Dress for Success Mends Social Fabric With Donated Garments

It's hanging in the back of my closet, inside the dry cleaner's bag -- lovely, with just the right nips at the waist and sharp, I'm-going-to-take-over-the-world lapels.

This suit is dear to me not because I wore it on a special occasion or because it's a limited edition from a special designer.

I have been treating this garment like the Shroud of Turin for years because of its size. It's tiny. Therefore, I was tiny. Once.

Then I ate lunch. And it didn't fit anymore. Now, faced with the reality of two children and an old house with few closets, I ought to get rid of the only tangible evidence of my seven seconds of svelte.

There's a charity that distributes suits to unemployed women to help them get a job. I've heard of it before. But honestly, is a suit really going to change someone's life?

I mean, if I fit into that suit again, it would change my life, sure. But I can't imagine what my suit could do for someone else.

So I went to visit this place to see what happens to suits like mine.

"Guuuuurl, lemme tell you: You look amazing!"

Just past the entryway, I hear a commotion coming from the dressing room of Dress for Success.

It's Danielle Dixon, twirling and posing in a sharp aubergine suit and stunning charcoal sling-backs. She flips her braids, throws a slouchy, black, patent leather bag over her shoulder and struts.

"I feel like a million bucks," Dixon says. "Now I'm gonna go make a million bucks."

Dixon, 24, was working full time as a hospital medical assistant when she was laid off. Now she has five kids and little to wear on job interviews beyond old scrubs and street clothes.