About 1st Impressions
1st Impressions is a Community Interest Organisation which was originally set up to serve the BANES community in 2021.
Our co-founder, Jane Ellis-Brush, has a passion about supporting women. She also has years of experience in the corporate world and a wardrobe of pre-loved items to share, so created 1st Impressions to make a difference in her community.
Since then, the team has grown, we’ve been able to support more clients, and we have found our own boutique space to invite clients to, at Fairfield House, Kelston, Bath.
Through pop-up boutiques we are helping women throughout the South-West and South Wales.
Vision
A world where all women have equal opportunities at interview.
Mission
We make a positive impact on all women wanting to work by helping them to create confident first impressions at interview. We provide a tailored service, focused on improving individuals’ confidence through wardrobe selection, leaving the candidate looking good, feeling confident and ready to impress.
Values
When you work with 1st Impressions, we promise that we will be honest, that we will be authentic, that we will think about our environmental impact and that we will treat everyone we work with equally.
Our Directors
Jane Ellis-Brush
Director
Having spent 30 years in industry working at senior levels within a number of organisations, Jane moved to Bath in March 2021 and joined the University of Bath as a Senior Lecturer. Being passionate about women in work, she started looking into how she could help local under-privileged women into employment through providing clothes and accessories for their interviews and first few weeks of employment. 1st Impressions was born!
Kevin Ellis-Brush
Director
Kevin is co-founder of 1st Impressions and has spent over 30 years in senior positions in both corporate organisations and NGO. He is also an entrepreneur and established executive coach. He is passionate about life-long learning and helps his clients to become the best versions of themselves. For 1st Impressions, he specialises in governance and obtaining supportive funding for the organisation.
Mike Lewis
Director
Originally a Mechanical Engineer, Michael continued his academic career with a PhD from the University of Cambridge, later working at Harvard Business School and Warwick Business School, before joining the University of Bath’s School of Management in 2004. Michael’s experience has been essential to building the foundations of 1st Impressions, and his knowledge and expertise continues to help guide and support the enterprise.
Denise Hunt
Director
Denise worked at the University of Bath from 2009-2022. She has been the Managing Director of a number of companies and has many years of interview experience. She is pleased to be able to help other women to grow their confidence. She is keen to expand the organisation's reach within the South West and South Wales
Our Operations Team
Amanda Thompson-Jones
Stylist & Inventory Volunteer
Amanda is well-travelled, enthusiastic, bit of an entrepreneur, reliable with a vast knowledge of business and life skills, who alsopractices Indian Head Massage.
Jean Sherrard
Stylist & Inventory Volunteer
Having worked with vulnerable children and their families, I have personally witnessed how entering the workforce not only benefits the individual but can also have a positive impact on families as a whole.
Jill Evans
Stylist & Inventory Volunteer
Jill advises businesses on government contracts. She previously worked for over 30 years in the public sector where she managed teams of all shapes and sizes. She firmly believes that the power of a good outfit should not be overlooked and that for most women a lack of confidence in themselves is their biggest restriction.
Shauna Keyes
Stylist & Inventory Volunteer
Shauna is a first-year aerospace engineering student at the University of Bath, who began volunteering with us thanks to the Gold Scholarship Programme. As a young woman trying to break into a heavily male dominated industry, she is passionate about motivating women to push themselves outside their comfort zones and provide them with an opportunity to succeed despite breaking stereotypes.
Aloise Price
Stylist
After 27 years living in Asia, Aloise moved to Bath where she met Jane. Inspired by the help 1st Impressions offers women returning to the work place, Aloise joined the team, meeting clients and helping select morale boosting capsule wardrobes.
Shauna Lloyd
Stylist & Inventory Volunteer
Shauna is a first-year accounting and management student at the University of Bath. She decided to volunteer for 1st Impressions due to first-hand experience of the support the charity provided to Gold Scholarship Students (as a Gold Scholarship Student myself). As a state educated and first-generation university student, she is passionate about increasing social mobility, and giving women a the help they may need in achieving their career ambitions.
Alizon Messant
Stylist & Inventory Volunteer
Recently retired from a large international corporation, where for the past 30 years she met clients and colleagues across Europe , Alizon understands well the importance of that first impression. She would like to help give confidence to the clients we work with so they can go on to achieve their career path.
Clementine Seymour
Stylist & Website Volunteer
Clem works at the University of Bath's School of Management, on the MBA programme. She has worked as a chef and a web developer and enjoys motivating women to feel confident in the workplace
Dedication to Christine
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1st Impressions received a most generous donation from Christine and her husband Martin.
In honour of Christine, who sadly passed away a few years ago, Martin has donated a large majority of her wardrobe.
Christine was the daughter of a Dairy Farming family from Chew Stoke just outside Bristol, although until she married Martin, she lived in South Bristol where she was educated.
Her professional working life began with a farming-related insurance company in Bristol in the late 1960s, where she worked until she had the first of her two daughters in 1976.
She never returned to work, choosing to devote her life to family and home from that point onwards - any reference to "Lady Of Leisure" was swiftly rebuffed! - and she did a brilliant job on all fronts.
Her interests were Family, Home, Cats, Garden, Painting, Cross-stitch, Jigsaws, Soaps, Politics, Theatre and Michael Ball!
We wish to thank both Christine, and Martin, for this amazing donation which will continue to help support women get back into work in the Bath area.
Thank you!