The 2nd Hand Chic Boutique offers clothes, jewelry and accessories to people in the community and is a place that helps support second chances and new beginnings after trying times. Sherman Avenue United Methodist Church, a multicultural community of faith on Madison’s North Side, will once again be hosting this event on Saturday, Oct. 28, from 3:30.-6 p.m.
Caitlin McGahan, executive minister at Sherman Church, tells Madison365 that they have successfully hosted the 2nd Hand Chic Boutique a few times and that this Saturday’s event will honor Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
“We have moved into an actual room now, so it really feels like a boutique, which is exciting. It’s the first year that we’ve been able to do that,” McGahan says. “We really try to make it a boutique experience. We do a goodie bag for folks when they leave. We always put in some makeup that folks can choose from and we try to be size-inclusive as much as we possibly can. So we have size women’s small to women’s four XL. We’re really excited to offer because we were able to expand our sizes some more.”
On Saturday, the 2nd Hand Chic Boutique will have available free gently used and new women’s clothing (business, active and casual wear) in sizes S-4XL, along with handbags, shoes, jewelry, and other accessories.
Sherman Church has hosted this a few times before often held in conjunction with Sexual Assault Awareness Month where they look to create a safe and welcoming place for survivors to share their stories and find clothes for job interviews, events, or emergency clothing.
“Domestic violence and sexual assault awareness has always been something near and dear to my heart and Rev. David Hart’s and Sherman Church. So it’s something that we always like to honor and bring awareness to during the months of October and April,” McGahan says. “And we’re just noticing that there are some places that offer free clothes and it just seems to be predominantly geared towards the white community, and so we really wanted to bring in the opportunity being on the North Side, a more diverse part of the city, and just making sure it was available to Black and brown folks, specifically.”
And they wanted to make sure that they were providing the best clothes possible.
“Many of our clothes are brand new with the tags still on them and we just really wanted to make it more of a boutique experience rather than having to find clothes where it sometimes can be associated with a lot of shame and a lot of embarrassment for people,” McGahan says.
“We want to make it available to all folks. Sometimes people need emergency clothing. Sometimes people need clothes for a job interview that they’re trying to get or an important event and we really wanted to be able to support folks in what they needed.”
(Photo by A. David Dahmer)
The 2nd Hand Chic Boutique is always looking for more clothes and accessories to add to their growing collection. “We’re always looking for clothes and we’re so grateful to the community for donating clothes. They can drop those off right to Sherman Church at 3705 North Sherman Avenue. That would be wonderful,” McGahan says. “And we offer clothing, shoes, jewelry, bags, coats, winter coats and winter accessories.”
McGahan adds that the Saturday’s 2nd Hand Chic Boutique is for everyone.
“You don’t have to be a member of the church; you don’t even have to be from Madison,” she says. “We’ve had people visiting from out of town drop in at the Chic Boutique and find something. It’s been really nice to be able to offer this to folks when they need it.”
