Free Store’s new Curated Closet brings a sustainable twist to style

By Amelia Heymann

The new hot spot for students to get stylish secondhand clothing isn't a boutique or vintage shop. It's Virginia Commonwealth University's Free Store.

With April's Earth Month offering an ideal fit, the Free Store and Pop-Up Stop have teamed up to create the Curated Closet within the Free Store, which is part of VCU Sustainability.

The closet is the brainchild of Jordan Burke, a senior majoring in fashion merchandising in the School of the Arts, minoring in marketing insights from the School of Business and pursuing a Sustainable Innovation Certificate through the School of Life Sciences and Sustainability within the College of Humanities and Sciences. She has been the zero-waste intern with VCU Sustainability, and her duties have included helping run the Free Store, a campus "shop" where students, faculty and staff can get secondhand items at no cost.

Knowing of students' interest in fashion, Burke saw an opportunity to expand the store's offerings.

"I thought with such a fashion-centered school, it would be great to implement some textiles as well," she said.

Keeping clothing in circulation

Burke linked up with Helena Dauverd, a fashion design major with a minor in merchandising and the senior research associate with the Pop Up Stop. The campus organization aims to reduce textile waste in landfills and raise awareness about how consumer's textile care habits add to the crisis.

"Uncovering Fashion"

"In a culture of fast fashion and such a linear model that we currently have of the fashion industry, it's important to encourage circularity to try to mitigate us going further down that rabbit hole of polluting the earth," Dauverd said.

The Pop Up Stop offers bins to collect textile donations from VCUarts fashion students. While fabric scraps are added, so are whole garments. That, along with other donations to the Free Store, is how the Curated Closet is stocked.

"It's nice to have that collaboration, because Pop Up Stop will be able to continually supply whole garments if donations here get a little slow," Burke said.

This new collaboration ties into the One VCU Sustainability Plan, which was adopted in 2024 as a first-of-its-kind plan for VCU to embed sustainability throughout the academic and health system realms. Sara Barton, who was recently promoted to director of VCU Sustainability, cited the closet as reflecting the plan's emphasis on creating enduring, cross-functional approaches to sustainable materials management.

"The Free Store Curated Closet is a simple but impactful way VCU is advancing its goal of becoming a zero-waste campus. By keeping clothing in circulation, it directly supports the institution's commitment to reduce the amount of material entering the waste stream," Barton said. "The Curated Closet is helping make reuse more accessible and embedded in daily campus life."

Stylishly sustainable

And being green doesn't mean sacrificing style. The closet's offerings are hand-picked by the staff, with trendy pieces in mind.

Dauverd noted that fashion is an important form of self-expression and a way for people to explore their creativity. Having a new piece of clothing can make a big difference to someone with little to spend on updated fashion. And Burke added that a student's exploration of identity often includes new styles.

"A lot of that like expression - like gender expression, emotional expression, whether you're part of a subculture or you find yourself kind of falling into a subculture - that can be expressed through clothing," Dauverd said. "I think the closet kind of gives people the option to explore that without having to buy new things."

It also can be a resource for students who need new clothing for other reasons, such as the change of seasons or weight fluctuations.

"Having accessibility is important, and it gives people a little bit more financial freedom," Burke said.

She and Dauverd agreed that the most rewarding part of the closet launch has been "seeing everyone's smiles," with patrons of all ages and walks of life browsing the rack.

"It's just really interesting to see how everyone wears clothes and what we can provide as a service to the whole student body," Dauverd said.

Another way the Free Store is trying to keep clothing out of the waste stream is by setting up a mending station with string, buttons, sewing supplies and patches. QR codes link to tutorials on ways to mend clothing.

And if any item is still sitting on the closet rack after 30 days, it will be donated to a local thrift store.

While this was Burke's semester project, Anna Malone, the zero-waste program manager with VCU Sustainability, called it a strong example of how students can implement changes within VCU and make a meaningful impact.

The Free Store's hours are Tuesday from noon to 3 p.m. and Wednesday through Friday from noon to 8 p.m. It accepts donations year-round, and with the closet, it now accepts clean clothing in good condition.