Dress for Success provides clothes, advice and more for clients

Women enter through a narrow door on Fourth Street. Everything is beige. And old. They head toward the cramped elevator, step inside, and their guide presses the number three. She makes a point of touching it just at the right spot, "about 11 o'clock," to make sure the creaking door closes.

As the elevator lurches upward, the number on the display reads "six." "It's an old building," Lisa McDaniel Brown, advancement director for Dress for Success, explains the idiosyncrasy as she welcomes visitors to the third floor.

When the door opens, there is a sort of "Wizard of Oz" moment, when the grayness of the city street morphs into a Technicolor field of oranges and greens, colorful, spring-inspired cushions on window seats and stylish women's clothes hanging on the wall like artwork.

Women who have been referred by social service agencies and other organizations sit on the window seats. They fill out paperwork and chat with the staff of mostly volunteers who will gather sizing information and then help each guest find a suit and the proper accessories needed for a job interview. They will not pay a dime.

In the suiting area, racks of matching dress suits and shoes line the walls. Dressing rooms designed by California Closets are spacious and bright. Earrings, bracelets and necklaces create a sparkling jewelry counter. Colorful scarves, the signature Dress for Success accessories, hang up and down a pillar. "By the time they leave, their heads are higher," says McDaniel Brown.

Since Mary Ivers founded the local Dress for Success non-profit as only the 20th affiliate in the country, much has changed. Now there are nearly 300 locations around the country. The Cincinnati operation has moved twice, but always stayed on Fourth Street, making it convenient for women to donate as well as shop in the Fourth Street Boutique.

The Boutique, a resale shop that offers bargain prices to every shopper, stocks a wide range of women's clothing, shoes and accessories. Its sales, along with grants and donations, fund the Dress for Success operation, which may "suit" more than 30 women per week.

"These women have nothing," says McDaniel Brown. "They are coming out of prison, halfway houses, homeless shelters and running from abuse." They know, first-hand, that in order to move forward, there is literally no going back.

At Dress for Success, they get more than an appropriate interview outfit. Once they land jobs, women can come back for a week's worth of work clothes, all free, and join the Professional Women's Group, which offers professional development seminars every month.  

Do good:

Host a party. Whether you invite friends and co-workers to the Fourth Street Boutique for a night of shopping and hors d'oeuvres or host your own party, make the price of admission a fresh accessory or suit.

Share your talents. Volunteer to be a personal shopper or give an informational talk to the Professional Women's Group.

Go shopping. You can't beat the prices at the Fourth Street Boutique. Don't forget to visit the basement, where clothing items sell for between $1 and $5.

By Elissa Yancey

Photo courtesy Dress for Success Cincinnati

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