It is holiday party season, so you may be in the market for a new dress - but what if you can't afford one?
One San Francisco woman is hoping to be a solution.
In the basement of a nondescript building in the Mission District there's a hidden boutique called "Fancy Free," a labor of love for the founder, Elina.
The shop, located at 16th and Mission Streets, started with an idea by Elina to collect the dresses taking up space in people's closets and give them to others who would love them.
The idea was born from Elina’s desire to spare young girls the school event trauma that she experienced.
"We were really poor and my mom would buy dresses at Macy's, I would wear them and then she'd return them and it would break my heart every time," Elina told KCBS Radio. "So I thought this way somebody could come in and just pick out a beautiful dress and be, you know, the princess for a day. And get to keep it."
Elina, who works in the fashion industry with experience in both boutiques and styling, reached out to the "Buy Nothing San Francisco" group for donations and convinced her landlady to let her clear out the basement of the building where she works to make the store a reality.
"It went from a space that was full of trash for decades to a beautiful little boutique," she said.
The store is already filled with more than 200 dresses - some of them still with original price tags. One woman donated 20 dresses before asking her sisters to go through their closets and do the same, and the family ultimately contributed 50 dresses.
You don’t have to be young or short on cash to shop at the store for free either, as Elina said "you can just be eco-friendly and want to save the planet."
"Come. Bring your dresses, get something new. Don't have all this stuff sitting in your closet taking up space. Someone else will love it. And you can find something new without spending a penny," Elina said.
She is also offering the space for others who want to do clothing swaps - especially for specific kinds of clothing such as gender neutral, plus size or petite. In addition, she's hosting a women’s size 11 shoe swap in January because she learned it can be hard to find that size.
Anyone can make an appointment with Elina on the Fancy Free SF Facebook page so they can arrange a time to donate, swap or pick out a dress for free.
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