Boston Globe (Oct. 22, 2006) – HOH Featured

Shop’s specialty: wardrobes that lift self-esteem

Suitability in Lowell offers second-hand items for free

By Alexander Reid, Globe Staff  |  October 22, 2006

Everything seemed set for Keila Vasquez. With a high school diploma in hand, she was ready to leave her grocery store cashier’s job for work in a more professional setting, maybe an office or a bank.

But days before her first interview, she peered inside her closet, and her confidence wilted. “I didn’t have anything to wear,” said Vasquez, 18. “I had maybe one good outfit I could wear. That was it.”

It is an old maxim — you are what you wear. This is never more true than when a woman is striving to present a dress-for-success look during an interview or in her first weeks on a job. But not every woman has a wardrobe filled with business suits and prim, knee-length skirts.

“I didn’t have those type of clothes,” said Vasquez, who today works as a teller in the Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union on Merrimack Street. “And I didn’t have the money to go out and buy them. New clothes are expensive.”

As it turned out, Vasquez didn’t have to buy new clothes. She found what she needed in a converted storefront on Lowell’s Pawtucket Street, where, on a recent morning, a group of women are busy folding, ironing, and arranging racks of clothing in a frenzied setting that would rival Filene’s Basement.

Presiding over the scene was Kathy Hayes, whose idea to open a clothing outlet for women tapped into what had been a gap in the social service network for women in the Lowell area. In this, its 10th year, Suitability has moved from Central Street to its new venue and has expanded into providing employment workshops with seminars on personal finance, resumé writing, and interview skills.

The store caters to women in transition . Most are looking for jobs. Some are mothers with young children, hoping to leave public assistance. Others are vacating shelters or graduating from career training programs. And while landing a job is a critical step toward climbing out of poverty, so is dressing in the proper attire.

“It’s easily overlooked,” said Hayes, who runs Suitability on an annual budget of about $80,000, mostly through grants and fund-raising, and an army of volunteers.

“Most women come from very trying circumstances — a nice professional wardrobe is just not a priority, not when you have kids and you’re living in a shelter, scraping by one day at a time,” said Hayes, a Lowell native who left a career in accounting to open Suitability. “They don’t come here out of vanity. They want to work, but they can’t very well show up for an interview in jeans and sweat pants.”

You won’t find jeans at Suitability. You will find an inventory of cleaned and pressed suits, skirts, jackets, and blouses in up-to-date styles and labels such as Liz Claiborne, Ann Taylor, and Coldwater Creek.

From the outside, the shop resembles a fashionable boutique, with its fitting room and tufted chairs where patrons can sit and browse fashion magazines. The bright, airy space boasts stylish art and posters on the walls. Hayes jokes that passersby have walked into the shop mistaking it for a retail outlet.

All the clothing is donated, including shoes, jewelry, scarves, purses, and hosiery. Hayes is fussy about what she accepts. “Donors have to call up and make an appointment,” she said. “We don’t take drop-offs. And we won’t accept items that are badly worn or dated.”

Walk-ins aren’t accepted at Suitability. Clients are referred by social service providers in the Lowell area. Women contact Hayes to make an appointment for a fitting. At the shop, they’re paired with a volunteer who functions as a personal shopper, offering suggestions for assembling a wardrobe from the shop’s inventory.

“We make a fuss over them and they love it,” said Thyra Sherman, a volunteer who comes from her home in Andover two or three times a month to help out.

“Women come in thinking they’re going to be handed a bag of clothes, but we walk them around the shop, get an idea of their tastes, and give them advice,” said Sherman. Clients leave with at least five outfits, which is enough to get them through interviews and the first days on the job, said Aline Sanz, another volunteer.

Women also leave Suitability with more than a new wardrobe. Some come away with a good dose of self-respect and confidence.

Deb Chause, director of House of Hope, a family shelter, regularly refers women to Suitability. She has seen women transformed by their visit to the shop. “Many clients feel beaten down by their circumstances and not feeling good about themselves,” said Chause. “They go there and there is emotional support, not just clothes. They’re treated respectfully and, for most, it’s the first time they can remember somebody taking a sincere interest in them. It’s uplifting.”

Vasquez said she was nervous during her visit to Suitability. She had been referred by a social worker at her daughter’s day-care center.

“I expected them to have second-hand clothes that people were trying to throw away, but I walked inside and took one look and said, `Oh, this is great,’ ” she said. “Their clothes were so nice they didn’t seem like hand-me-downs.”

Suitability is patterned after similar organizations throughout the country. The Bottomless Closet, which opened in Chicago in 1990, is believed to be the first. Others have been started in such cities as Philadelphia, San Jose, Washington, and Miami.

Today, there are about 40 similar programs linked in a national network under an umbrella organization named The Women’s Alliance, said Nicole Wild, the executive director. In Massachusetts, outlets have opened in Framingham and Malden.

“These groups formed because people found there were many motivated women who wanted to work, but they didn’t have a good outfit to wear to interviews,” said Wild.

Hayes’s inspiration to start Suitability sprang from a magazine article she read about Bottomless Closet. It dawned on her that she had clothes she had exiled to the back of her closet. She recruited help through her contacts as a member of the Belvidere Neighborhood Association. With help from local groups like Community TeamWorks Inc., donations, grants, and of course, donated clothes, the group set up shop on Central Street.

“When I first launched it, I said I would do this only for two years,” said Hayes. “But then two years turned to three, and now it’s been 10. I think we’re definitely making a difference.”

Alexander Reid can be reached at a_reid@globe.com.