Dress for Success: suits and self-belief for women seeking work

Clari* had been living in Ireland for more than a decade when she lost her job working for a translation company. She began searching for a new position but found potential employers were often discouraged by her foreign accent. She ended up seeking support from employment services in Dublin, where it was recommended she contact an organisation called Dress for Success.

“I had been looking for a job for over a year and didn’t have any success,” she says. “I had no self-confidence at that point. After looking for so long, you don’t feel good about yourself.”

Clari, who has an undergraduate degree in journalism and marketing from Venezuela and a master’s degree from Dublin Institute of Technology, was relieved to discover a supportive group of volunteers at Dress for Success who were determined to help her find employment. She met a career guidance counsellor to discuss her CV and potential interview questions, and then met a stylist who picked out an outfit she could wear for a job interview.

“They told me, ‘You don’t have to give the clothes back; they’re yours now. You can keep them if you have another interview.’ I was crying because I couldn’t believe I was leaving with a new suit.”

Clari is one of the more than 1,000 women who have availed of the free Dress for Success service in Dublin since its launch in 2011. The NGO, originally founded in New York in 1997, is part of an international network that supports the economic independence of women by providing professional clothing and career advice to those caught in the unemployment trap.

Unemployed women are invited to visit the Dress for Success office in Dublin through referrals from agencies, including local employment services, jobs clubs, community groups and other NGOs, where they meet experienced volunteers running one-to-one style and career sessions.

Sonya Lennon’s vision

Designer and broadcaster Sonya Lennon, who set up the Dublin office in 2011, says the service offers women who are looking for work the opportunity to reassess how they present themselves, both on paper and in person.

“We call it the click,” says Lennon. “This isn’t a one-sided ‘You just wear this’. It’s an interaction with the woman. She has to be comfortable. Then it’s moving on to looking at the CV and making it clear what her communication strategy is.”

The NGO works with women of all ages who have fallen out of working life due to a number of factors, including long-term unemployment, bringing up children at home or going through a life-changing event such as a divorce.

“There is no one Dress for Success woman,” says Lennon. She says 57 per cent of the organisation’s clients have found employment. “There’s everything from school leavers to women with PhDs. It’s unbelievably broad. I work with women all the time who undersell themselves, so imagine if you were crippled with insecurities. Imagine how much you’d undersell yourself.”

The initiative has built up its wardrobe of suits, dresses and shoes in its office on Lower Liffey Street through donations from professional women and businesses in the corporate sector. “The message of Dress for Success is pretty infectious and gets lots of volunteers,” says Lennon. “We target professional women and ask for clothes they no longer wear. The criteria is that anything they donate should help another woman to land a job.”

Ilaria Dondero signed up as volunteer nearly a year ago, after a friend asked her to donate some work clothes to the cause. Dondero, a professional career coach from Italy, says the key to building up a woman's confidence before an interview is to identify her passions and interests.

She notices the women’s body language transform during the 45-minute career-guidance session; they go from reserved and nervous to animated and confident. “When they see they have skills, their body language changes. Even their smiles and eyes change,” says Dondero. “You can see they have energy.”

The session is not a mock interview but a chance for women to discuss their skill set and develop their CVs, says Dondero.

“Their lack of confidence is preventing them from even applying. This is a safe place where they can come. To feel safe you need to trust . . . us that we’re here to help, not to judge.”

Dondero has worked with a number of women who have moved from abroad to live in Ireland and have struggled to find employment. “Because I’m a foreigner myself, I relate to them. There is this kind of thinking that, because I don’t have English as a first language, even though I’m skilled I can’t demonstrate it properly.

“The reality is: people don’t even notice this unless you tell them, ‘Oh, by the way, apologies for my English’. You need to take this issue out of your mind and then we can work on CVs and interview skills.”

Dondero has worked with school leavers who struggle to find work due to a lack of experience. She says younger job seekers must show motivation to learn. “It’s about the willingness to put yourself out there. It’s about adventure and future more than a fear of a lack of experience.”

Style session

Stylist Tara Crowley is busy upstairs working with a client who has just arrived at the Dress for Success office. Crowley bustles around a bright room packed with rails of clothing, piecing together an original trouser suit ensemble for the woman in the nearby dressing-room.

"I'm very familiar with how a woman feels about mentally exposing herself," says Crowley, who runs a style consultation service, Optimise Your Wardrobe. "A wardrobe is a very emotional place for a woman."

She says many clients arrive at Dress for Success having never modelled an outfit for someone before. “Coming out in front of a mirror: for a lot of women that’s a huge thing. You have to go gently. They have to trust you and must feel comfortable.”

“This isn’t about vanity,” she adds. “If you look good, you feel great.”

Crowley creates outfits using the donated Dress for Success wardrobe. She says it’s important that the interviewer focuses on the woman’s face when she’s speaking rather than the outfit she’s wearing. “It’s really important they’re not making a decision on your abilities based on your clothes. We want to be neutral and safe – nothing too crazy or daring – so the interviewer is looking at the neck up and listening to the words coming out.”

Crowley has gained a lot from volunteering at Dress for Success. “Like everybody who volunteers, you amazingly get more back than you give. Giving women that little bit more confidence, you get a lot back from that.”

Clari, who is due to start her new job in the coming weeks, agrees that the volunteers at Dress for Success helped rebuild her morale after a number of unsuccessful interviews and a prolonged period of unemployment. “When you don’t have a job, you go through so many stages in your life. You feel like you’re on your own.”

“[Dress for Success] wasn’t just about clothes, it was also about interview training. It boosted my self-confidence and made me understand there was nothing wrong with me.”

* Surname withheld

[ dressforsuccessdublin.org ]