New boutique helps King Tech High School students ‘dress for success’

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Pro Fit is a student run boutique inside King Tech High School that’s a place to shop in Anchorage, but isn’t for everyone.

Pro Fit is celebrating their grand opening this week. The shop carries used professional women’s clothing for students who are learning how to “dress for success.”

Entrepreneurship and Enterprise teacher Stacy Miller said the project was the brainchild of students in her class, which focuses on business operations and management. After successfully opening a café on campus, students were eager for more opportunities to demonstrate what they had learned.

“We needed another operation for this class so that students would get that hands-on experience running a business,” Miller said. “As we started looking at different options, this one just really hit a lot of the needs of our school community and it was something that we could handle.”

Miller said many students don’t own or have experience with professional clothing which they might need to wear on the job, while making presentation, or attending events.

“They come in often times and say, ‘I don’t even know where to start,’ and that’s our cue. We just step in and say, ‘tell us what’s most comfortable for you.’’'

Students make appointments to shop and are accompanied by a personal shopper. The personal shopper can give a second opinion as well as advice on what flatters, fits and is appropriate. Every item in the store is $10 and the proceeds go back into the program. Miller said she’s seen students transformed by putting on a dress or pants suit.

“You see this empowerment come over them when they put on a really nice outfit and they’ll say things like, ‘I feel like I’m a boss, I look like I am a boss.’ Like yeah, that’s the whole goal,” Miller said.

The Pro Fit boutique is still accepting donations. They’re looking for clean, modern, professional women’s clothing that a teenager would like. Donations can be dropped off at King Tech High School, 2650 E Northern Lights Blvd., during school hours.

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