Seattle Goodwill Glitter Sale, Part 2: Garments
Before getting into this Part 2 post, let’s just recap from Part 1, Jewelry & Accessories: this fall marks the 33rd anniversary of Seattle Goodwill’s Annual Glitter Sale as well as my 3rd anniversary of photographing for the campaign. If you are not familiar with the Glitter Sale, it goes sort of like this: each fall, the Dearborn location of Seattle Goodwill hosts a huge sale of donated designer fashion pieces — jewelry, accessories, and garments/textiles. This year, the sale is held on Nov 5th and 6th (rsvp here, learn about the details). As hugely popular as it has become, new methods of organizing access have evolved — now you can show up, receive a numbered wristband and a text message to let you know when your entry time is coming up, so you can head off for coffee, etc., rather than wait in line.
The third day of shooting is typically Garment/Textile day, which allows Katherine Boury, Gary Foy, and others on the Goodwill team to include the very best of the best from recently donated pieces. This day of shooting is always special, with unique vintage and contemporary pieces to shoot, as well as because Alyssa Cave and I are joined by Katy Flynn and (this year) Angelisa Mozzone to help us manage the workflow efficiently. In addition to being joys to work with, both Katy and Angelisa are fashion designers, which adds a valuable skill set to the team: they know their textiles, they know how to care for them, and they know how best to prepare them. The donated pieces tend to have wrinkles and creases from storage in addition to lint and dust, as you might suspect. Some textiles can be safely steamed, others not so much. Angelisa and Katy bring their expertise to bear not only in making the garments photo-ready, but also for proper care and handling of the fabrics.
It is always a long, hard-working, and extraordinarily fun day: we have our full team on hand, while Katherine and her team have pulled three loaded racks of garments, each full of surprises. Where else would one get to see, handle, and photograph pieces by Christian Dior, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, Milly, The Bon Marche, Alice & Olivia, Phillip Lim, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Malene Birger, St. John, and Adrianna Papell — to name drop a few — all in one photo shoot?
We review every piece with Katherine, set priorities for the pieces & a shoot order that makes sense for lighting and preparation needs. We bring our own steamer and iron/board, Goodwill provides the rolling display dress forms, and we kick off a production flow: de-lint, steam/iron, fit to mannequins, style, roll on set, shoot, roll off set, remove from dress form, place on the ‘completed’ rack. Alyssa, Angelisa & Katy do an amazing job of keeping multiple pieces in the flow so that there is no down time on set waiting for something to shoot. Alyssa also jumps on set whenever any subtle styling tweaks are needed: we’ve done this so long, I barely have to speak–I point, she sees it immediately and has if fixed before I can even describe it. It can seem like she is in my mind (it isn’t crowded in there, lots of elbow room…). Though it may look chaotic to a passerby because so much is happening so fast at the same time, it is a smooth running, lean, mean, photo-shoot machine!I and our entire team are grateful to the entire Seattle Goodwill team: they are supportive, welcoming, friendly, and professional. We always look forward to our time there.
Glitter Sale on Facebook Seattle Goodwill on Facebook Seattle Goodwill Blog
Some of my personal favorite images from this year’s garment day shoot are presented here. Many of this year’s selections seem to be museum worthy. I hope you enjoy seeing them, and don’t forget to click the links above or below to support and attend the Glitter Sale, maybe snag a museum-worthy bargain for yourself!
Glitter Sale on Facebook Seattle Goodwill on Facebook Seattle Goodwill Blog
all images/content © Bret Doss, all rights reserved
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