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The Dressing Room
Formerly known as Swap Shop, The Dressing Room is an on-campus clothing shop. The Dressing Room is designed so that students can both donate clothes they no longer wear and take items from the shop free of charge. Originally, the campus store was an initiative spearheaded by the Office of Sustainability in efforts to combat clothing waste on campus. Recently, the Office for Gender and Sexuality renovated the space to include personal hygiene products and reorganized the store to dispel any gender-separation between clothing racks.
The idea for Swap Shop came from a group of students while they were taking a course titled, Applications of Sustainability. The students, including Enso Tran ’22, proposed the idea of a shop to donate and reuse items among students. Once Enso became a sustainability fellow leader, during his senior year, he chose to focus his efforts on making the idea of Swap Shop a reality. With the help of his team, Enso led the efforts to open the shop, and they held their first open hours in the spring of 2021.
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The GSP office recognized the value of the Swap Shop, providing additional resources to make the shop more centered around equity, where they guaranteed gender-affirming clothes for students seeking a free wardrobe. The Dressing Room holds open hours for students to drop off or take clothing. They also offer the option for students to make an appointment with a personal stylist from the GSP office. Currently, student fellows from the Office of Sustainability volunteer to supervise open hours and maintain the organization of the space at the beginning and end of their shifts.
While the focus of The Dressing Room has shifted to provide more resources for students and create a more equitable campus, efforts towards sustainability are still a large part of The Dressing Room’s mission. As a community, it is important that we continue to support ideas like Swap Shop to evolve our culture around sustainable practices. So, avoid throwing out your clothes or buying new. Try visiting The Dressing Room and swapping some pieces of clothing!
by Gemma Savitz-Vogel
