Dress it Forward a beacon of hope to young people in need

• Published date: 18 April 2024
• Author: Yolande Du Preez yolande.dupreez@acm.co.za
• Publication title: Southern Suburbs Tatler

Dress it Forward has been around since 2017, but one of its founders, Sherri Bailey-Bell, says she started collecting “the odd dress” for pupils who didn’t have one for the matric ball about 12 years ago while working at Fish Hoek High School and realising just how big a toll matric ball costs take on families

“In many cases, children are the first to matriculate in their family, and parents can’t afford to get them an outfit and then get into huge debt doing so. Matriculants can now choose an outfit from us for absolutely nothing."

Another founder, Sarah Waries, said her sister, Clair Titley, a documentary director from Bath in the UK, visited Cape Town in 2017 when she and Ms Bailey-Bell told her about their efforts. She made a one-minute short film about Dress it Forward describing how a matric ball could be a beacon of hope for youngsters in communities plagued by crime and poverty.

Back in the UK, Ms Titley found a few dresses in her cupboard and sourced more from friends and others. She returned to South Africa the following year with 65 dresses and subsequently started Dress it Forward UK to collect dresses...