Why hundreds of women are lining up in Sydney
The Peter Pan Op Shop event, which has been running for 85 years, kicked off on Thursday and will be held until July 27 in Sydney.
Videos from the event show hundreds of people lining up, wrapping around the block, before doors even opened on Thursday. Inside, clips showed hundreds of women digging through racks hoping to score a designer item they could cherish forever.
Items on the racks include a mint green Christian Dior suit, which typically retails for more than $3000, selling for just $300. There was a Burberry suit worth $2000 being sold for $300 and a Louis Vuitton dress, valued at $1800, selling for $320.
A fashion show kicked off the event before doors officially opened on Thursday, and hundreds of people have come through so far — and the interest doesn't appear to be slowing down.
The same goes for the event itself, which seems to get bigger every year since it started in 1941. It began during a time when clothes were rationed, and women would put on a fashion show to model clothes they were looking to offload.
Vicki Barrack, 62, is a volunteer on the Peter Pan Op Shop Committee and began her experience with the event as a shopper at the age of 28.
'I owned my own modelling agency at the time and I was just starting out and wanted to look fabulous but didn't have the money so I went to the op shops,' she told news.com.au.
'I'm an ex-model, so when I went to the op shops people used to follow us around asking, 'can we have what you don't want because you have such a good eye'. So we would help other people shopping and give recommendations on what they should try and buy.'
Ms Barrack was then approached to be on the committee and helped set up the day. She said one of her favourite things about the event was the timeless treasures that could be found — and revealed she still has items she purchased from the first event she went to.
Ms Barrack believes the event draws such a huge crowd every year because of the endless unknown possibilities.
She said the committee was looking for younger volunteers to join, to keep the event going and bring fresh ideas, especially when it comes to social media.
'As our committee ages we need to keep reinvigorating and getting young people equally as excited about fashion and sustainable,' Ms Barrack said.
'If you have any kind of a love or interest in fashion, come to one of these and see what's available.
'Learn from different generations of other fashion lovers – you'll learn a lot. There are labels you may not have even heard of and they can explain the history of these garments and where they came from.
'There was a hat that came in yesterday that was from the queen's milliner — there's history people can learn.'
Peter Pan Op Shop is run by Barnardos Australia, an organisation designed to help end child abuse and neglect by supporting families to keep children safe and at home. All the money raised is donating to their causes, such as Beyond Barbed Wire.
Ms Barrack said when she first started on the committee, she remembered asking what was done with the money.
'She explained Beyond Barbed Wire to me, and I said 'Shouldn't we be taking clothes out to the women in the prisons and help them put outfits together so when they leave jail they have clothes to wear?'' Ms Barrack recalled.
'I organised for the committee to take clothes and we got names and sizing and a description of the women and we put together outfits for the women. That made everyone a lot more in touch with what we were doing — it helped the kids in the system with Bernardo's.'
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