club members donate clothing and their time to the operation. Their efforts are augmented by clothing drives various businesses have throughout the year.
“The program wouldn’t be as good without these women,” said Luanne Kunz, community resource coordinator for Pathways.
Mill Creek Women’s Club members act as fashion consultants for the women who have appointments to choose clothing.
“It’s all one-on-one,” said women’s club member Judy Hiester. “A lot of personal attention.”
One shopper on Dec. 9 was Melissa Jensen, who was choosing clothes for an upcoming job interview. It was her first visit to Working Wardrobe.
“This is cool,” Jensen said. “You usually don’t get to shop for free.”
Other club members work in a stockroom sorting clothes and getting them ready to place on the display racks.
“We try to have three to four members here per session, maybe seven or eight,” Bonnie Hinton said.
Other women’s club members who took part in the Dec. 9 Working Wardrobe were Eileen Tennant, Dixie Foster, Barbara Johnson, Gwendolyn Stanford, Sue Atkins and Dolores Eggers.
“We have such a great time doing this,” Lambert said. “It is so rewarding.”
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