Swap your clothes to boost your wardrobe

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Angie is co-founder of YLF and its resident fashion stylist.

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Swap your clothes to boost your wardrobe

— by Angie

on January 7, 2008

Hosting a clothes swap event for a bunch of girlfriends is a great way of passing on your unwanted items of clothing, accessories and footwear to their next happy owner. It’s the perfect party to plan right after a closet sweep and straight after Christmas when our pockets are empty and the weather is miserable (for most of us anyway).

Invite a group of ladies around, asking each of them to bring at least ten tasteful and stylish items to swap. Throw in refreshments and giggle your way to a free wardrobe fix. At best you’ll end up with treasures; at worst you’ll give your clothes a second life. Either way, you will have fun with friends and edit your closet at the same time.

Closet Organization

13 comments · Add a comment

Denise Rohaus

I can’t imagine doing this?!? Isn’t a closet sweep the stuff that’s not stylish or in good shape? I’m guessing you would have to invite women who are relatively the same size. . . . . I have some really petite friends . . . . could you give more info on doing this? Thanks

January 7, 2008 at 8:07 am

sebastian

And if you can’t do it in person, there’s rehashclothes.com, swapstyle.com, swango.com, etc.

January 7, 2008 at 10:31 am

Maya

Oh I miss doing this! I used to do it regularly a few years ago with a couple of friends, but now we’re no longer the same size so it doesn’t quite work. If only we could remain rail thin teenagers forever!

I finally figured out my shape by using the appropriately named myshape.com. They should have a networking feature that lets you find other people who are roughly your size and shape so you can swap or sell clothes as needed!

January 7, 2008 at 1:44 pm

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

The larger the party, the larger the variety of shapes and sizes!

And what shape did you eventually boil yourself down to on myshape.com Maya? I find myself fitting into 3 of their categories, which sort of makes sense. In the end, making sense of your own body type boils down to “tending towards” a few, and understanding the details of your neck length, leg length, shoulder width and bust size, and how to dress them in the best possible way.

January 7, 2008 at 2:35 pm

Maya

I was just discussing with one of my former clothing-swap friends about how we no longer have any money for new clothes! Perhaps it’s time to regroup with some new people. We were all under 5’3 and sizes 0-4 at the time, so it worked perfectly!

I fall between an “M” and an “S” depending on whether I just give my band size or full bust size. I went mostly for clothes that are supposed flatter both shapes, rather than one or the other (by “went for” I mean added to my wish list so I can get some stuff for my birthday!). I guess we’ll see if it works or not in March! I have to say I hate their denim choices for me though. They must think I have an enormous bum cause everything they recommended for me has huuuuge wide legs! I’m much too short for those floor sweepers!

January 7, 2008 at 3:33 pm

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Excellent Maya. Let us know if any of the items work.

January 7, 2008 at 9:42 pm

Sarah

Great idea, Angie. I currently live in campus appartments at college. So there are lots of people I could have a clothes swaping party with of all sizes.

Thanks for sharing myshape.com, Maya! I’ve never seen anything like it before. It put me in the shape M category, and I love several of the things in my new “personal store.” I’m still not sure what my color pallet is though.

January 8, 2008 at 7:41 am

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

It actually can work Denise. The key is not to swop bad taste items, but items that are in super condition, but for some reason don’t work for you, your lifestyle or your body type. They might be the wrong colour, size, length, shape, fabric etc. Remember that you can also swap jewelry, handbags, shoes and other accessories. You need to get a whole slew of people together to cover a range of sizes. It’s quite a lot of fun.

January 8, 2008 at 8:34 am

laurel

aka: naked lady party!

these are so fun, i’ve had one and attended others… i’m not sure which is more fun, the new clothes, or seeing things that never looked right on me find a new home on someone that looks fabulous in them!

January 8, 2008 at 2:54 pm

Debbie Maahs

(website)

I am an avid clothing swapper. Out of a need go to swaps where I feel like there are enough clothes in my size as well as style to choose from I decided to build a website dedicated to just that.

On the site you can post as much as you like for swap or sale and the swap is always up to you!

Check it out, it is brand new and fabulous! This will take the clothing swap party to a whole new, national level. http://www.myfashionswap.com

February 24, 2008 at 7:55 pm

youlookfab » Blog Archive » A one year ban on shopping

(website)

[…] stayed clear of the shops for six months, but she was allowed to have clothes swapping parties and make trips to the seamstress to breathe life back into a tired wardrobe. On the odd occasion, […]

May 23, 2008 at 3:29 am

10 ways to stretch your style budget | youlookfab

(website)

[…] Have a clothes swap party: gather your friends and swap clothes, footwear and accessories for free. Make it a potluck and have girly occasion. […]

November 7, 2008 at 8:23 am

Clothes swapping can be frugal and fun | youlookfab

(website)

[…] Clothes swap parties are great, but unless there are items in your size and to your liking, you will come home empty handed. Ideally you need to find a person or group of people with a compatible style and size (or size they used to be). The forum members found just that and in the spirit of saving money and the environment by repurposing current wardrobe orphans, they started successfully swapping clothes, footwear, handbags and accessories with each other for free. […]

February 6, 2009 at 8:15 am

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