Hi JewelryGirl,
I'm so glad the Seattle swap inspired you. It was truly awesome. Since I was one of the organizers (with JuliJuli and Marianne), here are a few tips for a successful swap:
* Finding participants might be a little more challenging for you if you don't know whether there are other YLFers are in your area. But you might be surprised! There are many more readers on the forum than contributors, and they might be totally game for a swap. At the Seattle one, some of the swap attendees were "regulars" on the forum who were already known to Angie and/or myself, but others had never contributed to the forum and just heard about it through my announcement. If you wanted to state the city you live in or near, maybe others can contact you and express interest. It might be good to publish your email address in this thread so others can contact you directly (if you're not comfortable with publishing your personal email account, just set a new one up specifically for YLF related stuff.)
* I think a swap is best with between 8-15 attendees. If there are fewer than 8, you might not have enough items. More than 15 would probably get chaotic.
* It definitely helps not to have too big of a spread in sizes (unless you have a lot of participants). What I did with the Seattle swap is that I asked everyone privately what their size was, and then I published the range of sizes in my reminder emails. When there was just one woman with a specific size, I told her that, just so she had the right expectation (that she might not find too many items in her size.) It actually turned out well in that the range of sizes was all between 4-10, and every attendee found lots of stuff to try on that fit at least size-wise.
* A nice location and a little bit of food and drinks help to make everyone feel comfortable. We were fortunate in that JuliJuli offered her home for the swap.
* You'll need one room that functions as the dressing room, with a full length mirror and privacy from the outside. We had a second mirror in the living room (where the clothes were put out), which was very helpful, too.
* Portable clothing racks are great, since they let us display the clothes nicely and without too much "mess". Angie brought a couple and another attendee brought a third. Ask around - women sometimes just have one at home for one reason or another. We asked all attendees to bring clothes on their own hangers. We had some additional clothes put out on the couch, accessories on a shelf, and shoes on the floor below the racks.
* We started the event with just some mingling, food and drink, which was great as it gave everyone the chance to meet each other and get comfortable. When we started the actual swap part, we didn't have any "rules" but just counted on everyone behaving in a civilized manner, and it worked beautifully. Women started looking through the racks and picked a few items to take to the "dressing room" (a bedroom) to try on. The only thing we asked was that everyone put clothes back on the rack after trying them on if they didn't fit.
* There was definitely a spirit of encouraging each other to take home items that were a "perfect fit" style wise, size wise, and personality wise. We modeled outfits for each other and gave honest and constructive feedback. There were some items that several women tried on, and it might have been the third or fourth person who tried it who took it home - because it clearly looked best on her and was meant for her. So I think everyone was really just as concerned with others finding something great as they were with themselves taking home a treasure. This spirit, I think, was partially due to this being a YLF event, as the attendees were already in the mode of being very selective about clothes rather than trying to "score" as many things as they could. Does that make sense?
* At the end of the event, the remaining clothes were packed up for donation to "Dress for a Success" (a great non-profit organization that Angie and another attendee volunteer for) and Goodwill. But every attendee could also choose to take her clothes back home if she preferred.
Hope this helps get you started. Good luck!!
