Clothes swapping, duh! Last night I attended my first Clothes Swap at a friend of friend’s house in East Nashville. Now, if you’ve never heard of or been to one of these amazing events, get on the sustainability / free clothes train! Here’s the gist.. You know those clothes, shoes, and accessories you never wear anymore and are planning to take to Goodwill anyways? Well, stuff those into a bag (or several as some of the ladies had last night) and grab your favorite bottle of wine and some delicious snacky treats. Take all the materials to a friend’s house where everyone else has done the same. Next, lay out the clothes in a semi-strategic manner and start eyeing what you want from your friends’ piles. Our hosts thought it best to have the 17 guests draw numbers for equal clothing swapping opportunities. Also, that way, one person doesn’t swoop in and grab all the “good” stuff. Once your number is reached, you’re allowed to choose a few (we said 2) items to put in your bag. After everybody has had a pass, it’s a free for all!! Items that are not chosen are donated to charity.
This is quite possibly the greatest idea ever and a fantastic way to both purge your closet of gently used clothing, shoes, and accessories and still rack up on some new finds. One girl’s trash is another girl’s treasure.
The event last night was a blast and I met a lot of new and fabulous ladies. And while I had recently donated clothes to Goodwill and had a minimal amount to bring, some swappers brought bags and bags and boxes and boxes of items! There must have been over 1,000 items there. Seriously.
Items I brought (L to R): BNWT Cheap Monday skinny jeans, BNWT Franco Sarto sunglasses, Green Gap coat, Diesel zip-up, adorable tank top, Merona lace top, BNWT H&M shirt, ridiculously adorable Marc Jacobs sweater (it was hard letting go of that one and it was the second item snatched up!).
My lovely friends Katie & Allison unpacking their swap clothes.
The entire house looked like this... piles and piles of clothes..
I’m also suuuuuper picky about what I wear, but got some great finds including skirts, dresses, tops, a scarf, pair of shoes, and my Halloween costume!
Part of my finds: Vintage gray skirt, Banana Republic wrap dress (great for work), leopard scarf, ridiculous feather tee I can't wait to rock on Thanksgiving.
This is truly my gem of the night. Why did nobody else snatch this up?? Oh, wait.. maybe because it’s a shirt adorning a giant swan and feathers… But how uhh-mazing will this be for Halloween? I just need to make a feather skirt to match, and I’ll be soo Bjork (see below).
The clothes swap was fun because it was both impromptu and decidely DIY. Here are a few pictures from the evening. (I forgot to bring my big fancy camera, so these were taken with my shotty little Cannon.)
Not the best picture in the world, but we're getting geared up to choose numbers.
We tore into this.
These lasted a goooood twenty minutes.
After the swap ended and we had filled our bags, the night continued on with newly made friends and fabulous discussions about clothes, music, thrift shopping, work, school, and yeah, maybe there was a little boy talk in there, too.
So, you need to organize one of these events asap. Free clothes, booze, food, friends, and charity. What more could you ask for on a Wednesday night?
