Students launch communal closet for formalwear

Emily Chin, Assistant Campus Editor

NU Threads, a student-run communal closet for professional and formalwear, launched last month within the Northwestern Career Advancement office.

Students can rent professional clothing donated by faculty and alumni for up to 10 days at no cost aside from dry cleaning.

The goal of the program is to address the socioeconomic gap some NU students face when they need professional attire.

“I’m really excited,” said Weinberg senior Pooja Mirchandani, CEO of NU Threads. “I’m really passionate about our mission, which is helping as many people as possible to be ready for formal and professional events.”

NU Threads initially planned to launch at the beginning of Winter Quarter, but experienced some delays because it took a while to get access to the group’s designated rooms in NCA and bring all of the clothes to the closet, said Weinberg sophomore Vedanta Goenka, chief fundraising officer of NU Threads.

“We’re a new group — you run into problems you don’t expect to run into,” Mirchandani said. “We took the extra time instead of launching a not-so-great product.”

The group was created as the result of a Sustained Dialogue group Mirchandani was a part of.

NU Threads now has more than 50 items of clothing, ranging from suits to skirts and dresses. It still wants to build its inventory, although that isn’t the organization’s main goal right now, Weinberg senior Nick McQuinn, chief merchandizing officer for NU Threads.

Mirchandani said she is satisfied with the closet because of the amount of work that went into making it happen. Although not many people have actually rented from the closet, it has gotten a lot of interest from students, Mirchandani said.

NU Threads is trying to publicize the closet and fundraise so that it can be sustainable in the future.

“We are a resource now,” Mirchandani said. “Our aim is to help people.”

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