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Women's Way

Wardrobe Boutique offering lower-priced donated clothes

Philadelphia Business Journal
by Peter Key Staff Writer

But it gets a lot of clothing that, while quite nice, isn’t business attire.

“We give away literally hundreds of bags of clothing every month,” said Executive Director Sheri Cole.

On Sept. 17, the Center City-based nonprofit will open a store at 1822 Spring Garden St. in Philadelphia.

The Wardrobe Boutique will sell clothing and accessories donated to the Career Wardrobe that it can’t use in its mission.

Prices will be steeply below what the items would cost new and will be discounted even more for women who have used the Career Wardrobe’s services.

“We want to make sure that it’s still going to be a place where they’re going to be welcomed and it’s going to be cost effective for them,” Cole said.

Once it gets the store established, the Career Wardrobe plans to use it to offer an internship program in customer service and retail management to its clients.

“At the end of their internship, they’ll be prepared not just to be able to go and work at minimum wage for a retail place, but also to work [in] management positions,” Cole said.

In addition to interns, the store will be staffed by volunteers and a manager and assistant manager, one of whom will be there at all times.

Nette Properties LLC, the developer that owns the building, gave Career Wardrobe a good deal to locate the boutique there, Cole said.

Career Wardrobe, which was founded in 1995, had been thinking of opening a store since late 2001. It got some volunteers from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to do a feasibility study for the store and some participants in Leadership Philadelphia’s program for developing nonprofit board leaders to do a business plan for it.

A year ago April, Career Wardrobe was named a Champion in Action by Citizens Bank, Philadelphia Newspapers LLC and NBC-10. That brought it a $25,000 grant and a Citizens Bank executive for three months, both of which it used to finalize plans for the store.

Career Wardrobe will keep the proceeds from the store and thinks it can put them to good use. Demand for its services has grown 90 percent over the past year, Cole said.

That, of course, is due to the economy, which also should boost the store.

“Resale stores are doing really well because people need alternatives to regular department stores,” Cole said.

19th and Spring Garden St
Shop Tues-Sat

Recycled Fashions
Reasonable Prices

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21 South 12th Street, Suite 110
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Tel. 215-568-6693
Fax 215-568-5998