Anna Palmer & Christine Rizk, co-founders of Fashion Project
Last night, I was honored to be among Boston’s stylish set for the launch of Fashion Project. My friends, Anna Palmer and Christine Rizk, founded Fashion Project (formerly known as Swapfish), with the mission of using your closet to change lives. The service is incredibly simple, useful and charitable: donate closet items you no longer wear and support an amazing charity. To make it even easier, Fashion Project will send you a box for your items and you simply fill it up and send it back. They then photograph the items, post them on their website and people buy them. Once an item is purchased, Fashion Project takes 40% and passes along the other 60% to the charity. Cleaning out your closet has never felt so good!
The website is dependent on high-quality donations and makes brands like Louis Vuitton, Kate Spade, Burberry and Armani accessible at pretty amazing price points.
Fashion Project's Louis Vuitton Thompson Street Bag
Take for example this adorable yellow Louis Vuitton shoulder bag. Retail price over $1000, gently used and yours for under $400. Now that is a bargain. Add on the fact that $238 of your bargain goes to support Northeast Arc, the leader provider of life-long services for families and individuals with developmental disabilities. That’s pretty awesome.
Innovation Economy blogger, Scott Kirsner, featured Fashion Project as “a way to make donated couture work harder” in his article covering the company a few weeks ago. I couldn’t agree more. I am guilty of packing up beautiful items from my closet and sending them off to donation – often unsure as to where they really end up and who they really help. Fashion Project makes it easy to see your direct impact on a charity and is such a feel-good blend of shopping (for us shop-a-holics) and do good (for us wanna-make-a-difference people) that I know they are on to huge success as they evolve the charitable giving space.
I had a blast at the launch party last night and donated a gorgeous black Theory blazer (retail: $400) that I never wear because my office life is super-casual. Cannot wait to see it up on the Fashion Project site and know that it will go to a great new home and help make someone else’s life better at the same time.
Thanks to friend, fellow fashionista, and new CMO at Fashion Project, Michelle McCormack, for organizing an amazing launch event at the ever-so-hip, Cafeteria on Newbury. As producer of Boston’s Fashion Night Out she’ll be incorporating Fashion Project in the festivities. Mark your calendars for Sept. 6th for some great events in and around the city.
Now it’s time to sign up and start your Fashion Project donations…man, the fashion business is fun. 
Hey Michelle,
First, thank you so much for donating that beautiful Theory blaze. It will be on the site and on someone’s back in two shakes, with a large portion of the proceeds benefiting people in need. Magic!
Finally, thank you so much for this article. It’s friends like you are going to help Fashion Project grow and be one of the great fashion e-tail companies.
Michelle xo