Marketing is as important for charity shops as it is for other retail brands. The more people get attracted to a charity, the more they have the opportunity to spread their generous services out into the world. One essential marketing tool for charity retail is “window dressing,” a form of visual merchandising that employs styling the window display. A sustainable fashion stylist from Brighton, England, is on a mission to help the charities in her area accomplish this styling and raise their repertoire among people. Ellie Rose (@elll.rose) shared a TikTok video in March 2023 showing how she styled a prominent charity thrift store, and the video became highly popular, Good Is reported.
“I was recently walking past some charity shops and I realized, I think you guys need just a little bit of help with some of the styling,” Rose, who studied fashion at college and university said in the video, adding, “So I thought I’m gonna volunteer and ask a few shops if they need help.” As her voiceover played in the video, she was seen walking inside a shop and checking out some apparel hanging on a clothstand. “And a lot of them said yes,” she revealed. The video currently has more than 9 million views and 1.4 million likes.
Rose said she’d be starting her styling with the thrift store run by the British Heart Foundation. According to its website, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) is the largest charity retailer in the UK funding research related to heart health. They have 750 shops and stores around the country where people can donate goods, and grab a bargain to help them fund even more research.
In the viral upload, Rose, with her friend Scarlett Elizabeth, toured through the thrift store and decided to modify the mannequins at the window display. The clip displayed two mannequins covered in vintage-style dresses. One wore an off-shoulder midi dress while the other appeared to be wrapped in a full-length floral print gown. “These are two mannequins that were outside on the window,” Rose said describing them.