Ready to Wear and Ready to Work

Standing before a full-length mirror, Patricia Cleare saw something she had not seen before.

She adjusted the lapels of her new business suit. She looked herself up and down. Then she smiled and smiled, and smiled again.

“I look different,” she said, talking to her reflection. “I look like I’m a trouble-shooter. I look like an executive. I’m ready to go!”

Unemployed and a mother of four, Cleare faced the same dilemma as other women making the transition from welfare to work. She had nothing appropriate to wear. Even if she got a job, she had no office clothes.

All that changed after a visit Wednesday to the Community Closet.

Operated by Mervyn’s California, the Community Closet is a mobile store housed in a 53-foot, big-rig trailer. The closet is on an eight-week, 10-city tour, giving clothes, fashion tips and hope to 1,000 women who are entering the work force after spending years on welfare.

“I look terrific,” Cleare said after her visit.

Three obstacles, according to one study, stand in the way of women moving from welfare to work: lack of transportation, lack of child care and lack of work-appropriate clothing, said Janet Reilly, a Mervyn’s spokeswoman.

“With everything going on with welfare reform, we wanted to help these women,” Reilly said. “We can’t give everyone a car, but we can give these clothes away.”

In Los Angeles, all 120 of the women who received clothing from the Community Closet also are participating in a job skills program operated by a nonprofit organization.

Although they’re acquiring the skills, they also need to look the part of a working woman. It is a transformation that takes place in dressing rooms inside the bright gold big rig.

The truck, which was parked on Olvera Street, looked like a store inside. From the walls hung racks of Mervyn’s fall line of business wear: pantsuits, blouses, cardigan sweaters, turtlenecks, skirts, scarves, shoes and hose.

Two fashion stylists scurried about offering assistance.

“Are you supposed to [tuck] it in or wear it out?” asked Barbara Henderson, emerging from a dressing room wearing a dark two-piece suit and gray blouse.

“In. Here, let me help you,” said Nancy Bernal, a professional stylist, tucking in the shirt.

The women wanted to know, should pants be cuffed? Should white pantyhose be worn with black shoes? How do you best coordinate ensembles?

“The No. 1 thing they ask is do they look good,” said stylist Kate Martindale. “I think they feel transformed.”

If the women had any doubts about their looks, they were silenced when they stepped out of the dressing room. The women who were waiting “oohed” and “aahhed.”

“Girl, when you going on your interview?” someone asked Henderson.

“Which one?” asked Henderson, who sent out numerous resumes.

Henderson holds a degree in criminal justice and worked at the post office until she was laid off. After spending 2 1/2 years on welfare--time she spent raising her son--she is searching for a job working with troubled youth.

“If I could get the health care benefits, I could deal with the McDonald’s pay,” said Henderson, whose son is asthmatic.

Showing up for an interview wearing pantyhose dotted with holes and inappropriate clothing is a sure giveaway, she said, that you’re on welfare. “Now we can go out and shine,” she said.

Henderson was one of 30 women who participate in the One Stop Workforce Development Center, operated by the Los Angeles Urban League.

Antoinette C. Anderson, a job developer with the center, teaches her students to “dress for success.” She knows that some simply do not have the means, so she works to ensure that each woman has at least one suit.

A contingent of Urban League workers sat at tables outside the trailer as the women were outfitted. As each woman walked down the steps of the trailer, modeling their new suits Cinderella-style, the workers applauded and showered compliments.

“I feel so good,” said Geneva Landry, as she walked with runway deftness.

Landry has been looking for jobs “wearing the same thing over and over.”

“This motivates me,” she said.

The experience was overwhelming for some of the women like Sinoah Walker, a mother of two. She said she owned no “dress for success items” but desperately wants to succeed.

Walker left with plastic bags full of new clothes: the requisite dark business pantsuit, a skirt, matching tops, a scarf, pantyhose and a new pair of shoes. Her eyes welled with tears. “I’m so grateful,” she said.