Goodwill Donations and "Jeanious" Ideas at Northgate

Through the end of this month the Northgate mall is celebrating "Great Denim Days."

Its guest services department is collecting used denim jeans, hoping that shoppers will bring in as many pairs as possible.

 "All of the used denim will be donated to our local Goodwill," said Brianna Davis, marketing manger at Northgate.  "It was perfect timing because Goodwill will be bringing their Northgate drop-off location back this week. They had been here before our renovation but had to move temporarily during our remodel. They are excited to be back this week and are extremely thankful we are donating the jeans to them."

Shoppers can also sign up at guest services for Northgate e-mail, which tells them what is happening at Northgate with bimonthly notices about new stores, special store and restaurant savings, exclusives and upcoming events.

 "It's a way to learn about the exclusives," said Darlaine Sipes, guest services supervisor.

Davis works with the stores to get special offers exclusively for the shoppers who sign up for their Northgate e-mail.  

Northgate has collected more than 850 pairs of jeans with the help of cheerleaders fromt San Rafael and Terra Linda high schools, plus another 250 pairs from Northgate customers. 

After a recent fashion show, the mall offered a "Denim Jeanious Bar," with four "denim jeaniouses" from Gap, Buckle, PacSun and Macy's.

Everyone who attended the show could ask the "Jeaniouses" the burning question:  "What's my body type and what type of jeans should I be wearing?"

The "jeaniouses" discussed how customers can find the styles best suited to their own body type. They each had racks from their stores with all the latest styles like boot cut, pockets in back, jeggings (legging jeans), high rise, low rise, whiskering lines, light, dark denim and ripped, and helped customers with examples of what they should look for when buying jeans.

"This is the biggest problem everyone has," said Diane Parente, "How to tell which jeans will look best on you."

There are so many styles, shapes and cuts for jeans now, just deciding what to try on can be overwhelming, Parente said.