The Social Outfit

💻 Empowering Digital Inclusion for Our Retail Trainees We’re excited to share that WorkVentures has generously donated four laptops to The Social Outfit. Meaning we have one on hand for each of our retail trainees, every cohort. These laptops will be used during mentoring sessions to build digital literacy and enhance job searching skills throughout the training program. Access to technology is a key step toward inclusion. SSI Research shows that refugee households are less likely than other households to have laptops, desktops, or tablets. It highlights that women report lower internet use across activities such as online banking, education and accessing health or social services. We’re helping bridge these gaps one mentoring session at a time. #DigitalInclusion #RefugeeSupport #WorkVentures #Mentoring #Empowerment #DigitalSkills #Inclusion #CommunityImpact Sonya Price-Kelly Amy Low

Welcoming Our New Trainees! ✨ Last week, we were thrilled to welcome four new trainees to our team! Their orientation with Sonya Price-Kelly covered everything from setting up superannuation and confirming Tax File Numbers to gaining a solid understanding of how tax works, setting them up for success in their journey and stepping into employment in Australia. We were also joined by Kristen Womacks, a true retail connoisseur with a wealth of experience, including sharing insights from her roles as Retail Director at Gucci and Retail Manager at Saint Laurent. She shared her valuable insights on customer service and introduced our trainees to the fundamentals of retail and customer service excellence 🌟 Our new team members will be joining us each Friday and Saturday until mid-December and we couldn’t be more excited to see them grow, learn and contribute to our team. Please join us in giving them a warm welcome 🤩

The Social Outfit has been featured in Vogue Australia’s Weekly Fashion Round-Up! ✨ We’re grateful to Vogue Australia for recognising our mission to prove that style, sustainability and social change can co-exist. As our CEO Amy Low says, “Fashion creates opportunity, not waste.” Read the full feature 👉 https://lnkd.in/gn23FnQc Peter Simon Phillips Laura Anderson Kim Farrugia Sonya Price-Kelly #TheSocialOutfit #VogueAustralia #FashionWithPurpose #SS25

We welcomed our Patron Her Excellency the Governor-General Sam Mostyn at our Newtown store this week where she met Aisha, a contributor to our new community print from the Chester Hill Community Hub. Our creative print projects bring together women from diverse backgrounds to tell stories through fashion 🎨👗 Aisha shared how the group discovered common threads in the meaning of motifs and markings despite being from different parts of the world. To see their artworks come together in the beautiful Diya and Nour prints has inspired new creativity and confidence. “Sonya Price-Kelly brought a paper cut-out of a ginkgo leaf, which is a symbol of resilience. We placed the cut-out over the last piece of artwork we had completed, and as we could choose any colours we liked for the artwork, each leaf came out differently.” 🍃 The ginkgo leaves of all 12 participants are visible in two community print stories of Nour and Diya. It was a privilege to share how this project brought together people from diverse backgrounds to imagine, create and celebrate community through art ✨ #community #communityartworkshop #diyaandnour #communitymade #fashionforgood Amy Low Peter Simon Phillips Kim Farrugia 🎨 Chester Hill Community Hub

Yesterday, our store was filled with supporters as we launched A NEW DAY, our new Spring Collection featuring two new Community Prints: Diya (daylight) and Nour (moonlight). We were delighted to be joined by the amazing MC Jess Rowe and all 12 women from Chester Hill Community Hub, whose creativity and artwork shaped these bold new designs. Highlights of the evening included: 🎨 A live Art to Print Panel, hearing directly from the artists featuring Aisha, community print participant, Fatima, Sewing Technician and Amy Low 🌐 The launch of our new website, expanding our impact! With thanks to AC Penn for the design and development. 👗 A first look at our colourful Spring Collection that you can now shop https://lnkd.in/gUP4UJpC Thank you to everyone who joined us and to all the team, volunteers and partners who help us make nights like these possible. Together, we’re weaving fashion, culture, and community into something truly transformative. Event partners: Grandiflora, Mud Ceramic, Epson Australia and Little Frances Wines. 📸 @arvinpremkumar Peter Simon Phillips Laura Anderson Sonya Price-Kelly Kim Farrugia #TheSocialOutfit #ANewDay #Diya #Nour #CommunityPrint #EthicalFashion

Last week, we welcomed NSW Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education, Steve Whan, to our Marrickville workroom. The Minister met graduates from our TAFE NSW-supported Industrial Sewing Training and Earn & Learn Sewing Program, and saw firsthand how TAFE NSW and The Social Outfit’s 11-year collaboration is transforming lives. Since 2014, over 410 refugee and migrant women have trained through the TAFE-supported Social Outfit’s sewing programs, building technical skills, industry experience, and pathways to employment and economic independence. 💪✨ Every woman employed in our workroom is a TAFE NSW graduate, and Soheyla and Fatima were able to share their stories directly with the Minister and other special guests. Attendees included the team behind the program, including The Social Outfit's Sonya Price-Kelly and TAFE NSW's Joucelen Gabriel, and Rosalind Walker, as well as Chloe Read, Managing Director of TAFE NSW; Nicole Paton, Head Teacher of Fashion Technology; Amy Low, CEO of The Social Outfit; and Jaana Quaintance-James, CEO of the Australian Fashion Council. 📸 Photography: Bliss Taylor

Celebrating long term employment!! Yesterday, we proudly celebrated 8 of our program participants as they started their next chapter with THE ICONIC. We've achieved some major employment impact with... 🌟15 out of 16 Retail Training Program participants have successfully transitioned onto further employment, the 16th choosing an education pathway. 🌟 25 participants have transitioned into work via THE ICONIC employment pathway, gaining long term employment, confidence and skills. To our partners and community, thank you for helping make this possible. Together, we’re making long-term, meaningful differences in people's lives. #TheSocialOutfit #FashionForGood #EmploymentPathways #TheIconic #CommunityImpact #WorkforceInclusion #WearTheChange Sonya Price-Kelly

Meet our newest graduates: Hajar, Zahra, Sadiqa, and Zakira! After 12 weeks of hands-on learning, these four incredible women have completed our Retail Training Program Throughout the program, they’ve developed key skills in customer service, retail operations, and workplace communication with our Store Manager and Retail Trainer, Eliza da Costa. But it didn’t stop there, the girls also covered: 🗒️ Job readiness and employment introduction mentoring sessions with Sonya Price-Kelly 🌿 Interview and Customer Service skills from the team at Aesop 🪑 Gain insights into store operations at IKEA 🖋️ Recruitment and interviewing sessions with Lotus People 🛍️ Industry excursion to THE ICONIC We’re so proud of everything they’ve accomplished and grateful to everyone who shared their knowledge with the next generation of retail talent. Please join us in celebrating Hajar, Zahra, Sadiqa, and Zakira as they step into their next chapter with confidence and experience. #WorkforceInclusion #RetailCareers #SkillsDevelopment #SocialEnterprise #RefugeeSupport #WomenInWork #TheSocialOutfit #CareerPathways #WearTheChange #EthicalFashion #DiversityAndInclusion #LotusPeople #AesopSkincare #IKEA

Last month we co-hosted a working lunch with our Patron The Governor-General of Australia Sam Mostyn AC. A diverse group of industry and policy leaders were invited to contribute to a high-level discussion of our impact potential. We explored The Social Outfit's ability to deliver valued skills and jobs for refugee and migrant women, and the relevance of championing representation and circularity, three areas that are deeply embedded in our operating model. Central to the discussion was how our work-integrated social enterprise model meets the needs of a modern and optimistic Australia. Some of the key takeaways: 1) Australia doesn't have the labour requirements that are needed currently; refugee and migrant workers have untapped potential and skills to contribute that suit the gaps; 2) Circularity is at the core of The Social Outfit’s impact – Australians are the world’s biggest consumers of fashion with more than 200,000 tonnes of clothing ending up in landfill each year. The Social Outfit are sufficiently nimble and visible to pilot circular and sustainable fashion solutions; 3) The unique thing about work-integrated social enterprises is they focus on people-first employment and can broker networks that can be leveraged for those most marginalised; 4) “Sewing is a language of the hands, it doesn’t need words” – Bianca Spender 5) “We need to own the creativity part of the human work as there is magic in the mistakes” – Ming Long AM 6) As we reflect on our growth opportunities, this prompt from Jo Taylor resonated powerfully "Move from the problem you’re trying to solve to the future you’re trying to create”. We thank every guest for their contribution as we focus on growing the impact of The Social Outfit, to empower migrant and refugee women to realise pathways to decent work and feel represented, through sustainable fashion. Our programs and our impact rely on industry partnerships, funding, resourcefulness and a connected community. We're excited about what's ahead, and invite you to support us as we kickstart the Australian careers of refugee and migrant women. Meredith Turnbull Alexandra Smart GAICD Jaana Quaintance-James Sally McGeoch Padma Raman Siobhan Toohill Danielle Wood Craig Heckenberg Eamon Waterford Louise Monger Anna Burns Amy Coetzee Rebecca Mansergh Belinda Morrissey Antonia Ruffell Annie Pettitt GAICD Amy Low