It's fun, sustainable and free. It's The Clothing Loop, formerly known as the Chain Clothing Exchange. At thegreenlist.nl we are fans. Who wouldn't want a bag of free clothes on their doorstep to browse in once every few weeks? Saskia is happy to tell you more about this clothing exchange initiative and show you some cool finds from her Clothing Loop bags.
Swapping clothes with The Clothing Loop
Easily swap clothes with people in the neighbourhood, that's The Clothing Loop. The idea was conceived by slow fashion geek Nichon Glerum when she missed the clothing swap parties immensely in corona time. She devised a system to still swap clothes with neighbours and it caught on so well that soon more people heard about it and wanted to start their own runs too. Nichon then facilitated this by diligently keeping track of all those runs in an excel sheet. And that was just the beginning. Fast forward: The Clothing Loop grew in no-time into a serious community with now hundreds of loops in the Netherlands. What do I say, in the world (and counting). Because this too-crazy Dutch idea is thus going global. And that little excel? That has grown into a wonderful website where you can find everything you need to make clothes swapping with the neighbourhood a successful party.
How does it work? We'll explain it to you in a minute, but really you just have to experience it for yourself. It is so much fun and simple and very sustainable too! Cleaning out your closet and scoring free fashion gems from your neighbours is the icing on the fashion cake, right?
A few free finds from The Clothing Loop!
How does The Clothing Loop work?
Via the website sign up to a clothing chain in your neighbourhood. After that, it doesn't take long before you are accepted into a WhatsApp group with neighbourhood members. You receive instructions from the administrator and then it's your turn to wait until it's your turn and a big bag of clothes is on your doorstep that has been put together by all the participants of your clothing run, all neighbours in other words. You pick out what you like, add any clothes you want to get rid of and pass the bag on to the next resident who joins the clothing chain. Fun fact: You are not obliged to put clothes away every time, but you may take clothes out of the bag all the time. How do you find them?
If you live in an area where there is no chain yet, The Clothing Loop would be happy to help you set one up in your area.
Lucky you: maybe you live in an area with a Clothing Loop for kids. These are also springing up like mushrooms. The counter now stands at four hundred!
Maximum of five garments per person per year
To stay within climate targets on textiles, we are ‘still’ allowed to buy only five new garments per person per year, said Milieu Centraal. This will put many people off. At the same time, Dutch people on average do not wear 70% of their clothes. Nichon: ‘So we are all sitting on a gold mine. And by sharing this mountain in an accessible way, we not only solve part of the problem, but also get to know nice people in the neighbourhood!’
My experience swapping clothes through The Clothing Loop
I myself receive a bag at home on average once every fortnight. In my case, there are nine bags circulating, put together by 53 neighbours, so there are nice surprises among them every time. If one time it's nothing for me, the bag goes on to the next in line - my back neighbour, one minute's walk away - and then I patiently wait for the next bag. I have already scored quite a few cool items: a swimming costume, a perfect bra (really!), nice high waist jeans, a dashing summer dress and an easy jumper.
Tip: Do you need something for a fancy dress party or other special occasion? You can use the app group for that too! Because very often someone in the group has something on loan.
Sneak peek inside a bag from The Clothing Loop.
Will you join us?
Will you also join The Clothing Loop? If you manage to buy six fewer pieces of clothing in a year than you normally would, you will save around 40 kilos of CO2 emissions. That is equivalent to driving a petrol car from Amsterdam to Paris (source: Milieu Centraal). That's quite a lot and a chain clothing swap is a great idea to cut down on those purchases (and still wear something new every now and then). Nichon aims to enthuse one million people to join its sustainable clothing initiative over the next five years. If it succeeds, all those avid clothing swappers will together save as much CO2 emissions as five thousand trips around the world in that same petrol car. Surely you want to be part of that? Read more about this great initiative.
Get started with a no buy clothing style
Swapping clothes is great, but we have many more ideas for making the most of the clothes that are already there. We'll help you get 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!
More sustainable tips thegreenlist.nl
- Are you a lover of sustainable fashion? Then check out this long list of better fashion brands too.
- You can swap clothes, but you can also sell beautiful items. Check out our tips on how to sell smoothly on Vinted.
- These tips from style coach Mirjam are gold To get more out of your wardrobe.
- You can also borrow clothes, of course. Check out the nicest clothing libraries in the Netherlands here.
Photo credits: thegreenlist.nl.
