Q&A: The Professional Clothing Closet Helps UGA Become More Sustainable

Olivia Kosobud, from Franklin, Tennessee, is a third-year political science and international affairs student at the University of Georgia, where she is also the executive director of the Professional Clothing Closet which helps to create sustainable ways to gather professional dress clothes for students. 

Q: What is the goal of the Professional Clothing Closet?

A: Our main goal is to provide professional wear to all UGA students. We originally were founded to serve a few students here and there, but our goal- because its student government's overall goal- is to be the voice of every bulldog. Our motto in a way is to serve every bulldog in need.

Q: How does the process work?

A: It’s free for every single UGA student. They can keep it as long as they need; they never really need to return it to us. What I like to tell people when they ask about returning it, is this is their first professional item, but let's just say a few years down the line, you get a job, and you're able to afford a lot nicer clothing. In that case, definitely donate your stuff back to us. We also sometimes have people that are like, I'm not going to use this again. Maybe their career just doesn't require it. So they'll use it for interviews and they'll donate to us. Each student is eligible for one free complete professional outfit per academic year. With that, a student can receive up to a blazer, top, bottom and then a tie for menswear as well. 

Q: Do you have any prior knowledge on sustainable fashion?

A:  Personally, when I was in high school part of my income, I used to thrift things and resell them online like on Poshmark and eBay. I do not do that anymore. I don't have time to do that. I guess that's sort of my knowledge. And then the professional clothing closet used to be tied with the department of sustainability of Georgia. 

Q: Would you consider this a sustainable way of fashion?

A: Absolutely for sure. For me at least a lot of my personal items I thrift. I feel like it's much better for the environment.

Q: Are there any issues that you see today in how the world works, in regards to sustainability that this program seeks to fix? 

A: Yes. Sometimes we receive donations that are not professional and we do two things with those. If it's something that a college student would wear, like Georgia t-shirts, we put them in a separate pile. About once or twice a month, we have an event where we table on Thursdays, it's called Thrifty Thursdays. We let students take a few items home. Then if it's an item that we do not think a student would reach for, we redonate all of those items. We normally try to re-donate them to Goodwill or Project Safe. So even if we just show it to them, they are able to use it even further down the line. 

Comments trimmed for length and clarity.