How to organise a clothing swap

Marlot Kiveron
Nov 1 · 5 min read

Update your wardrobe without compromising the environment

As Sustainability Manager at Ace & Tate, I’ve made it my personal mission to reduce the environmental impact of our products — which we do through innovating waste streams and re-design. People ask me if I am living the sustainable life myself all the time. Luckily, I love vintage and second-hand clothing hunting. So, one easy win there!

Recently, we organised a clothing swap for the Ace & Tate team and it was so much fun! Colleagues were trying on things they would normally never wear and were inspired by different styles and combinations. And equally important: it functions as a nice counter for the eco-anxiety that lies around the corner of introducing the sustainability topic in companies.

How it all started

Our former colleague Marit suggested a swap-meet where Ace & Tate staff exchange their valued, but no longer worn, apparel for clothing they will wear (without having to empty your bank account).

According to a study by British charity Barnardo’s, the average item of clothing is worn only 7 times! By extending the lifetime of our items at the swap, we can avoid them ending up in landfill and so reduce their environmental footprint.

Almost five months later we really made it happen. Big up for Lotte (our Sustainability Intern) to help me organise this event! A lot of treasures were found and people very much enjoyed this new way of ‘responsible shopping’. Vicky swapped her cocktail dresses from Paris for a beautiful jumpsuit and Siti was really happy with her new (old) sweater. In the end, we donated the un-swapped pieces to a local charity.

As Macklemore sings in his song Thrift shop: “One man’s trash, that’s another man’s come up.”

To give it to you straight up — organising an event like this does take time and effort. Afterwards, I received tons of questions around how-to organise a clothing swap. While gearing up to organising the next one, I thought it would be nice to share a how-to for others with the same idea — read &SWAP!

5 Ways to start your own clothes swap

So we got to work a month or two before the event. I worried people might not wanting to wear the ‘old’ clothes of a colleague, so we decided to team up with The Student Hotel to enlarge our pool of items. This was a clever move as it had the added benefit that we could make use of the gorgeous hotel lobby as swap-location.

1. Tunes & drinks

We set a date: a Thursday afternoon from 17:00–19:00 so people could enjoy a drink and a bite after work as well. We asked our colleague Milan, better known as DJ Dreamboat, to spin some music.

The creative team created a sleek-looking invite and we sent out a sign-up list so we could get a heads-up on how many people were interested in swapping. Immediately we received a lot of attendees. They received the guidelines around what to bring and equally important: what not to bring.

2. Trash and treasures

Be strict (upfront) about what quality pieces can be handed it, and which would better be recycled elsewhere:

  • A minimum of 1 and a maximum of 5 pieces
  • Washed, ironed or steamed pieces in good condition (no stains, holes, etc.)
  • Timeless pieces you would still wear but did not, for at least 2 seasons
  • No fast fashion, low-quality items or bras, sportswear and swimwear
  • Bring a nice vintage item or a party dress to spice things up a little!

I asked my favourite vintage shop Rosa Rosas, to chip in some pieces she did not sell to have an interesting mixture of decades. We also reached out to a list of stylists and influencers and asked them to join and bring cool items.

3. Poppin tokens

In the office, everyone was super excited and willing to help out. We asked everyone to bring in the clothes in advance so we were able to curate them, tag them with the right colour, hand out tokens and make the &SWAP store look the part. The tokens were made out of old coloured paper, next time I will email people the tokens to make things easier:

  • Blue token — T-shirts, blouses, skirts, shorts
  • Red token — Dresses, jumpsuits, blouses, pants
  • Black token — Coats, shoes, accessories
  • Golden token — Premium, very special items (this one will be added for the next &SWAP)

Note: No exchange of tokens (2 blue = not 1 red) to make swapping as honestly as possible.

4. Bring your own

A couple of days before the event we also asked everyone to bring their own (Ace & Tate tote) bag with them to take their swapped items home.

5. Setting up store

At the &SWAP store, we set up a desk where people could check-in and out, we had a mirror (very important!) and an improvised fitting room. We placed all the rented clothing racks with hangers in the room and sorted everything by color — not the most efficient way, but the best looking way! There were some tables as well to put on accessories, jeans and shoes.

There was a group of colleagues that helped out during the event itself. 2 Visual merchandisers made sure the &SWAP ‘store’ looked nice and organised all the time. There were 2 salesmen at the check-out desk and 2 stylists that gave advice and took items back and forth from the fitting room.

The event was more fun than I imagined. Tunes, drinks and a very cosy and positive vibe. People were eager to find something nice, but not too greedy. Stunning new combinations were made, people wore items oversized or fitted, where they were used to be wearing them the other way around.

Next time, I plan to ask a tailor to join, so small alterations can be made on the spot. We ended exactly two hours later and had some nice and also pretty leftover pieces for the charity to donate.

Shopping vintage or second-hand clothing is something that can be a bit out of people’s comfort zone. A clothing swap is a perfect way to introduce your friends or colleagues to the possibility of shopping in an environmentally-friendly way!

What are your best vintage or second-hand finds ? — Let me know in the comments below!

Speak soon!❤

Marlot

*These beautiful illustrations are made by the super talented Anila Mistry!

Marlot Kiveron

Written by

Fashion revolutionary striving for positive impact on the environment and human rights. Creating transparency as Sustainability Manager of: www.aceandtate.com

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