Dress for Success

Ans Hoyle and Michelle Pleydell from Rotorua have been working hard to get Dress for Success up and running in Tauranga. Photo/supplied

Dress for Success staff have the rewarding job of seeing their clients transform before their eyes.

"You may see a woman walking in here shuffling and looking down at their feet, and 90 minutes later they walk out looking like a transformed woman," says Dress for Success president Michelle Pleydell.

Dress for Success is a charitable organisation that assists women back into the workplace,
providing services and programmes to enable disadvantaged women into work, which also includes a dressing programme to prepare women for job interviews and work.

Dress for Success in Tauranga has been developing for 18 months and has already served 65 local women. They are now ready to open their doors at 30 Grey St.

Dress for Success in Tauranga is managed by the Rotorua team of Michelle and trustee Ans Hoyle. The Rotorua Dress for Success has been running for five years.

"After requests from our referral agents to bring our services into Tauranga we have made the decision to open an office here and offer clients our wraparound transformative services that will give struggling women a hand up, and enable them to walk their own path to success. "It's about self confidence," she says.

"We have women who walk in and say they have never worn high heels, or they don't wear skirts and no coloured blouses and they walk out wearing in high heels, skirt and tailored blouse."

The service also extends to a purse, underwear and makeup and staff can show clients how to apply it too.

The programmes designed to get women into employment include a career centre, skills training, job searching and interview training, work experience and professional development.

Support and guidance is offered all along the journey. Dress for Success is a global non-profit organisation and Tauranga will be the eighth branch to open in New Zealand.