After seven years in the Illawarra, global charity Dress for Success has its own success story to share. Their services – which range from providing a quality wardrobe to careers advice – have helped empower more than 3000 women a year to gain financial independence.
Rachel Dyer, operations manager at Dress for Success Illawarra, is proud to be a part of an organisation that has been supporting women since 1997.
“A young lady, Nancy Lublin, who was only 18 or 19, received $5000 inheritance from her great-grandfather, and she started Dress for Success with that money,” Rachel says.
“Now, we are all over the world. In NSW we have a branch in Sydney, in Summer Hill, we’re about to open one in Penrith, and we have a branch in Newcastle as well as here, in Warrawong.
“We’re affiliates, so the money we raise in New South Wales stays here, we just pay a licensing fee to New York.”
Fundraising is at the heart of what Dress for Success does; as a charity, they do not receive government funding.
“We exist because of people’s donations of time, money and clothing,” Rachel says.
Volunteers at Dress for Success welcome donations of clothing from the community and provide free styling services to clients.
“The clothing that’s donated – we curate very carefully, we make sure that the clothing is new or nearly new, that there are no rips or tearing, stains, smells, that the zippers work, hems are up,” Rachel says.
“We also try not to accept anything that’s from fast fashion, Anko, BigW, Best & Less, because we have a sustainability program. Plus, we want to give ladies really good quality clothing that they may not be able to afford, and it will last longer for them.
“Kmart clothing is perfectly fine for anyone to wear, but if you haven't worked in a while and you’ve lost your confidence, we want to give people something better quality that's going to improve that confidence and empowerment.”
Dress for Success has a ‘client first’ policy and clothing that is deemed inappropriate for an interview, a court appearance, a graduation or other major event is sold at discounted rates at their ‘Bubbles and Bargains’ Sales.
Dress for Success Illawarra will hold their next Bubbles and Bargains sale on May 4 at Dapto Ribbonwood Centre.
“Those sales get a really good following, because it’s really great clothing at really good prices,” Rachel says.
“It keeps us going, but it’s also about saving things from landfill and providing good clothing in an affordability crisis.
“We don’t turn anything away, we don’t accept coat-hangers and plastic bags, we give some clothes to the op shops, and there’s a collection company that takes the unusable clothes away and turns them into rags.”
As part of Dress for Success’ ‘Get the job’ program, clients receive a custom outfit suitable for a job interview.
“We offer a Get the Job workshop, alongside the styling service. The workshop talks about what to think about when you go for a job, what to wear, how to put a CV together, what it should have in it, interview questions to think about, shaking hands, eye contact, that sort of thing,” Rachel says.
“The other styling we do is a ‘Got the Job’ service. If someone has got the job and they’re starting at work, they come to us and we give them a week’s worth of work clothes, a capsule wardrobe to keep, because the paycheck won't come in for a week or two.”
Dress for Success clients have access to a free online portal called Career Hub, which includes a range of resources to help those seeking employment.
“It’s not a linear journey for a lot of people. We had a woman come in with her caseworker. She had fled a domestic violence situation and was living in the refuge. She needed an outfit for meetings with rental managers, because if you don’t have a home, you can't get a job,” Rachel says.
“We dressed her and she got a home to live in, and then came back a few months later, she had joined our Career Hub, got an interview, came back for an interview outfit, she got that job and came back to get the Got The Job outfits.”
Dress for Success will be working with ITEC in the coming year, delivering Get the Job workshops to final-year students.
“You don't need to be disadvantaged to refer to us. You may have all of the money in the world but you may not have control of it and access to that money. You may have a husband or partner that does let you access your money,” Rachel says.
“You might not have money because you’re a student – we want to help students get on their path to success.
“I would love it if every student that went to ITEC, TAFE, UOW, every female knew about us and booked in towards the end of their course so that they’ve got that outfit and they’re ready to go.”
Dress for Success NSW & ACT is offering community members the chance to fundraise through their Empower Every Step campaign this month.
“We’re asking people to do 5000 steps, get sponsored and make a donation,” Rachel says.
The Dress for Success boutique in Warrawong is open three days a week. Rachel aims to grow their client base, so they can open the boutique five days a week.
“That's why I do this job, because I see these wonderful women coming in who've had challenges, and I see these wonderful volunteers that give up their time to help these ladies, and sometimes that's all it takes, and it’s transformative,” Rachel says.
“We can't fix the complex problems that these ladies walk in with. We can do one thing: we can give them confidence and we can empower them to help them put their best foot forward.”
Find out more at the Dress for Success website
