It's fun to do with girlfriends and it certainly doesn't look out of place on the vrijmibo with colleagues either and that is - tadaa - a clothes swap party! Sas loves swap parties and tells you how to organise them in a handy and relaxed way. This is how to organise a clothes swap!
A clothes swap is good for the earth as well as your wallet
We buy a huge amount (too much) of clothes worldwide. Clothes were once a luxury item to be thrifted on - our grandparents also often had only a few items in their wardrobes that they used for (decades). Unfortunately, that is different now. It has become a disposable product of often poor quality. With the advent of fast fashion, every week there is a new collection somewhere that is even more quirky, cool and special than the previous week's collection. And with the advent of ultra fast fashion, things are moving even faster. Getting from design table to webshop within a few days has become quite normal. And the quality of these clothes? Let's not even talk about that. It is incredibly stressful and harmful to the planet to make all these clothes, wear them for short periods and throw them away. The waste we create with it is huge and the earth is depleting. It can be done differently!
And that's where clothes swapping comes in. This is a great way to reduce that clothes mountain. You clean out your closet (tidying tips can be found here), you shop clothes from someone else, you add no new clothes to the world, while getting to wear something nice and new. And you also have a nice evening. Come on, let's all start swapping clothes en masse. And this is how you do it!
Get started with a no buy clothing style
Need more inspiration to breathe new life into the clothes that are already here? We'll get you started with the No Buy Fashion Guide. Over a hundred pages of cool ideas on how to look nice without even buying anything. Nothing. Nope. Nada. Not even second-hand! For 9.50 euros you will have it delivered straight to your inbox and thus on your tablet or mobile phone!
Will you also join this fun community? Read this guide too and discover lots of original ideas. Because so many cool clothes are already out there! Order the No Buy Fashion Guide from our webshop!
Tips for organising a clothes swap.
Organising a clothing swap: here's how to do it conveniently!
Tools
- minimum of 5 participants (5 to 15 is ideal if you want to keep it manageable)
- 5-10 cool garments per person
- clothes rack
- mirror
- corner to fit
- snacks & drinks
- pleasant music
Instructions
- Pick a date and invite a group of friends. Experienced clothing swappers from the Insta community say five to 15 participants is ideal. It is helpful if everyone is about the same size, but this is not a must. And especially invite the people you always admire so much for their clothing style.
- All bring at least five to 10 nice, clean garments. Agree a number together in advance.
- Hang everything by size and category.
- Provide a big mirror, fun music and tasty snacks & drinks (or have everyone bring something tasty).
- Divide the event into several rounds of looking, fitting, choosing and dividing.
- Multiple fans of one item? Then raffle it off.
- Take leftover clothes to a charity or thrift shop.
Work drinks
Tip: At a working drinks party or during an event, it's nice to create a corner and let the swapping go a bit further. You explain in the invitation what the intention is and then give people the opportunity to hang things up and shop for themselves. You'll find that if you let it go, the swapping will naturally get going in between. So a clothing swap is also good conversation material - funny pun - for your business event.
Attending a clothing swap
If you don't feel like or don't have time to organise a clothes swap yourself, you can also attend a big clothes swap. Clothing swap parties are regularly organised in cities or community centres. Cool also to combine it with a city trip. A current list of clothes swap parties can be found at on The Clothing Loop website.
More sustainable tips from thegreenlist.nl
- You can also buy shoes second-hand, at least if you pick out the good pairs. We have tips.
- Second-hand gadgets and electronics tips, because you can also buy those second-hand.
- Fan of designer clothes. Here is a list of webshops where you can buy and sell this second-hand!
- Want to know more about The Clothing Loop? Check out our review!
Sources: nos.nl, bnnvara.nl, hva.nl, europarl.europa.eu. Photo credits: thegreenlist.nl, fatin-hisham (Pexels) (bag with clothes).
