What a year it’s been. The past year – 15 months, really – have tried and tested all of us. On March 14th, 2020, we closed our doors in accordance with mandates from Governors Wolf and Cuomo. We shuttered for nearly three whole months, not being able to re-open until June 8th, 2020. While we’re not quite a year out from that date, we’re here to wish everyone a happy reopening anniversary.
Shutting Our Doors
If we may be permitted an understatement – it’s disconcerting to have to close your business for an indeterminate amount of time with little clarity into what support you might expect from the entities that instruct you to do so. Even with the knowledge that it was in the interest of public health, it still didn’t feel great to have to close up shop.
While we were #wfh like everyone else, we wanted to pivot our efforts into something positive and productive. What were we to do? We were shut down, our vendors and partners were shut down. We’d never experienced anything like it.
How We Handled Working From Home
Good communication is a crucial component of a positive image, so we ran with that. We made it a point to contact literally all of our customers to check in and see how they were faring in what everyone was referring to as “these unprecedented times.”
This blog became much more active – we were up to three new posts a week for a while, using it as a platform to communicate our thoughts on the situation and how our professional knowledge might be able to help folks who’d lost their jobs during the early days of COVID-19.
We posted about how important it is to talk during a crisis. We published work on how to interview well for new job-seekers. We pontificated on how productivity might suffer as everyone worked from home (it didn’t, really). This was alongside a re-vamp our content to provide in-depth style advice and knowledge. We hoped to provide value and maybe take a reader’s mind off the news we were (and are still) constantly bombarded with.
The effort of which we’re the proudest, however, was our “OutFIT for Work” challenge, which we pulled off conjunction with our charity partner, The Wardrobe. We helped raise nearly $28,000 to expand the charity’s services to anyone who’d lost their job due to coronavirus layoffs.
The Grand Re-Opening & An Attitude of Gratitude
We got the go-ahead to re-open on June 8th, 2020. It felt good to be back in the shop – like a bit of a time warp as well, but also good. We’re eternally thankful that we came out of the gate swinging, working with our partners at Dormeuil on an event that extended exceptional value to our clients.
As for our clients, well, we simply couldn’t be more thankful for you. So many of you were so eager to place new orders that it almost felt like things were normal. We knew we’d bounce back regardless, but to open our doors to so much support was unbelievable.
One Year Later – The Reopening Anniversary
We’re nearly a year out from reopening, we’re happy that we’re doing as well as ever. People are still dressing (albeit more casually). Weddings and other events are finally happening again, and our clients are just as enthusiastic as ever.
It feels good to be back to doing what we’re best at – making individuals feel good about themselves and improving their lives. We look forward to continuing that effort for years and years to come.
