Henri Groulx and Angie Auchterlonie opened their junk clothing boutique recently, tailoring suits for job interviewees for free.
Centretown’s newest used clothing boutique is in the early stages of a project that may give away suits and accessories to people who need help dressing up for job interviews.
Funk Your Junk opened at 125 Somerset St. West recently. The store’s goal is to help customers find unusual, funky used clothing while also helping the environment, says co-owner Henri Groulx.
Groulx and Angie Auchterlonie, the other co-owner, are well positioned to start the suit donation program – dubbed Suited for Success – because they have connections in the corporate world.
“We know a lot of people who have suits they don’t wear anymore, so we’re getting people to donate their suits,” says Auchterlonie.
Auchterlonie used to be a corporate executive and Groulx still is.
“Over the years, we’ve done thousands of interviews and we noticed that some people would have felt more comfortable if they wore the right suit,” says Groulx.
There are people in the community who want to make changes in their lives – immigrants, single parents, substance abusers – but can’t afford a new suit, says Auchterlonie.
“We’re going to make them look polished and ready to go,” she says.
But before the program can even begin, Groulx and Auchterlonie need to finalize arrangements with the United Way, which will connect the pair with people in the community who need this help.
“We don’t have the capability or the experience to be able to know who needs our suits the most,” says Groulx.
That’s why United Way is test-piloting the program to see how it can work with Funk Your Junk, says Kate Headley, United Way media co-ordinator. Before the charity officially joins any program it has to test to see how it will help people, she says.
Until the end of the year, Funk Your Junk will be running a few people through the program – one or two per week – to work out the kinks, says Auchterlonie.
These people will come from United Way, but how the charity will identify them is yet to be determined, she says.
United Way might decide to go to the Ottawa Mission and say there's a program that can help them; then the mission will say it needs a size 32, and United Way will flip that information back to Funk Your Junk.
But this process may be unsuitable for the United Way and it might decide another group needs the program more, says Groulx.
So while United Way supports the program, it won’t officially be on board until the pilot phase is complete in January, says Elise Reekie, a United Way employee.
The pilot phase is also testing logistics, says Reekie. “We can’t go full out in the community because if we have 200 clients and only 10 suits then we’ll have a lot of disappointed people,” says Reekie.
“We also have to work out little bugs like how to get people to the store – we might have to pick them up,” says Groulx.
Hillary’s Cleaners has recently agreed to do all the cleaning and repairing, says owner Bruce Hillary.
Hillary's Cleaners has operated in Ottawa since 1949. It has twp major dry-cleaning plants and nine other depots across the city, says Hillary.
Until Funk Your Junk finds out if United Way will permanently join the program in January, they will continue operating out of its small store fondly nicknamed "the closet" by Groulx and Auchterlonie.
Although Groulx says he knew right away that the store was too small – they even have to send customers to the neighbouring tailor to use the change room – he says the small space keeps the store more personal.
Funk Your Junk does not only give away free suits, it also sells funky used clothing.
Groulx and Auchterlonie hope to make used clothing cool by sewing their brand into all their products.
They say they opened the store because it’s more exciting than their day jobs and it makes a difference to the local environment by keeping clothing out of the dump.
“Textile waste accounts for more than four per cent of Canadian landfills,” says Auchterlonie.