“For people like me, this place is ideal” (Dour)

Get a makeover for less than 10 € by supporting the Red Cross and preserving the environment, it’s possible in Vestiboutique. Alice On The Roof came to set an example at Dour.

Stage attire doesn’t have to be worth thousands of dollars. Those that Alice On The Roof will perhaps exhibit when she returns to the stage will not have cost more than € 10 since it is on the hangers of the Vestiboutique de Dour that the young singer from Saint-Ghislain found her happiness this Tuesday.

Vestiboutiques? These are the second-hand stores of the Red Cross where you can find pieces of clothing offered by individuals, sometimes by stores, and which sell for 1, 3, or 10 € maximum. There are around a hundred in Belgium, managed by volunteers from the Red Cross Houses, the local Red Cross establishments.

These shops are essential for the Red Cross since the profits from the sale of these clothes are used to finance its charitable and humanitarian activities at a local level.

Sell ​​clothes to feed people in need

“In Dour, we have a solidarity grocery store with a deficit by default since we sell food at half the price at which we buy it. And it is with the income from the Vestiboutique that we finance it, ”cites Michel Colmant, president of the Maison Croix-Rouge des Hauts-Pays (Dour, Hensies, Quiévrain, Honnelles) as an example.

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But now, this essential activity has been seriously disrupted by the Covid crisis: “we suffered 12 weeks of closure in 2020 and 4 weeks in 2021”, deplores Ophélie Vansteenhuyse, referent for Vestiboutique activity at the Belgian Red Cross. Problematic because, at the same time, the Red Cross has never been so requested by people in distress.

So, to relaunch the Vestiboutique activity, the Red Cross initiated a campaign throughout the month of June to highlight these places and it is in this context that it called on Alice On The Roof, who comes lend its image.

Reconciling shopping addiction, wallet and environment

A logical partnership, Alice being a second hand lover: “I frequent a lot of thrift stores, but when I’m in Brussels. In the villages, I don’t have that reflex and that’s why I’m happy to highlight the vestiboutiques today. In the regions, there is less automaticity to go to resource centers, ”explains the one who also supports the“ l’Envol ”resource center in Soignies.

And the singer did not come to Dour for nothing: “I discovered a small nugget of a boutique already very attractive, very well arranged, where I spotted lots of very interesting pieces for my dressing room and for the wallet!”

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In addition to the good business aspect, the Vestiboutique allows the artist to satisfy his shopping impulses while respecting the environment.

“I am a shopping addict. The minimalist movement, which means having very few clothes that you wear all the time, it’s very nice, but I can’t do that! But at the same time, I am well aware that we can no longer consume as before and that we must break away from fast fashion. So for people like me, this place is ideal. Plus, it’s run by great volunteers. ”

With Alice On The Roof as ambassador, the Red Cross hopes to renew the public of its Vestiboutiques and attract those who had expressed their desire to consume locally and sustainably during confinement. As for the singer, she has found new addresses to dazzle her fans.

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