Shop for Success Lookbook
2015 Anniversary Edition
Dress for Success Central Virgnia is a Richmond based affiliate of the global not-for-profit organization that promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support, and career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.
Dress for Success Central Virginia is commited to proving that our community impact goes way beyond the suit. On top of providing women with career development tools and professional attire, we support local business, and talent in their endeavors! Being that the metro Richmond area has such a rich artistic community, we have reached out to the RVA Arts Community to provide local artists and designers a platform to expose their talents and gain experience in their chosen discipline.
Each year we hold a fundraiser fashion show, with this years theme being “Red Carpet Runway.” Most of our resources to compile these Fundraiser Shows comprise of individuals and local businesses donating time, service, funds, and other resources to create a fun night of fashion and commoradery. We solicit for local emerging designers and challenge them to create runway worthy designs from our collections of donations we receive that are not appropriate for work. You can view a recap of this year’s show below shot by local videographer Elizabeth "Lizzy B" Reed of Press Plae. A full length video can be viewed on our Extras Page courtesy of I’ehsa Hornes of GapToothDiva.
Our Fashion Show tends to be our largest Fundraising event of the year, and the funds raised from the fashion show go directly to benefit the career development and employment retention programs of Dress for Success Central Virginia.
This Lookbook is another way for us to support our emerging local talent! We reached out to various photographers, models, make-up artists and hair stylists to assist in creating fashion stories that showcase the amazing clothing donations we receive from our generous public. The pieces presented in the lookbook are an example of what items one can hope to purchase at our ‘Shop for Success: Anniversary Edition’ Fundraiser Sale event on July 18, 2015.
In my fashion, the work of these contributors was above par! I was very impressed and grateful for their professionalism, energy, and collaboration. I felt this sale was an opportuinity to put these emerging artist to work in a capacity comparable to experiences they would get in larger cities for larger brand name companies or magazines. I come from the idea, that whether we reside in Paris, New York, or Richmond, fashion is occurring all around us and considering our sales goals for ‘Shop for Success’, I figured this was the perfect way to employ their talents in this marketing campaign for Dress for Success Central Virginia.
Now these artist have new material for their porfolios, and we all were able to gain experiences to understand how to perform in a team environment, and understand how we would want to conduct ourselves for our own business endeavors. For emerging artists, Dress for Success Central Virginia understands that we all have to start from somewhere. Just like the women we serve who are able to go forth in life with new confidence towards economic independence, we hope that emerging artists can use there experiences with us to move to the next level in their professional careers as artists. Everyone’s definition of success is different, but regardless of the dream, there is always a journey to success.
editor's note
