Girls Helping Girls: Two Students Organize Dress Express Boutique

Michelle H. Daino
Girls donate their beautiful dresses, other girls repurpose them, and girls in need directly benefit. Girls helping girls. That is what Dress Express Boutique is all about. If you have formal or semi-formal dresses sitting in a closet, please consider donating them or if you or someone you know needs a dress for an upcoming event, please attend our boutique on February 20, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Embassy Suites by Hilton, 250 Connell Drive, Berkeley Heights. For more information or to donate, contact  DressExpress@Tiboni.com.  
 
Sophia Tiboni '25 and Sarah Murphy '22 have a passion for environmental sustainability and helping others, especially other girls.
 
Sophia explained the premise behind Dress Express Boutique: “There are many events that require a high school girl to purchase a formal or semi-formal dress. The girl wears the dress once and then after the event, it gets pushed to the back of her closet likely never to be worn again. And then the next event comes, and the girl needs another dress.” She thought, “There are a lot of dresses out there worn once or twice. If we shared those dresses, we could help local girls find dresses to wear, while also helping the environment, and benefiting a charity all at the same time.” By repurposing these dresses, the Boutique helps the environment.
 
Sophia shared, “Many people don’t realize that the fashion industry is the second largest polluting industry in the world. It takes a tremendous amount of water to create one, single dress and then the water used to make that dress is returned to nature polluted because of residual dyes and hazardous chemicals used in the manufacturing process. By donating and then repurposing existing dresses, girls are stopping this damaging cycle and protecting the environment.”  
 
The Boutique also helps girls in need. The Mercy Girl Effect is an initiative founded by the Sisters of Mercy that works to promote and foster collaboration between young women across the globe. This year’s campaign is Women at the Well, which seeks to benefit girls who have become the “Water Carriers” for their families.
 
Sophia explained, “These girls often miss school and are targets as they make the dangerous journey to obtain the water, which can be several miles away.” The Women at the Well campaign seeks to make water more accessible to these girls. All funds raised at the February 20th Dress Express Boutique event will be donated to the Mercy Girl Effect to be used to build and provide local wells for these girls.
 
Sarah added, “We collected hundreds of dresses in a variety of sizes, colors, styles and designers. Our first event was a big success, and it created a lot of excitement. It is rewarding to know that I could help such a beneficial cause.”
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