Why is Smart & Sexy Day on March 13?

March is Women's History Month in the United States, and member organizations hold their events across the whole month rather than on a single date. No source documents why the day itself is fixed on March 13.

Is Smart & Sexy Day the same as International Women's Day?

No. International Women's Day is March 8 and Smart & Sexy Day is March 13, and both fall inside Women's History Month.

Is Smart & Sexy Day still held?

It has run annually since 2012, and the most recently documented edition was in March 2025, hosted by The Wardrobe across southeastern Pennsylvania. No later edition is on record.

Smart and Sexy Day

Next celebratedSaturday, March 13, 2027

A workforce observance on March 13 offering unemployed women job-skills training, professional wardrobe coaching, and free, professionally fitted foundation garments.

See how to celebrate

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YEARLY DATEMarch 13

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYStyle

SUBCATEGORYFashion

ORIGIN

Institutional Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY

Alliance of Career Development Nonprofits

FIRST OBSERVED

2012

“The Alliance of Career Development Nonprofits started the day in 2012, with the Smart & Sexy lingerie brand as its sponsor.

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

Launched by a charity alliance, sponsored by a lingerie brand.

The Alliance of Career Development Nonprofits, then still operating as The Women's Alliance, started Smart & Sexy Day in 2012 with the Smart & Sexy lingerie brand of Ariela & Associates International. Member organizations host the local events, each pairing job-skills training with a free professional fitting.

Read ACDN's Founding Accountvia Alliance of Career Development Nonprofits

INTRO

A free fitting, a job workshop, and a city proclamation

Smart & Sexy Day reads like a novelty on the calendar. It is a job-readiness program for unemployed women, and the service at its center is a free professional bra fitting.

Attendees get job-skills training from local industry professionals, then get measured and walk out with correctly fitted foundation garments donated by the sponsoring brand. The training and the fitting are run by the same charity, at the same event.

In 2018 one host ran its event inside Viacom's headquarters in New York. Nearly 50 women came.

ORIGINS

Smart and Sexy Day history

INTRODUCTION

The organization behind the day is older than the day. In 1999, five nonprofit executive directors formed The Women's Alliance, a network built to back small community groups that supplied interview clothes to women leaving welfare.

Nothing in that founding pointed toward the name the alliance is now best known for. That came later, and from a sponsor.

CHAPTER 01

A sponsor arrives

The alliance started the day in 2012 with Ariela & Associates International, the company behind the Smart & Sexy label. Its stated reason was plain: the women its members served had a better chance of landing a job when they felt good about themselves.

In 2014 the alliance changed its own name, becoming the Alliance of Career Development Nonprofits to reflect members who by then served men and teens. The first name never fully left. IRS records still list the organization as The Women's Alliance, tax-exempt and based in Washington, D.C.

CHAPTER 02

The brand takes the name national

The sponsor pushed the name harder in 2017. Its press release announced March 13 as National Smart & Sexy Day, and launched a swimwear campaign with the model Joan Smalls in the same breath. The day it named was already five years old.

CHAPTER 03

Rewriting what the name means

COVID-19 closures moved the program onto a screen. ACDN held its first virtual National Smart & Sexy Day in 2021, and the online session became the kickoff for a month of member events.

Then the day began rewriting its own theme, and away from the word in its name. The 2022 edition ran under the theme "Find Your Smart Fit". The 2023 program was called "Redefining Sexy", and a second sponsor, Curvy Couture, joined that year.

By 2025 the theme was "The Power of And", a frame about women holding leadership, innovation, caregiving and creativity at once. The name on the calendar had not changed. What the day chose to mean by it had.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why Smart & Sexy Day Matters

CIVIC

Detroit, Roanoke Rapids and Palm Springs each proclaimed it in 2018.

In 2018 the City of Detroit issued a proclamation of Smart & Sexy Day that was put on display at the Jackets for Jobs event on March 21. The Mayor of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina issued one for that city's March 17 event, and County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez presented a proclamation from the County Board of Supervisors honoring March 9, 2018 as Palm Springs' Smart & Sexy Day.

FUNDING

Every garment sold sends money back

A portion of the purchase price of every Smart & Sexy garment sold is donated to the alliance. That makes the alliance a beneficiary of the label's ordinary retail business, not only of what it gives away on the day.

NETWORK

It runs through charities that already exist

Every member organization of the alliance supplies work attire, and 70% of them also run career development training. The day is a coordinated push through a standing network rather than a stand-alone event.

BY THE NUMBERS

Smart & Sexy Day by the Numbers

1,800+: Total attendees through 2018
~400: Women served at 2018 events
~500: Women the 2023 program targeted
325,000+: People clothed by alliance members since 1999

TIMELINE

Timeline

The Women's Alliance forms

Five nonprofit executive directors created a network to back small groups supplying interview clothes to women leaving welfare.

Smart & Sexy Day launches

The alliance started the annual program with Ariela & Associates International, the company behind the Smart & Sexy label.

The alliance renames itself

The Women's Alliance became the Alliance of Career Development Nonprofits, reflecting members who also served men and teens.

The sponsor names March 13

A brand press release announced that March 13, 2017 had been named National Smart & Sexy Day.

The program moves online

ACDN held its first virtual National Smart & Sexy Day after COVID-19 closures, then used it to open a month of member events.

The most recent documented edition

The Wardrobe hosted Open Wardrobe Smart & Sexy Day across southeastern Pennsylvania on March 27.

Bras aren't going to change the world, but the confident women who wear them will.

Ariela BalkCEO and founder, Smart & Sexy

It's about knowing what my possibilities are, not to accept just anything and going for what you want.

WandalynnSmart & Sexy Day participant

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe Smart & Sexy Day

Find your nearest host organization's event date

Member nonprofits run their own editions on their own dates, and in 2018 the scheduled host events ran from March 9 to March 27. Check the organization nearest you rather than assuming the calendar date, because the programs and their timing differ.

TEACH

Teach a session in something you actually do

In 2018 Tailored for Success in Malden, Massachusetts ran a session on interviewing, social media job searching and the Massachusetts Pay Equity Law, including how to negotiate salary under it. Host organizations staff the day with local industry professionals, so offer a member organization an hour of what you know.

LEARN

Learn how a professional fitting actually works

Career Wardrobe in Philadelphia brought in the fitter Karima Renee, known as the Philly Bra Lady, to teach clients how a bra should fit. Ask the host near you who does the fitting and what the session covers.

POINT

Point a job seeker toward a member event

The day is aimed at women who are out of work and preparing to interview. If you know someone job hunting, point them to a member organization in their area.

DONATE

Donate professional clothing to a member closet

Sort the suits, blazers and shoes you no longer wear, then drop them at a participating career closet. Call ahead to check what that location currently accepts.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know Smart and Sexy Day?

1 / 8

What does a Smart & Sexy Day event actually provide?

Answer

No, it is an unofficial observance run by a nonprofit alliance and its sponsor, so it is a normal working day. The government proclamations on record are municipal and county-level and specific to 2018 events.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

10sources

8primary records

8independently dated

Primary records

Alliance of Career Development Nonprofits2020-03-10

What Makes You Feel Smart and Sexy?

The founding alliance on why it started the day and what attendees receive.

View source

Alliance of Career Development Nonprofits2018-05-15

2018 National Smart & Sexy Day Highlights

Seventh-year recap with host cities, attendance totals and the city proclamations.

View source

Alliance of Career Development Nonprofits2018-03-12

Smart & Sexy Day 2018

A guest post by the sponsor's founder, with that year's scheduled host events.

View source

Alliance of Career Development Nonprofits

PRESS RELEASE - Smart & Sexy

The launch year, the first virtual edition, and the 2023 theme and sponsors.

View source

Alliance of Career Development Nonprofits

About

How the network began in 1999 and what its member agencies provide.

View source

Ariela & Associates International2022

Smart&Sexy Day with The Alliance of Career Development NonProfits (ACDN)

The sponsoring company on the partnership, the March 13 date and its 2022 theme.

View source

PR Newswire2017-03-10

March 13, 2017 Named National Smart & Sexy Day, the Brand Kicks off Mega Swim Campaign with Supermodel Joan Smalls

The brand's release naming the date, issued alongside a swimwear campaign launch.

View source

ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer2022

The Women's Alliance, EIN 52-2168980

IRS filing data showing the founding alliance still registered under its first name.

View source

Additional coverage

Career Wardrobe2015-03-02

'Smart & Sexy' Day at Career Wardrobe Empowers Women Seeking Employment

A member charity's account of a host event and the garment-sale donation.

View source

MyChesCo2025-03

Open Wardrobe Smart & Sexy Day Offers Free Bras and Support for Women

Local coverage of the 2025 edition and its theme.

View source

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