Every few months I feel that familiar itch that tells me it’s once again time to dig through the overflowing racks of clothes I’ve unknowingly accumulated to make some space for the new digs that will soon fill it again. I am a self-proclaimed clothes hoarder and find it extremely hard to give away certain fabulous finds that have sat unworn for years, worrying that their future owner won’t appreciate just how fabulous they are. Goodwill is a great staple for your wardrobe donations but they sell clothes at an extremely low margin because most of their customers have wants and needs that aren’t concerned with a houndstooth Escada blazer from the 80s. This time, I opted to hold on to certain pieces and find a more fitting home to foster them until the appropriate new owner came along. As a thrift lover myself, I know that one woman’s dated donation is another’s vintage treasure… and then a light bulb went off.
During my brief stint in New York this past hiatus, I had the pleasure of rubbing elbows with some of fashion’s kindred spirits and made a couple of dear friends in the mix. Their energy, drive, talent and personal style inspired me and I was determined to bring that inspiration back to LA and put it to use for a good cause. I decided to create and curate a pop-up thrift sale with donated items from a collective of fashion’s cool kids. For my first attempt, I brainstormed a list of my ideal donators and venue host with no intention of actually being able to wrangle everyone on it. I started e-mailing with the conviction of someone who knew what she was talking about…which I certainly was not at the time… and much to my pleasant surprise, everyone was immediately in! My ideas tend to be on the grander side of affairs but I always seem figure it out along the way so I thought it was best to get the ball rolling now and worry about how to pull it all off later. Rebecca Minkoff was on board for us to use her LA store for the day and I rounded up my favorite jewelry designer Pamela Love, Alice + Olivia stylist and expert-fashionista Cleo Wade, Chrome Hearts designer and badass punk singer Jesse Jo Stark, creator of Wildfox Couture and my favorite fashion blog Kim Gordon and NHL hockey player turned NY tastemaker Sean Avery and got to some serious planning!
I wanted to keep the first ‘Closet for a Cause’ sale organic and low-key as to keep it manageable and unintimidating for everyone involved while making sure the focus was on the cause as well as the shared love of fashion that had brought everyone together. Not only would our old great pieces find great new homes but 100% of sales would be donated directly to a cause that we all chose to support. To kick off Closet for a Cause, our first sale’s proceeds were donated to my social movement Spread the Heart’s charity of choice, The Yoshiki Foundation, for Japan’s aid and relief. We hope to only grow bigger and better, raising many dollars for many different causes through hand-selected donations from influential faces of fashion in the future. Stay tuned for where the next Closet for a Cause sale will pop up!
