Interview with Felicia Sullivan, Author and Founder of Fashion For All
Termeh Mazhari: Tell me about Fashion For All.
Felicia Sullivan: For the past few months, I’ve volunteered for New York Cares and it’s changed me in ways I hadn’t imagined. There is something truly gratifying about placing your needs aside and helping someone who really needs a meal, shelter, and companionship. These are basic needs that people have that are not being met in today’s economy. A great deal of my volunteer work has been in meal service, and I was inspired by providing dignified, “white glove” meal service to those who are homeless or simply struggling to make ends meet. Combining my love of fashion and style and need to give back to the community in which I grew up, Fashion For All was born.
The mission of Fashion For All is to provide an annual day of dignified shopping for residents in low-income communities across the country. Our partnerships with local community activist and outreach organizations, as well as prominent fashion and beauty brands, enable us to provide a day of luxury shopping and white-glove, personalized service for residents in low-income communities, as well as access to local organizations and programs, which provide educational, career, and parenting resources.
During these very difficult economic times, regardless of one’s financial situation, everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. With the Fashion For All Shopping Experience, women, who, tirelessly struggle to provide for their families will be rewarded with not only a day of indulgence, but convenient access to community outreach programs. So whether she’s seeking career counseling, professional attire, or terrific parenting programs, we hope to offer community residents access to the resources they need.
What hopefully will kick off as an annual event might dovetail into a non-profit. I hope to take this idea and scale it nationally.
Termeh Mazhari: What made you want to give back to the NYC community?
Felicia Sullivan: Well, I grew up poor in Brooklyn, so I know what it’s like to subsist on a bag of potatoes and a stick of butter. I’ve had meals on a hot plate when Con Ed shut off our gas. In short, I know what it’s like to struggle because I’ve experienced it first-hand. And now that I’m in this rare place in my life where I’ve written a book that’s being adapted for film and I have a great deal of clarity and professional success, I’d be remiss not to give back to the community in which I grew up. Especially in these precarious times. I have to say that service changes you – it makes you less self-absorbed, calm, and happier.
Termeh Mazhari: Do you think NYC is the fashion capital of the world?
Felicia Sullivan: Absolutely. There is no comparison. New York is a city that doesn’t define itself by a particular style or trend, rather it creates and constantly reinterprets and reinvents them.
Termeh Mazhari: What do you love about fashion, and what do you hate?
Felicia Sullivan:
Love: How people can infuse their personalities into their clothes. Ever since I was a kid trolling the East Village, I’ve been in a awe of people who elevate their fashion to art.
Hate: How people take fashion so seriously. At the end of the day, fashion is comprised of the fabric you put on your body, the shoes you put on your feet. It’s not saving or changing lives. I also worry about people who obsess over statement items, allowing these things, which are only consumables, to define them. Some people define themselves by their status items, and that sort of elitism or obsession is unseemly. At least to me it is. Don’t get me wrong! I love my shoes and my handbags, but I don’t rely on these things to solely define the kind of person I am.
Termeh Mazhari: You’re also an author and a foodie. What is your favorite NYC restaurant/coffee shop to read a book?
Felicia Sullivan: That’s tough because New York is filled with extraordinary cafés! But these are my favorites: 71 Irving Café and Sugar Sweet Sunshine (the best cupcakes in the city) in Manhattan, The General Greene in Ft. Greene, Snice in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Felicia Sullivan is the author of The Sky Isn’t Visible from Here: Scenes from a Life, and the founder of Fashion For All, a soon-to-be-non-profit whose mission is “to provide an annual day of dignified shopping for residents in low-income communities across the country”.
Join Felicia on Friday May 8th at the Fashion for All Donor Party at the MINT Jodi Arnold Showroom. The first 50 guests to arrive with 15 donated items or more will receive a luxurious gift bag. In appreciation for your donations, all guests will be offered wholesale rates on current MINT Jodi Arnold Collections!
The Fashion For All inaugural event will take place at Irondale (www.irondale.org) in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn on May 16, 2009, from 2-7pm.
Visit www.fashionforall.org for more details, or email Felicia Sullivan at [email protected]
This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Interview, New York City Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
