By Joy Kraft
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Downtown's 4th Street Boutique will mark its first anniversary by slashing prices Wednesday through Friday.

"The prices are unbelievable. And knowing that 100 percent goes back to Dress for Success," makes Gwen Brewer of Bond Hill a regular shopper and other lunch-hour shoppers. (Her favorite purchase is an Escada suit "in the prettiest peach shade you've ever seen and the greatest fit" for about $25).

Dress for Success is a nonprofit program that outfits and prepares low-income women to enter the work force. Clients, referred by agencies, are coached on job skills and interview preparation and are given an outfit from the donated clothes (usually a suit or business dress with shoes, purse, etc.). After securing work, they usually get an additional outfit and graduate to a job retention program, earning points along the way for more outfits.

But Mary Ivers, who started the program in 1999, had a problem. Women, were generouswith their closets, but not all the clothes were tailored for the 9-to-5 set.

There were evening gowns, shorts, jeans, casual jackets, blouses, skirts and other designs not meant for first on-the-job impressions.

Looking for sustainable funding and faced with this extra merchandise, Ivers got into the retail business, opening a small boutique.

Word spread. More clothes came in - with labels such as Escada, Anne Klein, Dana Buchman, Ralph Lauren - and the shop moved downstairs to its present home, then added a bargain cash-only basement to sweeten the shopping pot.

Everybody wins.

Shoppers, such as Bev Dawson of Florence, outfit themselves at bargain prices.

"There are 12 women in my office," she says, "and six of us go there routinely. I like supporting the cause, too."

Dress for Success has seen its government funding drop from 52 percent in 2001 to between 6 or 7 percent, according to Ivers, and 4th Street Boutique has become the money machine behind the program.

"It's an out-of-the-box way for funding ourselves," Ivers says.

The anniversary sale will have discounted prices on winter and spring fashions, including Dollar Days in the basement and a designer salon with all prices $1-$25.

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4th Street Boutique, 135 W. Fourth St., downtown. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday through Friday. Dress for Success accepts clean, gently-worn accessories and clothing on hangers. Information: 651-4124.