Picture caption: The first pop-up of Blue’s Closet was held in Dugan Hall room 234. Photo by Natalie Goo.
JENNA HARLAN | STAFF REPORTER | jhharlan@butler.edu
There are many obstacles a college student might have when it comes to expanding their wardrobe. These include the barrier of cost, not having a car on campus or even just wanting to shop more sustainably without knowing where to start.
Two of Butler’s students — junior applied business technology major Lia Goss and fifth-year strategic communication major Giselle Varre — saw these problems and came up with a solution. Blue’s Closet is a student operation to easily provide accessible clothes to Butler students.
On Sept. 23 and 24, Blue’s Closet had an opening pop-up to launch the new business. This was the first of three pop-ups planned for this year to pave the way to being a constant resource on campus. Dugan Hall room 234 was filled entirely with secondhand clothing donated by students and staff members. Both Goss and Varre were blown away by their reported turnout of over 400 people, and even more excited to see how many people found perfect items for them.
“Neither of us have ever worked retail, and just seeing the looks on people’s faces when they would pull items that we were excited about was really cool,” Varre said. “It was just really nice to see that we were meeting a necessity.”
The thrift pop-up consisted of everything one could find at a typical thrift store. All of these items were meticulously organized by clothing type and size for the most convenient shopping experience. All Butler students are encouraged to find time to shop and donate to the collection during the pop-ups.
Donation options are available to help Blue’s Closet maintain its mission of sustainability. It is focused on Butler-branded donations but is able to receive any type of good-condition clothing.
“We’re actually doing a donation drive for Homecoming weekend, so there will be a bin in Hinkle at the east door,” Goss said. “Anyone can donate — students, staff [and] the community.”
With these donations, there will be more clothing items available than just business-professional and Butler-themed items, from a variety of different places and trends. Creating a sustainable resource for clothing is the main purpose of Blue’s Closet, giving students an opportunity to shop sustainably for a variety of different styles.
These pop-ups will continue to run with the help of volunteers until Blue’s Closet is established in a permanent home on campus. Volunteers can be students or faculty who want to support this new option for sustainable clothing.
Junior P1 pharmacy major Danielle Roberts volunteered for the event after hearing about it through her sorority. She really enjoyed doing service for the campus, along with the active participation of staff members who have donated their clothes.
“[Volunteering for the event] has been honestly pretty laid back,” Roberts said. “It’s just basic tasks, like any retail store — straightening up tables, asking if [people] need a [changing] room, just helping them out. There’s a lot of good brands here, and suits, if you need them for business stuff — which I think is really cool to have on campus.”
Blue’s Closet plans to have more pop-up shops before their official opening. Follow bluescloset.bu on Instagram for more updates on how to shop and donate.
