These are women who tend to have been referred by job centres, social services and charities. “Sixty per cent come from ethnic minority communities,” says Anna Hemmings, chief executive of the charity. “Sixteen per cent are disabled. We have a lot of single mothers. We have women who have experienced domestic abuse or have been in prison. Sometimes we help women who work on zero-hours contracts move into more secure employment.”
Smart Works coaches all its “clients” on how to succeed in an interview. “One woman wanted to practise opening the door and entering the room,” Hemmings says. “She was so nervous about that.”
But before the client even gets to the coaching, she is fixed up with a volunteer “dresser” who helps her to find, from the rails of clothes donated by both individual donors and brands, an outfit that will help her to seal a deal. Both the coaching and dressing sessions last an hour.
It’s this costume change, more than anything else, that makes Smart Works’ clients start to believe they have the chance of playing a different role in life; stepping into a new character. Indeed, it’s significant that the dressing appointment happens before the coaching, not the other way round. To be garbed in the right outfit for the job turns the coaching into a dress rehearsal. “The clothes are a conduit to confidence,” is how Hemmings puts it.
No one needs to convince me of the transformative nature of fashion, but the stories I hear bring a tear to my eye. Like the Ukrainian refugee who had to escape without any clothes, and now has a job in IT, or the teenager who cares for her parents. “She lives near Victoria Station,” Hemmings says, “and she told us she would walk through the station and see women in business wear and think, ‘I’ll never be part of that world because I can’t even go in the shops that sell the clothes, let alone afford to buy them.'” When she looked in the mirror after her dressing session, “her whole face lit up because she could see a future that was different.” She got an internship at Bloomberg, and is now studying for a biomedical engineering degree.
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A third client, Melissa, who had been made redundant by her long-term employer as she was preparing to return from maternity leave, and was also caring for her husband, describes her dressing session as “the icing on the cake. It brought everything to life, so when I went into my next interview, my whole approach changed. I was sitting up taller and the eye contact was there, because I wasn’t worried about the fact that my clothes weren’t right.” She is now working for Nationwide.
The feelgood factor is very much a two-way street. Amelia Mendoza, who has volunteered as a Smart Works dresser for more than a decade, tells me: “There is so much joy in helping someone experience what it is to feel good in an outfit and the power that can give you. I have seen how just an hour’s appointment can be life-changing.” No wonder there is a waiting list to become a dresser.
Sixty-seven per cent of Smart Works’ clients get a job within a month, at which point they can come back and pick out a few more pieces to, as Hemmings says, “see them through until their first payday. It’s a really nice celebratory appointment as, at that point, they are feeling so much better about everything.” What kind of jobs do their clients typically secure? “Everything from a customer service role to being a receptionist in a school.”
On the well-stocked rails when I visit are lots of the kinds of items of which interviews — and job offers — are made, from tailored jackets to pretty dresses. Though there’s also the odd baffling one. What sort of interview do you go to in a black leather pencil skirt with a broad white lace hemline?
What Smart Works struggles most to get its hands on, I am told, is handbags and shoes in a good enough condition. Radley — bravo Radley — is one of the few accessories brands to donate. Come on, fashion industry, step up!
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I am here for a preview — and try-on — of some different togs: those that will be on sale at Smart Works’ biggest fundraising event of the year. Its annual Fashion Sale at Somerset House in London, which The Times is proud to support, is on Saturday, November 22, and Sunday, November 23. Tickets are £20 for a 90-minute slot at smartworks.org.uk. The aim is to raise £130,000 to help support the charity’s work in 2026. (You can also book tickets on the website for the Smart Works carol service on December 2.)
Brands that have donated pieces from previous seasons — at an average discount of 60-70 per cent on the original price — include some of The Times’s favourites. In the line-up are Aligne, Baukjen, Margaret Howell, Nobody’s Child, Radley, Rixo, Ro&Zo, Seventy+Mochi, Varley, With Nothing Underneath and Wyse. There is a room dedicated to menswear too, plus a designer handbag raffle that includes brands such as Prada and Miu Miu.
Doors open at 10am, but queueing can start two hours before that. I am not surprised, when I clock some of the juicy bargains on offer, like a Wyse faux fur gilet for £100 (reduced from £225) and an Aligne leopard-print top for £40 (reduced from £119). Some of the best stock is held back so it can be staggered throughout the weekend, but competition for the Saturday morning slots is still fierce, and some regulars go as far as to book several slots over both days.
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There are also vintage items that have been donated by individuals — including the celebrity variety — that aren’t suitable as interview wear but that, given they tend to skew party, could be perfect for the festive crank-up. One member of staff tells me excitedly that last year she managed to buy a blazer that belonged to Kate Moss.
“The day after the sale ends we get people ringing us up asking what the dates are for next year,” says Jennie Macklin, Smart Works’ events manager. Yup. Here’s an annual date for your diary, in other words.
All jewellery and shoes throughout are Anna’s own
