Professionally Purple Closet available to students

Published Nov 21, 2023 by
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What: Professionally Purple Closet. This campus-wide resource for all ECU students who have an interview for a job, field placement or internship, or are attending a professional conference.

Where: Rivers 143.

When: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2-5 p.m.; Wednesdays by appointment.

Who: Any ECU student is eligible to use the closet who has:

  • job interviews,
  • internships and field placement interviews /assignments, or
  • is attending a professional conference or seminar.

Want to help?

  • Provide gently used professional attire, laundered or dry cleaned.
  • Cash donations are also accepted to help purchase items not conducive to donations, such as shapewear, socks, and undergarments (also purchases via our Professionally Purple Closet Amazon wishlist).
  • Contact the Interior Design and Merchandising department to schedule drop-off of donations by emailing idmr@ecu.edu

Thank you for considering supporting the closet through merchandise or fund donations. Cash donations may be made directly to the Professionally Purple Closet via the University Advancement online giving link Professionally Purple Fund.

Additional background:

The Professional Purple Closet resulted from Dr. Amanda Muhammad, Department Chair of Interior Design and Merchandising, vision to begin the resource in the College of Health and Human Performance at ECU when she arrived in the Fall of 2022. The goal was to establish a campus-wide professional clothing closet that addresses the needs of ECU students, enhancing opportunities for success. The closet began in the subsequent Fall of 2023. Wanda Montano instructed the inaugural class, and the closet was brought to fruition with the support of the College of Health and Human Performance.

This class framework uses an experiential approach to entrepreneurship and philanthropy to address business development and management, marketing, showroom establishment and operations, merchandise management, and other small retail business areas. This project also engages students in academic research on human motivation and clothing access and utilization.