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BANG FOR THE BITE
If 10,000 Biters swap a vintage tee instead of buying a new one, we'll avert the weight of 17 armoires in pesticides.
COCKTAIL FACT
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home › tip library › Clothes Swapping
Boring people to death chattering about your wardrobe deficiencies?
The Bite
Find a willing audience at a clothes swap party or online trading website. You'll find one-of-a-kind pieces and save resources (both monetary and planetary) - an effective way to recycle dull duds so that you can quit driving people away.The Benefits
- Clothes worth gabbing about. We all have stylin' clothes that are just boring us these days. Trade 'em for some that are new to you.
- Oil savings you wanna hear about. Demand for manmade fibers such as polyester - made from petroleum - has almost doubled over the past 15 years, despite skyrocketing oil costs.
- Making cutting waste your business. Americans throw away more than 68 pounds of clothing per person each year, but - unless you have the worst taste ever - most is totally wearable.
Personally Speaking
Since Bozeman is slim on great shopping ops, Hilary is a big online swapper - check the blog to see her show off her wears.Wanna Try?
- Swapstyle - swap for thousands of women's pieces online, from Target's Merona line to Marc Jacobs.
- Clothing Swap and Swap-O-Rama-Rama - orgs that host live clothing swap parties nationwide (including ones for men).
- Bigwardrobe - UK site for both men and women, with brand-name apparel including Chanel and Louis Vuitton.
- DIY Bite: check our tip for throwing your own swap party.
Jul 14,2008
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All editorial suggestions in this tip are the result of testing and a preference for the tip topic. No advertiser has paid to have its company referenced in the tip. For more information, please read our Editorial Policy.
Ka-peesh?
Looksie-daisy! Some sneaky paps (aka Boze-ville intern Jeni Hoyard) snapped a foxy foto of femme-flambé H Fet looking dee-vine in an ensemble Hil-babe snapped up total-mente via online swap-shop. Swap 'til you drop, indeed.
-Toshio...off to Hell-Ay to study Ted Casablancas's every Blind Vice...
Biter Comments...
We've been throwing clothing swap parties for years in Flagstaff. We prefer to call them "naked lady parties" however. Throwing a local party gives you that personal connection thing you miss out on over the ether net. We start with a pot luck dinner and throw all the clothes in the middle of the livingroom (no digging threw the pile allowed). We eat dinner, chat and mill around the livingroom cloths heap pretending not to scope out the threads we'd like to try. Then at some point after food and wine, it is time to swap. It then becomes this fast, free-for-all dive into the clothes heap. After we surface, goodies in hand, we strip down to our skivies and try on things (hence "naked ladies"). If we don't like them we throw them back and watch the next lady excitedly dive after it. Lots of laughs to be had and we all get good fashion advise. The local woman's shelter gets first dibs on the unclaimed clothes.
Swapping is great, but also there are so many helping organizations that benefit from used-clothing donations: either by re-selling to support their programs, or by giving them to those in need, as in homeless shelters, or, as Paula Z notes, women's shelters.
Excellent tip, though.
Anyone know of fabric shredders for personal use?? Recycling is my life - even when it comes to clothes. But....there are some things that are so crusty, old or otherwise unwearable that there is no way anyone would want them. What options are there for shredding this stuff and turning it into something else? The only fabric shredders I've seen are industrial strength and wouldn't fit under my desk. Thoughts anyone?
I use old tshirts and fabric to supplement pet bedding. My guinea pig goes through so much bedding that it gets a little pricey. So, if I have an old tshirt that even the Salvation Army would reject, I cut it up and put it where my guinea pig can make a soft nest. Two days later it's thrown out, but at least the shirt gets a second use before it's tossed.
I'm a newbie biter. Had just got finished sorting the glass, recyclable plastic, paper, and metal cans outta all last weeks garbage, when I saw the bite on how much landfill I could avoid by compsting. Well, back to the garbage can! I can hardly sleep at night imagining what adventures the next bite might bring!
Seriously, I don't think I've had this much fun since I was a kid! It's a treasure hunt! You should see my little compost pile! It's a honey... and such memories it brings back!
Paulo in NC
I have been a used-clothing enthusiast for many, many years. I vaguely recall a time when I would buy anything at a yard sale EXCEPT clothing...but that was a long time ago. Now I frequent thrift stores, garage sales - and yes, even trash piles - to augment my wardrobe. And I frequently receive compliments on my bas-couture selections. In addition to saving the big bucks that I don't spend on clothing, I enjoy the freedom to easily pass the clothing along when it no longer suits my style - or if it was a fashion faux pas in the first place. How fun to be able to try on a style for a few weeks or months to see if it works - and if it doesn't, pass the items along to my favorite thrift store or a friend for their enjoyment.
We all know that our culture has access to 'way over the top amounts of everything, and we spend resources like they were going out of style. One way to cut down on new is to value the old, including someone else's discards. Last week I found a big trash bag full of carefully folded, used but quite serviceable trousers and jackets in a pile of trash on the sidewalk. A friend took two sweaters (one with the tags still on it) and a pair of slacks. We took the rest to a Planet Aid box and knew we had provided someone with clothing that would have otherwise ended up in the landfill.
One of my favorite stores has a motto: "Where once is never enough and recycling is an art form."
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: Ellie | July 14, 2008 at 06:27 AM