Designer Donations for Charity

Description

Mannequin is a women’s clothing, accessories, art, antiques and gift boutique, featuring upscale and vintage merchandise with all proceeds going to charity. Opening officially on January 7, 2011 in the Gateway Quarter in Over-The Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio. The boutique at 1405-7 Vine Street will be open every Thursday through Saturday 11-5PM and Sunday 11-3PM. The store includes designer labels, from Ferragamo and Prada to Banana Republic and Coach, at bargain prices. Most of the store’s merchandise is donated and the rest is bought in NY. Proceeds from sales go directly to seven local service agencies:
• FreeStore Foodbank
• First Step Home
• Lighthouse Youth Services
• One Way Farm for Abused Children
• Stop Aids
• Tender Mercies
• UCAN Spay/Neuter Clinic

"These agencies execute their missions with such dignity," says Moe Rouse the founder. They serve the needy, the disenfranchised, the so often forgotten. They do so much with so little. I admire their missions, and simply want to help."

Mannequin’s roots go back to 1964 when the Cincinnati Chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) started a yearly one-day sale of donated clothing to raise funds for its many charitable projects. For 35 years, the sale generated as much as $100,000 a year. Rouse took it over in 2001, renaming it Designer Donations for Cincinnati Charities. She organized two sales a year for the last nine years. When she had the opportunity to move into a newly renovated 2000 sq feet retail space in the exciting Gateway Quarter in Over-the-Rhine, she knew she had to be open more often.

What started as a fundraiser in 1964, has become the latest retail outlet in Over-the-Rhine’s Gateway Quarter. And 46 years later... it is still dedicated to doing good for others.