A Way to Spread the Glamour Around
The green ball gown hanging on the rack called out to 13-year-old Robin Williams like a dress never had. A bridesmaid had worn it to a fancy wedding, and now the $2,500 gown was waiting for a new owner.
“That’s the one I want!” Robin squealed, reaching for the hanger in this tiny makeshift boutique inside A Place Called Home, a South-Central youth community center. “It’s so beautiful!”
“It’s a Scaasi,” says Dana Green, the good Samaritan who collected 160 dresses from women across Southern California to donate to inner-city adolescent girls for their proms, graduations, quinceaneras, weddings and other formal occasions. But Robin pays no attention to the designer name. The self-proclaimed tomboy who has never seen a dress she longed for is now feeling the satin on her skin.
“A little assistance, please,” she teases. Her eyes light up, her smile broadens. “I love it!”
In a moment, she is outside, slithering into the dress in front of the crowd of girls waiting their turn, not even stopping to take off her sweatshirt or ankle-length denim skirt. She pulls the top a few inches forward, and looks inside.
“Oh, Robin, you got some time left before you fill that out!” teases one of the center’s program directors as he walks by.
Robin jumps up and down, busts a few moves and yells, “I want it!”
“You see that smile? These smiles are worth everything,” says Ray Gallegos, executive director of A Place Called Home, who is watching from the sideline.
This is the second time that Green, founder of the Cinderella Project, has turned the center into a dress shop for prom season. Burned out from her job in entertainment public relations, Green, 29, came up with the idea for the dress donations last year when she was looking for an opportunity to “do something nice for the community.”
“I had all these dresses from being in weddings, and I knew my friends did too,” she said. “You don’t want to give them to Goodwill or something like that, because you don’t know what will happen to them. I thought it would be great if I could get the word out and collect them and give them to girls who cannot afford them. It’s such a big deal to look good on those occasions.”
Largely via the Internet, Green spent months reaching out to the region’s professional women to motivate them to donate their never-to-be-worn-again gowns for a cause dear to her heart. As the e-mails were forwarded and reforwarded, the dresses began arriving from individuals, movie studios, production companies and nonprofit organizations, as well as clothing and shoe stores.
Monica Lowe, a production assistant at Beauty and Photo in Los Angeles, was so touched by the idea of the Cinderella Project that she organized a collection in her office that yielded about 30 dresses.
“You have four girls in one office, you can get a chunk of clothes,” she said. “Normally, I do give my clothes away. But this is nice because being a young girl, and if you don’t have a lot of money, you still want to look nice. It really makes a difference, especially for your prom.”
Inside the boutique, Green has set up this afternoon with the help of a few volunteers. Girls dressed in jeans and casual school wear are bubbling with excitement. Even with just six girls allowed in at a time, the noise level rivals that of the band practice in the next room. “Look at this one! Check out that one! And look, there’s more: purses, accessories and shoes!”
Priscilla Gonzalez, 12, is walking away with a black silk dress with a floral embroidered print and a pair of black sling-backs. A sixth-grader at Marina del Rey Middle School, Priscilla’s jaw drops when she hears the dress she selected--the one that makes her look svelte and glamorous--was once worn by Jacklyn Zeman, an actress on “General Hospital.” “Really?” says Priscilla, grinning widely. “I think it’s so pretty.”
“You look pretty in it,” Green replies.
Out of the dressing room pop Autumn Crayon and Fantajia Thomas, both in slinky dresses. Autumn, a 15-year-old freshman, opts for a lavender dress with spaghetti straps that accentuates her developing curves. Fifth-grader Fantajia, 11, chooses a silver Shantung silk. They’ve never worn anything so elegant before and are overwhelmed by their transformation.
The girls prance, primp and giggle at every compliment. Her dress makes her feel grown, says Autumn. “It makes me feel educated and beautiful and like a star,” says Fantajia.
“That makes me feel so much better,” says Jennifer Lowitz, 29, who donated a periwinkle formal evening gown that was quickly snatched by 17-year-old Anita Hardy. “I wore that to a wedding three weeks ago. And now she’s going to wear it. That makes me happy,” says Lowitz, a public relations consultant and friend of Green’s who volunteered to help at the giveaway.
By the end of the two-hour shopping spree, 40 girls have come and gone, and so have about 100 dresses. The accessories table is almost empty, and there are only two pairs of shoes left.
“My hope is that once the girls wear the dresses, a cousin or somebody else can wear it too, that it’s not going to just sit in the closet,” says Green as she’s organizing the leftovers. “This feels good. It’s definitely one of the best days of my life.”
If only Robin could share in the joy. Her older sister has told her she cannot take the Scaasi gown home: It’s too big, and she will never wear it. Green wants her to have it anyway, but the answer is still no. Green consoles herself with the notion that Robin is leaving with shiny rhinestones around her neck, wrist and ankle.
“That’s something, I guess,” says Green, packing up the Scaasi for another Cinderella shopping day.
To donate a dress for future giveaways, contact Dana Green at cinderellaproject@pacbell.net.
