Arcadia University’s Division of Campus Life and the Office of Career Education (OCE) partnered to launch Archie’s Apparel, a free clothing resource for students located in the University Commons Great Room, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 7.

The closet offers students a place to find business casual clothing, shoes, and accessories for interviews, internships, thesis presentations, or anything else they have coming up. The space will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and will be run by the Game Room staff. From time to time there will also be a pop-up clothing rack outside the Game Room containing specialty items.

At the ribbon-cutting, Vice President of Campus Life and Dean of Students Dr. Donavan McCargo, Director of Student Engagement Christine Storch, and Arcadia University President Ajay Nair explained the purpose of the space and offered words of appreciation to Coordinator of Student Engagement Allannah Giles ’23, ’25M who spearheaded the project. The group then joined Archie the Knight (dressed in a jacket and tie for the occasion) as they cut the ribbon, officially opening Archie’s Apparel to the community.

“I just took a walk through and the clothing all looks really stylish and nice,” said Nash Hall ’28. “When you go you’ll definitely be able to find what you’re looking for. All I can really say is to go and see it for yourself. You can really see the effort that went into making this happen.”

Below, Giles shares more information about Archie’s apparel and what motivated her to bring this resource to Arcadia.

Q: What was the inspiration for this project?

A: So it was kind of it wasn’t something that was entirely expected. What happened was last fall, we had a haircut and clothing drive event in the castle, and we ended up getting a whole lot of donations for clothes, and we had local barbers come in and offer haircuts, and from there it was kind of conspiring of a plan like, what if we just have this kind of more of a permanent as a permanent resource for the students? 

Q: Why is it important for Arcadia to have a resource like this?

A: It’s important because a lot of students don’t realize how important it is to present themselves, or if they do, it’s not very easy to find affordable clothes that you might need or might want for these important opportunities that are at hand for our students. As a university, we present a lot of these opportunities to them. But this is that factor that’s often missing. As a recent alumna myself, I understand how daunting it can be to speak up and say I don’t have clothes for this. It’s almost like it’s an intimidating factor. There’s a stigma around it, and I’d say this is a way of turning that stigma around and ensuring that students don’t even have to admit it. They just have to go and use the closet. It’s a judgment-free zone, which is nice because I think that’s what stops a lot of students from speaking up and saying what they need because they’re afraid that someone’s going to judge them for not having a resource or the clothes that they need for an event.

Q: How has your personal experience informed your work with Archie’s Apparels?

A: I came to Arcadia in 2019 as a first-year, and I was an independent student. I came from Illinois and didn’t have help from my family or anything. I came by myself and came with what I came with. I didn’t know that I was going to need more business casual clothes. I remember within the first two weeks of school, one of my professors said that they grade based on how you dress. So that was kind of like a panic moment for me. I didn’t have business casual pants or business pants of any kind. And so I remember feeling this rush of “what am I going to do?” Eventually, we ended up going to D.C. for a class trip, and dressing up was part of the rules. I was thinking, “Oh, my God, this is my first time going to D.C. and now I need to actually dress up,” when really I had nothing. It was a stress point for me for a long time, and I was trying to make things work but I couldn’t. I was so embarrassed because I didn’t have money, and I didn’t want everyone to know that. So at every step of the way throughout this process, I’ve imagined my 18-year-old self using this resource and having this available to her and what that would have meant to me.

Giles, Campus Life, and the OCE hope to bring more attention to Archie’s Apparel through future programming around fall and winter clothing, Halloween costumes, formal attire for the Student Programming Board’s (SPB) annual gala, and more.

Anyone with clothing to donate to Archie’s Apparel can do so at three locations:

Any questions can be directed to Allannah Giles (gilesa@arcadia.edu).