In an age where it seems more popular to shop your parents’ closets rather than drive to the mall, it’s easy to see that buying second-hand clothes and thrifting has taken the 21st century by storm.
What is not to love about heading to the thrift store? You can often find items in great condition at a fraction of the price. What’s more, with a plain, new cotton t-shirt requiring 2,700 liters of water to produce, many have opted for shopping at thrift stores in order to reduce their carbon footprint.
But what can you do when shopping for a new wardrobe for work? Though we may not enjoy the idea of leaving the great place that Northwestern is, at some point, the student discounts we all love will come to an end, and we’ll have to pay full price for Amazon Prime. This is where the NW Business Club has stepped in to offer their help. They will be hosting a pop-up thrift shop on Saturday, Feb. 26 to try and help alleviate the costs of building a new business wardrobe for NW students.
This event was inspired by the pop-up thrift shop “Threads” hosted by CMT in the fall to raise money for International Justice Mission in hopes of combating human trafficking. After seeing this event’s success, the business department and professor of business, Erica Vonk, saw that students were eager to thrift and may see a need to do so for their future careers.
With the success that Vonk’s Center for Innovation and Leadership has been, it is no surprise she was able to quickly help the club when trying to come up with a new event to engage the wider campus community in. Business club advisor, Ashley Stanislav, has overseen the organization of the event and sees it serving a need on campus.
Stanislav said, “The purpose of the Career Closet is to help students build up their professional wardrobes. We have items ranging from business casual to interview attire, so there’s hopefully something for everyone! Clothing, especially interview clothing, can be expensive so we’re providing a way for students to shop on a budget.”
The Business Club Leadership team, consisting of Hannah Van Meeteren, Kaylynn Ridgely, Brandon Kjonegaard, Jadeyn Schutt, Grace Reginald and Liam Stubbe look forward to hosting the event and can see the potential to make it a recurring event.
One thing that is certain is there will be no shortage of clothes at this event. Not only has the club received numerous donations from NW’s campus, but also through generous donors in Orange City and Sioux Center. There will be a plethora of options consisting of business casual clothing, interview attire and everything in between.
The pop-up business thrift shop will be in the Vogel Room of the DeWitt Learning Commons on Saturday, Feb. 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 
