Try Swapping Instead Of Shopping
5 minute read
About six months ago I got involved in a swap shop organised by a very stylish friend of mine. I contribute good quality items from my wardrobe, which I’ve loved but which I’m ready to let go of for whatever reason, and I put a price against each one. I bank credit as other members of the group ‘buy’ my pieces, and I use this credit to then invest in items contributed by my fellow swappers.
I enjoy it for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it’s like getting free clothes because no money exchanges hands. Secondly, it’s pushed me to take a long hard look at each piece in my wardrobe and decide if I love to wear it, or simply love the idea of wearing it. Swapping my clothes has also done away with some of my fashion brand prejudices. For instance, Karen Millen is not a label I’ve ever bought from or I feel reflects my style, yet I am now the proud owner of a delicious peppermint button-front shirt, which I adore and works with so many other items in my wardrobe. Conversely, I let go of a Victoria Beckham shirt (a label I adore) because it was too big. I loved looking at it in my wardrobe and I loved the idea of owning it, but it just didn’t feel right on.
The other benefit of this swap shop is that when an item is returned to me because it didn’t sell, I take another look at it and question why I passed it on and whether or not I’m glad to have it back. I look at these pieces with a fresh eye and a renewed interest and I’ve reinvented several as a result. And if I feel I can’t rework a returned item, it goes directly to a charity shop rather than cluttering up my wardrobe, which I’ve always wanted to be functional not decorative. The whole set up is proving to be a win-win. Now I’m thinking of downloading the clothes swapping app NUW, which was founded by Malahide native, London-based entrepreneur Aisling Byrne and has propelled her onto the Drapers (a bible for fashion industry insiders) 30 under 30 list, such is its success to date.
Swapping my clothes has changed not just how I view my wardrobe, but how I view new-season items too. An asymmetric dress from Cos, a textured knit from H&M or an oversized blazer from Arket will always get my pulse racing, but now I push past that initial adrenaline rush and question whether or not this item could ultimately wind up in the swap shop in a year’s time. If so, I shouldn’t buy it, and I can resist so much more easily now because not buying something new no longer means not having something new, as I never know when a lovely garment is going to come my way via my fellow swappers.
And although swapping doesn’t offer the instant gratification of traditional shopping, it does provide the same kind of unexpected pleasure you’d get from receiving flowers on a random week day rather than on Valentine’s Day.
The feel-good factor from the former lasts a lot longer I find.
Founder and CEO of sustainability company DesignTracker, Anne-Marie Tomchak, explains that her own shopping habits have become far more mindful since she co-founded ShareJoy, a platform which leverages the power of pre-loved fashion to raise funds for suicide prevention. Individuals donate an item of clothing to ShareJoy and it goes up for sale on Depop. To date, personalities such as Celia Holman-Lee, Una Healy and Olivia Tracey have all handed over items from their own wardrobes. Tomchak explains, “Anecdotally, people have been in touch with me online to say that their attitudes to fashion have completely changed, in part, because of the work we are doing in the circular economy with ShareJoy. And there are more businesses than ever offering resale, restoration, repairs and upcycling.” But she says the problem of throwaway fashion isn’t going away. “People have become used to getting items at a very low price point. It has become normalised.”
Yes it has, and while many among us can decide to buy fewer and better, not everybody is in a position to do so. And yet, they shouldn’t be denied the confidence boost that comes from slipping into a new dress or the comfort that can be found in a gorgeous new coat.
Fashion should be about fun and enjoyment and creativity, not about guilt and shame and climate calamities.
This is where swapping could play a really important part in all of our wardrobes going forward. I think in the past, many of us have had the same attitude to our clothes as we do to our homes. Ownership is everything. But I’m not the only woman now looking at their clothes as items they care for for a time rather than possess for a lifetime. Monaghan-based Maria Macklin is an image consultant who facilitates a swap shop for clients. “Once a woman has a consultation with me, she gains clarity on the clothing styles that suit her best and is often then ready to let go of items that don’t work so well on her,” Macklin explains. “This is where I come in. I understand how to match a garment to a client, so everyone is happy and the garment gets a new lease of life. I feel like a clothes matchmaker,” she laughs.
Macklin explains that when her clients pass on an item of clothing, they want it to be cherished and valued by its new owner. Personal shopper and stylist Cathy O’Connor says that this is at the heart of clothes swapping: “There’s something really wonderful about passing on the good times and cherished memories embodied in an item to somebody else.” O’Connor explains the benefits of swapping are twofold: we recycle rather than dump our clothes, and we get fresh style inspiration without having to spend a penny. It seems we’re finally beginning to view our clothes in the same way we do our jewellery, as evergreen items that don’t go in and out of fashion.
Tomchak’s platform ShareJoy is aptly named. Clothes are joyful when they’re being worn and loved and admired, not when they’re hanging limply in the back of a wardrobe. A couple of week’s ago, I saw a fellow swapper’s mother wearing one of my donated cashmere knits. It looked so much better on her than it did folded in my chest of drawers, and that gave me as much joy as it did its new owner.
Marie Kelly, February 2022
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