swapping: part one. host an exchange!

anyone who knows me knows that i am more or less a ninja when it comes to acquiring great clothing for pennies or less. as with most skills associated with frugality, this was born from necessity,  as i had my first child when i was 20, my second one soon after, blinked and found myself raising them alone. we didn't have very much money when i was growing up and so i wore clothing bought at k-mart and zellers... and my brother often wore his big sister's hand-me-downs. i must point out that we did live in suburbia, on the ontario/quebec border and didn't have the resources we have here, in montreal but, either way, it was horrible and i didn't want my kids getting laughed at, the way my brother and i had. 

growing up, i'd often visit my grandmother, in montreal, and she would take me to these magical places, these church basements and little holes in the wall filled with feathered hats, crocheted gloves, velvet smoking jackets and vintage mary janes. i knew these places existed and, when i moved back to montreal at 19, to raise my daughter, i was determined to rediscover these caves of wonders and find more! boy, have i ever succeeded. i'll get to that soon enough, though. 

a few years ago, while talking to my grandmother, i brought up the idea of hosting a clothing exchange and was surprised to find out that she had hosted some of her own, in the 50s. they had called them "clothesline parties" because they strung rope everywhere in the house and hung up all the clothing to be swapped on these. this motivated me even more and so i hosted my very first clothing exchange, in 2009. we had such a blast and, due to a lot of us being grown-up goths, there were some pretty interesting pieces up for trade! 

 

we even sent my gazebo frame crashing down:

i must admit that the first event was also a sale but, due to the immense variance in pricing and to everyone's willingness to simply trade, we've since stuck to exchanging. 

here is my loot from that very first swap, including a perfecto/motorcycle jacket, a pair of steve madden high-heel sandals and a cute pair of patent leather heels by torrid.  

i sifted through the leftover clothing, kept a few pieces to reconstruct or revamp and the rest went to charity so everyone won. 

the important tips to follow when hosting a clothing exchange are rather simple:

-whether you make it a pot luck or prepare food yourself, make sure there is food and that it is finger food. we're talking no mess, no stains, less clean up afterward.
-alcohol. not a must but it helps. women often have hang-ups and, after a glass of wine or two, people relax and are more likely to try clothing on and get into the general spirit of it all
-have a full-length mirror close to where the clothing is
-have a place where people can change in private. not everyone is comfortable with whipping their top off in front of friends, even after drinking wine
-keep it flowing. if this is not one of your skills, appoint one of your friends as emcee. we're talking women, clothing and wine, here. ;-)

how it works:

depending on how many women show up, you may need to have some sort of system in place. when i have over 10 women, i use the ticket system. for every piece someone brings, she gets a ticket or point or whatever other marker you want to use and each one of these can be cashed in for one item. one for one. simple. 

when we're a smaller group, it works a bit differently. each piece brought is held up for a few seconds and if only one woman wants it, it's hers. if more than one woman wants it, it gets placed in a pile (usually referred to as the "try-on pile" at first but it goes downhill from there and becomes the "kill pile" after about 20 minutes). at the end, everyone sorts through the pile and tries on whatever they wanted. i must say that i am really proud of my homegirls. aside from one tigress (she's really awesome and we love her so we joke about it but it's all good), everyone is pretty cool with letting other people get a shot at something and i must say it's really great to see a group of women encouraging each other, complimenting each other and boosting each other's egos. all of the cattiness we all know we possess is left outside for this. i love it. the last time we swapped, i was asked to present all of the pieces so that it would go faster and i daresay we'll keeping doing it that way because we were all a little stunned at how quickly we had managed to wrap it up.

since that first exchange, i've hosted these at least twice a year and we've always had a tremendous amount of fun. women have attended, left and sometimes rejoined the group (in fact, of the original crew, only my daughter and i were at the last one) and we've been able to keep it fresh and exciting, over the years. i'll be hosting another one at the end of november and will be sure to post about it afterward.

***is it sexist that i only invite women to my home swaps? it is if you say so but i do it so that everyone is comfortable and feels completely at ease. i even ship my son out for the say. i wholeheartedly encourage co-ed exchanges, if you have the space, which i don't.


stay tuned for more in this series!

Posted in: clothing exchange,clothing swap,fashion,free clothing,hosting,hosting advice,montreal,montreal fashion,perfecto,steve madden,style,torrid,women