The Crimson Closet, a free borrowing closet for professional clothing spearheaded by Indiana University Student Government, is set to open officially Jan. 12.
Located inside Ernie Pyle Hall, the closet soft launched Nov. 3, opening to students for a testing phase.
Student Body President Zach Goldberg and Acting Vice President Ava Smith reached out to the Walter Career Center in April to begin developing the closet.
“The Crimson Closet is really important to me and Ava,” Goldberg said. “We really believe that no student should ever have to worry about affording clothing for an interview, a ceremony or kind of any moment that matters to them on campus, especially as college costs continue to rise.”
To develop a wardrobe for the closet, IUSG leaders organized clothing donations and allocated money to purchase new clothes.
“I believe we had budgeted $10,000 for this,” Goldberg said. “It did not cost that much. It was somewhere in the realm of $6,500 by the time we had bought all the clothing.”
Smith started a donation bin in her hometown of Chatham, New Jersey, which brought in close to 100 articles of clothing. Smith made a post on Facebook, and members of her community could drop off clothing in a bin outside of her house.
“Throughout the summer, community members dropped off donations in a bin outside my house,” Smith said in a statement to the Indiana Daily Student. “I started with just one bin, but the donations came in quick (enough) that I eventually had to put out a second one. Watching my hometown come together to support IU students and the Crimson Closet was such an awesome experience, and I couldn’t be more grateful to everyone who contributed!”
Because of these donations, the Crimson Closet has an excess of clothes that IUSG is considering using for future projects.
“It was really meaningful, because, you know, now the closet has all these clothing pieces for students, and I know we actually have extra clothing that now we’re looking to figure out new ways to allocate,” Goldberg said. “Whether that might be opening another one or looking for more permanent donations for students as well, that might become a part of the closet moving forward,” Goldberg said.
To borrow a clothing item, students can schedule a visit to the closet on Handshake or simply stop by the closet in Ernie Pyle Hall on the second floor.
Junior Brianna Tappendorf and sophomore Nithina Binu work at the welcome desk, helping students check out clothing.
“We check them in here at the welcome desk so that way their email is already in our system to keep track of the clothing and stuff,” Tappendorf said. “Then there’s a separate database that we also check them into because the one at the welcome desk is just for like appointments and then the one in the back, it tells us which item they checked out, which specific one, the quality of it when we gave it to them.”
Students can borrow the clothing for up to five days, and once they return it, the Walter Career Center sends it to local dry cleaner Kinser Cleaners & Laundry, Inc. who has a purchase-order partnership with the Walter Career Center and the Crimson Closet.
The closet is still in its testing phase. So far, 18 students have come in to check out clothing, Binu said.
“I think that the Crimson Closet is a simple, but meaningful way for us to support the IU community,” Goldberg said, “and I think even though we’ve opened the doors to the first closet, we know it’s going to open countless more doors for students who use it and we’re grateful to play a small part in the success that we’re seeing for students who are using it.”
