Dresses hit the road with Frockin’ the Outback ahead of the travelling boutique’s visit to Moree next week. Photo: Paula Hardwick
A travelling boutique carrying around 3,000 pieces of clothing will roll into Moree next week, giving local women and girls the chance to choose an outfit, get some styling help and take it home without paying a cent.
Frockin’ the Outback will set up at Sora Community Services as part of its second journey through regional NSW, bringing racks of dresses, jumpsuits, matching sets and formal wear in sizes ranging roughly from six to 22.
Project organiser Paula Hardwick said the idea was deliberately different from simply dropping bags of donated clothing at a community organisation.
“We just don’t leave the clothes,” she said.
“We spend half the day at the service providers with the clothes done like a pop-up boutique. But it’s all for free.
“The women and girls and people can come and grab whatever they want or what they like.”
Frockin’ the Outback grew from Because We Care Boutique on the Central Coast, where volunteers work one-on-one with women and girls who may need clothing for reasons ranging from escaping domestic violence to attending a job interview or court appearance.
Both projects operate under the Iris Foundation, which focuses on mental health and resilience.
Paula said the travelling version was born after recognising women in regional communities often did not have access to the same services.
“We realised last year that out west, that sort of service isn’t available,” she said.
“And we thought, why not take it on the road? So that’s how Frockin’ the Outback was born.”
The first trip took the project through communities including Broken Hill, Wilcannia, Bourke and Cobar.
This time the volunteers are travelling through northern NSW, working their way towards Moree before heading back through Tamworth and finishing at Gunnedah.
The clothing heading to Moree has been sorted and culled to around 3,000 pieces, with some items brand new with tags and others donated by boutiques and individuals.
Among them are formal dresses, which Paula hopes Moree girls might take advantage of during the school holidays.
“If any young girls in Moree want to have something for their formal who might not otherwise be able to afford it, they can come and hopefully there would be something there that would appeal to them in their size and what their fashion style is,” she said.
The volunteers also bring period products and period underwear after regional service providers identified them as items women needed.
But the experience of choosing the clothes is as important to the project as the clothes themselves.
Paula is travelling with volunteers Vicki and Alicia, with Alicia bringing another skill to the temporary shop floor.
“She’s a professional stylist,” Paula said.
“We can look at a woman and go, you know what, this colour and this dress would look fabulous on you.”
Some of the donated clothing is worth hundreds of dollars.
Paula said the volunteers had previously been asked why they did not auction valuable pieces to raise money instead.
“The women have donated it for another woman to feel fabulous in,” she said.
That philosophy produced one of Paula’s favourite memories from last year’s trip.
In Broken Hill, a woman tried on a Camilla outfit worth about $700 before turning to Paula for reassurance.
“She goes, ‘How do I look, sister?’ And I went, ‘Oh, you look fabulous’,” Paula said.
“And I said, ‘Well, you are in a beautiful Camilla outfit.’
“And she said, ‘Oh, is that the lady who donated it, dear?’”
For Paula, moments like that explain why the volunteers spend months raising money and then take the boutique on the road.
“It’s like the little things make a difference,” she said.
“And if we all do a little thing, then it makes a big thing happen at the end.”
Frockin’ the Outback will be open at Sora Moree, 21 Auburn Street, from 9am to 1pm on Thursday, October 8.
The clothing and other items are free.
