Student consignment sale offers cheap alternative

For those who are itching with the spring season shopping bug, but are short on cash can get their fix this week as students in fashion merchandizing hold their third annual on-campus consignment sale.

While the consignment aspect of "Passion for Fashion: Consignment for a Cause" is closed for the rest of this year's sale, shoppers can still peruse the on-campus boutique in Union Rooms A and B from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. through Friday, and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

About 75 percent of the merchandise in the store will be sold at half price Friday and Saturday. Credit and debit cards are accepted as well as cash.

Students can benefit from the annual sale in a number of ways, said fashion merchandizing professor Brigette Burgess.

"It gives them an opportunity to shop on campus and get first-rate fashion for deep-discounted prices," Burgess said. "It also gives them the opportunity to clean out their closets, since it's so close to the end of semester and they don't want to take everything home with them."

Consigners contributed their merchandise online through passionforfashion.org, where they registered personal profiles with a specific number to identify them and their items for sale. Consigners used the site to itemize their clothes, shoes and accessories, set prices and print out price tags, which they attached to the merchandise.

Consigners who contributed their unwanted items to the sale will receive 60 percent of the profits gained from their merchandise.

Passion for Fashion: Consignment for a Cause has been injecting Southern Miss with a healthy dose of consumerism for the past three years, Burgess said. She added that both the amount of merchandise and number of shoppers have doubled every year since the project began.

This is good news for students in the fashion merchandising program, who receive awards and scholarships funded by some of the proceeds from the annual sale. Also, if consigners opt against reclaiming their unsold items, the leftover merchandise is donated to a charity, either the Salvation Army or the Lighthouse Mission.

Passion for Fashion: Consignment for a Cause is the semester project for several students in Burgess' fashion marketing class. Fifteen students in FM 337, Fashion Promotion and Analysis, have been involved in the project for the past few weeks and put the store together "from start to finish," Burgess said.

The students, whose potential career paths range from textile testers and product development to fashion journalism, will learn some helpful skills from the project, Burgess said, including management experience and team-building.

The two student managers running the shop Monday said they were learning how to run a store and promote sales, and were gaining valuable experience with retail sales.

One of the managers, LaVette Williams, said she is no stranger to second-hand shopping. The senior from Natchez, taking the class to fulfill her fashion merchandising minor, added that she is a frequent patron of the local Hudson's Dirt Cheap. She said the recent economy is building demand for second-hand stuff.

"I think it's helpful and more popular because you really can't afford the expensive stuff anymore," Williams said. "And a lot of this stuff is new, too." Her fellow student manager, Mary Franco, said she is not as familiar with second-hand shopping, but couldn't help eyeing some of the merchandise on her lunch break. She planned to contribute her own unused garments to the sale, but said she did not drop off the three large bags of unwanted clothes she has gathered in time for the deadline this weekend. "I'm a little mad at myself," she said. "I could be making major bucks right now," Williams agreed sadly.

Most of the merchandise in the store costs less than $20, but Franco said the highest price she has seen was the $200 tag on some designer jeans. She assured, however, that prices that high are quite rare.