A second life for clothes that have already performed

Why this exists

Choir clothes have short lives and long afterlives

Every spring, choir programs across Southern California retire a stack of concert wear. A director changes the look, a school switches colors, a graduating class leaves behind forty dresses in forty different sizes. The clothes are barely worn — most were used for a handful of performances a year — and they end up in a storage closet, and eventually in a dumpster.

Meanwhile there are school choirs abroad where the music program is thriving and the wardrobe budget is zero. Directors improvise: students wear whatever black clothing they can borrow, or the group performs in school uniforms, or a family buys something they can't really afford so their kid isn't the one who looks different on stage.

Those two problems fit together. That's the whole idea behind Encore Wardrobe.

How it works

From a closet here to a stage there

1. We collectChoir directors, parents, and students in Southern California give us performance clothing their program no longer uses — concert dresses, tuxedo shirts, vests, dress pants, and performance shoes.
2. We check every pieceAnything stained, torn, or worn out gets recycled as textile rather than shipped. What ships is clean and ready to wear.
3. We photograph and list itEvery item goes on this site with its real sizes and real counts, so a director on the other side of the world can see exactly what's on the rack before asking.
4. A program requests what it needsDirectors pick the pieces and sizes they want. Nothing is sold and nothing is charged, including shipping.
5. We pack and sendRequests are boxed and shipped directly to the school or program. We confirm by email before anything moves.

Where it goes

The Philippines and Thailand, and growing

We started with these two countries because both have deep school and community choral traditions and both had programs that reached out to us. Choral singing in the Philippines is a national pastime with competitions at every level, and Thailand's school music programs are expanding faster than their budgets are.

• The Philippines

  School and parish choirs, many of which compete regionally and need coordinated concert wear to enter.

• Thailand

  Secondary school music programs building a performance wardrobe for the first time.

We're open to programs anywhere. If you run a choir or music program that needs clothing, ask — the worst outcome is that we don't have your sizes yet.

What we take

Good condition, honestly assessed

We accept concert dresses and gowns, tuxedo and dress shirts, vests and cummerbunds, dress pants and skirts, performance shoes, and choir robes. We ask that everything be clean and free of holes, stains, and broken zippers — the standard is whether you'd be comfortable handing it to a student in your own program.

What we don't take: everyday clothing, anything with a specific school's name or crest embroidered on it, and anything that needs repair we can't do ourselves. Sending unusable clothing overseas costs money and creates a disposal problem for the people receiving it, which is the opposite of helping.

Who runs it

A high school student and a lot of borrowed trunk space

Encore Wardrobe is run by a high school student in Southern California, with help from choir directors who spread the word and parents who drive boxes to the post office. There's no office and no staff. That keeps the whole thing small, but it also means every dollar donated goes to shipping rather than overhead.

If you'd like to help — with clothing, with shipping costs, or by connecting us to a program that needs what we have — get in touch.