Jeanne Sigler, owner of a New York City-based consulting firm, believed there had to be a simple solution for this problem – and she found it in the many professional women with closets full of clothes and the knowledge of how to get and keep jobs. Finding that solution was especially timely because Congress had just passed The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act into law. Known as The Welfare Reform Act, it was designed to radically transform the nation's welfare system by i mposing a time limit on federal welfare benefits.

Jeanne explored the issue with other women who understood women's employment issues and the nonprofit community. She was introduced to Laurel Baer, a marketing executive in Chicago who, five years earlier, concerned with these same issues, had founded Bottomless Closet/Chicago.

Jeanne enlisted the support of Reva Wurtzburger, a highly experienced professional volunteer, Elizabeth Tighe, a Glamour executive, Cynthia Whitehead, a young banking professional, and Carolyn Huggins, a fund development consultant with expertise in the social service sector. This team became the Founding Board of Directors. In May of 1998, Sheila Lambert, a former corporate executive and seasoned volunteer with business, board, and leadership experience, joined the group of founders. She and Reva found a centrally located space accessible to both clients and volunteers.

With Reva serving as President of the Board and Sheila generously agreeing to serve as unpaid Executive Director, Bottomless Closet opened its doors in January 1999. Our mission was to promote economic self–sufficiency by providing interview skills, business clothing, and ongoing career development and support programs to New York City women on public assistance, as well as other economically disadvantaged women. By enhancing their self-confidence and self-sufficiency, we would enable them to enter and succeed in the workforce and transform the vision for their lives. Our tag line became “connecting women and work.”

We began to accomplish our mission through a growing cadre of dedicated volunteers who helped each client choose appropriate business clothing and provided one-to-one counseling in resume writing, interview preparation, and how to overcome fear of failure.   In our first year Bottomless Closet helped nearly 500 economically disadvantaged women in their transition from welfare to the work force.

It quickly became evident that women needed additional support once they entered the workforce. Therefore, in our first year, Bottomless Closet began a series of workshops on topics such as how to deal with difficult situations at work, financial management and business etiquette. Over time, we have added a range of career and personal development services to help clients keep and advance in their jobs. These are organized in four basic topic areas including Workplace Skills, Career Development, Financial Management and Personal Development.

In early 2002, to address a growing demand for services from the client referral agencies, Bottomless Closet hired its first paid Executive Director, increased its volunteer force to meet the need and expanded its Board of Directors to bring new ideas and resources to the organization. By the end of 2002, the mission was broadened to "promote economic self-sufficiency by providing interview skills, business clothing, and ongoing career development and support programs to economically disadvantaged New York City women. By enhancing their self-confidence and self-sufficiency, we enable them to enter and succeed in the workforce, and transform the vision for their lives."

Since then, we have continued to expand our client services to include career days in which we introduce clients to business in which they might work; computer training; and a cultural program including theatre, dance and museum visits followed by facilitated discussions.

What is perhaps most remarkable about Bottomless Closet is that, from the beginning, we have relied on the support of a broad array of women – and men – from New York City and well beyond, who have provided generous donations, “lightly-used” business clothing and their invaluable time. We believe that this is because the simplicity and strength of the concept of “women helping women” resonates so deeply with each woman who is introduced to the organization. Our past successes indicate that we are, indeed, helping women transform their lives – building better futures for themselves, their families, and society.