Free style

One time a student visited VCU’s Suit Yourself Closet — which gives out donated professional clothing to students for job interviews, internships, the odd charity gala, things like that — and told Jaila Hendricks he needed to look fabulous, immediately.

“They had not one outfit, and they came to us hours before [a] career fair started, looking for a whole outfit,” says Hendricks, a digital journalism major in the College of Humanities and Sciences and the ranking stylist at Suit Yourself’s Monroe Park Campus location. The MCV Campus also has an outpost. VCU Career Services runs both. “I’m saying suit, shirt, whole thing.”

Men’s suits, Hendricks says, can be tricky. Donated suits, unlike human beings, come pre-tailored.

“But we were dedicated,” Hendricks says. “This career fair is only one day, so it’s like, ‘We have to make it happen.’ So we were pulling out suits, shirts, pulling out sets. We were like, ‘Hey, try this on.’ ‘That shirt’s not going to work with it. Try this shirt on.’ ‘Do you want a tie? — but you’re fine without a tie.’ It was very much a rushed experience.”

A typical Suit Yourself appointment lasts 30 minutes. They got Mr. Last-Minute Fabulous out in just about that.

“We kept his clothes here that he came in with because he had to just go!” Hendricks says, laughing.

It’s unclear what happened at the career fair. A stylist and a worthy ensemble can get a person only so far. Still, you can’t go most places without clothes, especially if you’re trying to go there confidently.

“I feel like it is a stress reliever,” Hendricks says of the Suit Yourself Closet. “Typically, when you pack for college, you’re thinking shirts, pants. You’re not thinking about business wear that much because you’re like, ‘I’m just going to class.’ But sometimes those professors are like, ‘Hey, if you go to this event, dress nice, extra points,’ but you don’t have that opportunity to because you didn’t bring a shirt or a tie or anything like that.”

The Suit Yourself Closet came about in February 2016 when a big donation of professional clothes from Executive Placements — a Richmond-based marketing and staffing firm that was running a clothing drive at the time and had VCU connections — led to a pop-up protoiteration.

“As an adviser at the time, I heard from a lot of students that they didn’t have access to those types of office-based clothing,” says Jeanette Hickl, an assistant director in Career Services for internship and experiential programs, who helped start Suit Yourself. “I knew from my perspective that there was a need there, but we didn’t know, university-side, whether there’d be a huge response. So we set up this event and we had a line going outside of the office, down the hallway in the University Commons.”

Suit Yourself started in little more than a closet in the Career Services office before consistent donations and student use necessitated more storage space and more showroom floor. The Monroe Park Campus closet expanded to the Hunton Student Center on the MCV Campus in spring 2021. Senior career counselor Virginia Damron oversees that one. Staffing changes forced a two-year closure, however, and it reopened in fall 2024. The Monroe Park Campus closet expanded to a decommissioned-by-remote-work Career Services conference room in summer 2024. In total, Suit Yourself employs six students.

“This is my fourth university where I’ve worked,” says Damron, who had stints at Allegheny College, Catholic University and William & Mary before getting to VCU in 2019. “There’s always been some sort of ‘Dress to Impress Closet’ or ‘Suit Yourself Closet.’ This is the only place I know that the students take it away and it’s theirs. It’s free.

“For example, where I’ve worked before, the students check it out and then they have to dry-clean it and they return it. At VCU, the students keep it — it’s theirs to keep forever, and I think that that’s an important distinction to make because we have such a generous community.”

In the 2023-24 academic year, the Monroe Park Campus closet gave out a record 2,737 items to students, who are rationed six per trip. They get two trips a month, but there’s a freebie bin where less fabulous donations await casual futures. Supplementing the student stylist staff are downloadable style guides covering the fundamentals.

“A lot of times you hear the language of ‘dress to impress,’” says student employment manager Aimee Selleck, who oversees the Monroe Park Campus closet. This past fall, it distributed 1,749 items. “We often now are using the language of ‘dress to express,’ so folks can see themselves in the clothing that we have available and don’t feel boxed into maybe stereotypical gender types. ... The goal is someone just feels — whatever it looks like for them — they feel comfortable and they feel confident.”

Donations arrive weekly to be heaved and sorted into numbered storage bins by student staff. They manage the inventory with a color-coded spreadsheet that looks as thorough as it is long. Stacked bins dominate the Suit Yourself office and the cabinets in the closet proper, which is visited by about 50 students a week as well as the occasional class.

The first to go was a section of Dynamic Principles of Professional Development: Men of Color in 2017. It’s a freshman-only class of 20-25 students taught by Carlton Goode, Ed.D (Ed.D.’22), director of intercultural success and initiatives. He’s also an adviser for the Developing Men of Color student organization, which, along with the class, exists to build community among men of color on campus and guide them in life beyond college.

“We often now are using the language of ‘dress to express,’ so folks can see themselves in the clothing that we have available and don’t feel boxed into maybe stereotypical gender types.”

Matt Tessema (B.S.’21), a graduate of the Richard T. Robertson School of Communications, discovered Suit Yourself through Goode’s class, which culminates in an etiquette dinner. The dress code is formal. Tessema, a Fulbright Scholar whose parents emigrated from Ethiopia, says he didn’t have much experience with dressing up, but after his freshman year he got an internship on Capitol Hill. Not being John Fetterman, he went to Suit Yourself.

“I got measured for the first time,” Tessema says. “I didn’t know anything about what color to get. I didn’t know anything about what was the right style to wear, but they guided me through all of that and they found me the perfect suit with the right matching tie, and they showed me how to put it on and do all that type of stuff, with the right type of shoes.”

It was a navy suit with a purple tie, brown belt and brown shoes.

“It set the tone for me, because when I actually went to the internship, I met another mentor,” Tessema says. Goode was his first. “One of the reasons that we became close was the first day I came into the office — he’s a dude that likes to dress well, so he was like, ‘You are dressed fantastically. You’re looking up to par,’ and then he called me into his office and we kicked it off.”

Suit Yourself’s MCV location is open, by appointment, this summer on Thursdays and Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The Monroe Park location is open (no appointment necessary) Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., its 16 feet by almost 15 feet dominated by five racks, a few accessorizing stations and the student staff, led by Hendricks.

She says it took a year before she got comfortable styling. She started at Suit Yourself with a novice’s fashion acumen and learned as she went. Her moment of truth came when another student had to get fabulous on a deadline. It was early winter-ish 2024.

“She came in with just a button-up shirt and she was like, ‘I just want something to go with this button-up shirt.’ I quite literally spent almost an hour with her,” Hendricks says. “We found her a whole outfit. She left with a little vest, some pants and some shoes, and I felt good that she felt confident because she thought she was going to have a dress and heels, and I’m like, ‘No, girl, you can wear your Converse. You still look professional.’”