The Street Store – Hout Bay
On Saturday 5th July we hosted our first Street Store in Hout Bay! For those of you who don’t know, The Street Store is a pop-up clothing store, which offers free clothing to anyone who needs it – you can find out more about this wonderful initiative here.
We first came across The Street Store on Twitter when they did one in Cape Town – we were immediately intrigued and inspired – we loved the idea of helping those in need in a way that was uplifting and different. We loved that instead of rummaging through clothing bins or boxes, The Street Store had created simple, yet stunning, hangers and shoe “boxes” to display all the items.
As a design company, we were also drawn to their branding, which we feel adds to its appeal – the branding is simply innovative and eye-catching.
And so, we began the process of planning our Hout Bay Street Store! With the help of the community, and especially Chloe De La Harpe, we received many clothing and shoe donations. We decided to get all the clothing washed and ironed, and I Love My Laundry kindly gave us a huge discount for this service. When it came to printing all the branding materials, Digital Express in Long Street didn’t hesitate to fully sponsor all the printing and cardboard.
Our initial venue fell through when we realised that residents of Imizamo Yethu sold second hand clothing opposite the road (we didn’t want to step on any toes), so James House suggested we do it at the community church in Imizamo Yethu, the Izikolobomi Church.
We teamed up with James House when organising The Street Store as we had often donated clothing and toys to them and we have always admired all the amazing work they do in the Hout Bay community. James House is a Public Benefit, Non-Profit Organisation serving as a catalyst for the transformation of the lives of at-risk children, their families and communities.
We also contacted Ashley Newell from the IY Forum and All Out Africa to assist us in getting other local charity organisations involved so that deserving underprivileged members of the community could benefit from the free clothing and shoes – the other organisations that came on board were CARES, Ikhaya le Themba, Monwabisi, and Little Angels Teachers.
On Saturday 5th July, after 6 months of planning, we arrived at the Izikolobomi Church in Imizamo Yethu and began setting up our Street Store. A few curious members of the community popped by while we were setting up and helped us out as well as eagerly trying on a few items – once the clothes were laid out, we already had a long queue of excited “customers” waiting to get “shopping”. We opened the store at 9am and by 10am everything was gone!
Although it all happened so quickly, we had a wonderful time chatting to everyone, helping them find what they needed and meeting some new people – at the end of it all, everyone walked away feeling happy, proud, and very privileged to have been part of this fantastic experience.
Thank you so much to everyone who helped us out on the day, and with all the planning before-hand – we could not have done it without you! And a big thank you to Kayli Vee Levitan, from The Street Store, for starting this great project and for your guidance and help throughout our Street Store journey.
You can find The Street Store on Facebook here, and click here to follow them on Twitter.
Here are some photographs taken on the day by ourselves and Chloe, and you can follow the link below for more photos taken by Ashley – The Hout Bay Street Store by Ashley Newell Photography
