Boasting skirts, ties and professional blazers like those available in a department store, this small but meaningful retail-esque service treats visitors with personal attention when fitting them for business professional and business casual wear. This isn’t a retail store, but rather UTD’s very own Comet Closet.
The Comet Closet, located in JSOM, is a place where students can rent professional attire for up to a 14-day period. This closet is open to all students at UTD and provides a space for them to try on and find the clothing they need in a one-on-one personal shopper environment for any occasion, ranging from school presentations to competitive interviews. With the dynamic atmosphere of clothes constantly being returned, dry-cleaned and reused, JSOM program specialist Angela Granger said students do not treat the closet like a one-time opportunity but rather become returning visitors.
“When students have a career fair or presentations coming up, they are able to know they can specifically come [and get] exactly what they are looking for with the business casual attire,” Granger said.
With business casual attire often being a requirement in many professional classes and STEM courses at UTD, Granger said the act of going out and buying clothes could cost “a pretty penny.” She said the Comet Closet aims both to alleviate the cost of buying expensive attire and to help students to feel supported by the university through popular styles such as on-trend blazers and unique blouses.
“It is not just [one-major] specific,” Granger said. “I get various students from various schools [at UTD] because everybody needs business professional attire at some point in their academic career.”
To some, the closet provides a way to express themselves. For Danielle Raine, computer science and mathematics double major, being able to meet the demands of classroom presentations that required her to dress professionally presented a challenge both because of affordability and because she lacked feminine clothes. It was the Comet Closet that opened the doors for her to be able to meet both goals.
“I wanted to cry when I entered the closet,” Raine said. “It gives me comfort and hope that I will get all the things I [want] to get in [life]. The first time I went to the closet, I did not have this shirt [that I am wearing], and now it is a shirt that I love wearing.”
“I wanted to cry when I entered the closet. It gives me comfort and hope that I will get all the things I [want] to get in [life]”.
Raine said the closet provided one of the first opportunities for her to access feminine clothing since transitioning and its environment and energy represented a place of inclusivity and underlying hope. For her, making initial trips to different well-being organizations was slightly daunting. The Comet Closet initially was a new environment that felt nerve-wracking, but by her second time visiting, she found comfort in the space and the personal attention and relationship-building it offered.
“I did not have much to wear, because [I had] a whole closet of clothes I did not like, and I couldn’t just replace them,” Raine said. “Now I am who I have always been, the Comet Closet allows me to [do that].”
According to Granger, the closet allows students not only to dress their best for imminent events and major life decisions, but also builds their personal styling abilities for the future. The decision-making skills and personalized attention students gain from the closet helps develop a baseline for how to find a style unique to them.
“I’ve seen it being students’ first experience trying on business casual attire, and [then] they use it multiple times, and when they are graduating [they] know what they are looking for,” Granger said. “It is like when students are graduating, they are ready to graduate and [are] prepared. It is the same way with the clothing aspect, you are prepared to enter the working world and know what you are looking for.”
The Comet Closet is available by appointment through its website. It accepts donations by appointment as well for professional attire and accessories such as shoes, ties and belts, but asks that all items be in new condition, preferably with the tag still attached. It also accepts monetary donations on its website, allowing it to purchase items it feels will meet students’ needs. Granger said she works in collaboration with Temoc’s Closet, which accepts a wider range of items, to ensure clothing items the Comet Closet cannot use can go there.
“I always think that we are built on a place of connection,” Granger said. “Being at a university setting, a lot of students feel pressure, and this [closet could have] very well [been] that way, but it is more than just a transaction. It’s an exciting time.”