If you walk through the heavy wooden doors of a chapel on Warners Avenue in North Bondi, you'll find yourself in an op shop that looks a little more like a designer boutique. With its stained glass windows, sparse, curated racks and high-end labels attached to most garments, the Wayside Chapel Op Shop was already lifting the game when it came to pre-loved fashion – and now, it's going one step further by officially heading to an online format.
Wayside Chapel has run youth, homelessness and addiction services across Sydney since 1964, and its first mission has always been to support disadvantaged members of the community. These services have become all the more sought after during the pandemic, with Wayside Chapel providing 15,000 hot meals and grocery deliveries, shifting 3000 pieces of clothing and blankets, and providing over 1000 warm showers and care packs between the months of March and June this year.
Now, it's expanding its reach to offer its range of eclectic, pre-loved high-end threads online, making circular fashion more accessible to all. Expect one-off finds from a range of designers like Willow, Manning Cartell and Philip Lim. While in-store shopping at the op shop is still off the cards, you can officially get Wayside's quality picks as easily as you shop on the Iconic.
If you're looking to offload some of your wardrobe rather than add to it, the Wayside Chapel's op shop is also accepting donations.
