From The Sunday Times
Job interviews are terrifying. But when you’ve been hunting for two years and have nothing to wear for the next one, they can also seem futile. Luckily, women in long-term unemployment who have no money to spend on that killer interview outfit now have a place to go. Dress for Success is a charity that believes that the outfit does maketh the woman, that there is power in clothes, and that feeling appropriately dressed can make the difference between another setback and that longed-for job. And it’s helping hundreds of women a year.
Already a phenomenon in America, with more than 75 branches across the country, the charity has been quietly building up in Britain since 2000. Working with women referred by job centres, homeless shelters, mental-health charities, prisons and other agencies, its aim is simple: to get women into the right look for their interviews - the clothes, the accessories, the make-up, even the underwear - for free.
What the clothes give is much more than merely a makeover. “It starts with a suit, but it doesn’t end with it,” says Kathy Seligman, the chairwoman of Dress for Success’s trustees. “We are dealing with women who just don’t have the money to go out and buy an appropriate outfit. So we fix that. But the look is just 25% of what we do. What we really give them is a dress and a hug.”
Packed with rails of clothes donated by individuals, retailers and businesses (bags full of designer suits from Goldman Sachs, Accenture and Lehman Brothers, for example), the charity’s offices in Islington are intimate and cosy. Each woman who comes through its door is given a one-on-one session with a personal advisor, who also acts as a stylist. If they’re successful in finding a job, they’re then invited back to choose a whole week’s worth of clothes to set them on their way.
One such woman is Jenny, who, at 58, had been visiting the job centre for three years with no luck when she was sent to Dress for Success before a teaching interview in July.
“I felt like I was visiting a couturier,” she says. “I got called down to this big showroom with floor-to-ceiling mirrors and carpet. I didn’t have a bra, so they gave me something to put on, as well as tights and two lovely pairs of shoes from Russell & Bromley. When you’re living on £109 a fortnight, you don’t have any treats. In there, I felt like a million dollars, as if I had been shopping in the West End and been treated like an expensive customer, a person who really mattered. And I walked out thinking, ‘Interview? Bring it on.’ ” She got the job.
The women who walk through the doors of Dressed for Success find themselves there for all sorts of reasons. “I’ve dressed 17-year-old girls straight out of foster-care programmes, as well as a woman who was 65 and had been out of work for 15 years,” says Joanna, a volunteer. Juliet, who has been volunteering since closing her children’s clothing shop on Walton Street, agrees. “Women who have been out of the working loop for a while think everything will have moved on, that it’s going to be terrifying. And don’t I know the feeling?” she says. “They feel like a mummy who has been through the mill, and it’s just too frightening to go back.”
There are those simply looking for their first break, such as Colette, an asylum seeker and single mother in her late twenties from Burundi surviving on £100 a week in benefits, who went to Dress for Success before an interview for a job at the NHS. “I looked a mess. I couldn’t afford to buy clothes. But they gave me a suit and taught me how to wear high heels, and when I went back to the interview, one of the managers didn’t recognise me.” She also got the job.
School leavers and young single mothers need a special kind of encouragement. “Many of them have never worn a suit before,” says Eleanor, another volunteer. “When they see themselves in one, they suddenly go from a schoolgirl to a worker.”
Clothes and self-confidence have always been tangled up together. So for women whose self-esteem is at rock bottom, being treated to an afternoon of attention and pampering, and seeing themselves in a whole new outfit - and light - can be the start of a new outlook. And the help doesn’t stop there – Dress for Success now has mentors who can help women through the first three months at work.
The jobs that Dress for Success women secure tend to be administrative, with many finding work in law firms, healthcare, banking and retail. “When Topshop on Oxford Circus opened, it seemed like everyone was applying there,” says Kathy. Mostly, though, their clients are just looking for a leg-up. “We’re about getting a job for someone who has had a pretty awful life, really - getting some self-respect back and making them feel valuable.” But it’s also a bit of a fashion rush. “This girl came in the other day,” says Kathy, “and walked out with Gucci shoes.”
There is heavy emphasis on looking forward. “We don’t ask any questions about their history,” says Kathy. “We care only about where they’re going, not where they’ve come from. Obviously, if they’ve been referred by Holloway we have a clue, but we really do believe that everybody deserves a chance to do better.”
Appearances can be said not to matter. But when you’re sitting in a job interview, there’s no bones about it. What you look like - and, by extension, what you feel like - really matters.
“What we want is for women to forget about what they’re wearing,” says Eleanor. “To get to the point where their attributes speak for themselves.”
STYLE READER OFFER From October 8 to October 22, Harvey Nichols is working with Dress for Success and Style to collect as many clothes for the charity as possible. Bring in your old designer dresses, coats and suits to the Harvey Nichols stores in Dublin, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds or Knightsbridge, or the new store in Bristol, and you’ll receive a voucher for 15% off your next purchase*. There are new collections arriving daily and, with your good deed done, you’ll have earned that gorgeous new Lanvin silk trench coat, the Jil Sander coat dress you’ve had your eye on, or those Jonathan Kelsey over-the-knee leather boots you simply must have.
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