NORTH LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Lindsay Giambattista’s parents chuckled when she told them that she wanted to give clothes to girls in need.
They figured the Teen Vogue-scouring daughter of a fashion-industry veteran just wanted to shop.
Fast-forward two years: Lindsay, 17, oversees a boutique offering clothing to girls in foster care, handling $1 million worth of donated apparel last year from designers, retailers and people in Tokyo.
Taylor’s Closet — named after Lindsay’s sister who died at birth — serves about 300 young women in the Fort Lauderdale area.
Similar boutiques have opened in Dallas and Spokane, Wash., and more are in the works.
“This (idea) kinda came to me,” Lindsay said recently, “and it was from God.”
“It’s not really about the clothing,” mother Linda Giambattista said. “They experience love and hope.”
Ashley Larkins remembers her first time at Taylor’s Closet. As she scanned “some busting stuff” — teenspeak for something that looks good — the 19-year-old started bawling as she remembered how she was abandoned at 14 and put into foster care.
“I started crying because I felt like so loved, like somebody finally cared about me,” Ashley said.
The Associated Press
