Fashioning a New Direction

Photo: Fred Lopez

Food pantry director reflects on fashion career

Irene O’Malley, executive director of Lake Cares Food Pantry, relishes working with volunteers to provide food for 750 families a month, and she believes most people would be surprised to learn she’s a former fashion designer/merchandiser who traveled the world. “Every now and then I still see women wearing clothes I designed,” says Irene. “My last company was with Pierre Ellis men’s underwear, and I had to select models based on certain attributes.”

Fashion was her life from 1975 to 2002. She went to New York City at 18 to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and her career involved production, design, and merchandising of ladies, men, and children’s apparel for specialty boutiques and major stores, including J.C. Penney, Sears, QVC, and Home Shopping Network. Before doing that, Irene served as a “fit model.” “I would have to try on the clothes to make sure that they fit properly because the proportion of my body was considered the standard size of an average woman,” she says.

“The first Calvin Klein jeans were actually created after my fit. They had dress forms all through the factory that didn’t have a size on it—the forms just said ‘Irene.’” After retiring from the fashion industry, she became a virtual instructor for major corporations teaching customer service. “I called it the three-foot commute,” she says of working from home. However, Irene wanted to do more.

She began volunteering with Lake Cares Food Pantry in 2009 and rose to the top. “My absolute favorite thing is distribution day when people come in and thank us for being here,” she says. Irene is proud that Lake Cares is providing take-home meals to thousands of children during their summer break. “This year we’re taking it a little bit further. We’ll be supplying some new school clothes.”