An exchange of clothes you’re willing to let go of with ones you would wear instead.

On Saturday, October 5, Gazed and Zibel teamed up for SWAP and SHOP, a fashion conscious event, which saw like-minded people swapping clothes they no longer wear.

This unique event came back for its second edition.

On Facebook Zibel and Gazed said: “The concept of the SWAP is to introduce swapping clothes as part of a more conscious way to consume fashion. You as a consumer should be aware of what you buy, from whom you buy it and who ultimately made your clothes.”

How does it work?

People could bring up to 15 items of clothing they no longer wore, which had to be in good conditions and washed prior to the event. These items would then be exchanged for tokens in the form of pegs. You got one peg per item of clothing.

The pegs worked as money, you could go around the different sections of the SWAP area and chose as many items to take home as the number of pegs you had.

SWAP and SHOP lasted from 2pm till 5pm.

The items of clothing that didn’t get swapped were then donated to Inspire, an NGO providing a range of services and programmes to children and adults with a disability.

There was also a SHOP section, where people could sell their more valuable items for a price of their choosing. The maximum number of items one could bring for this section was three and the owners could take back home anything that wasn’t sold.

A Gazed pop-up shop was also featured, with their own tees and designs.

The event was sponsored by Wasteserv, the National entity responsible for managing and processing collected solid, organic and recyclable waste.

The experience

I have to admit I am a huge fan of vintage and second-hand, so when I read about the event, I was quite excited at the idea.

I feel like everyone has clothes in their wardrobe they don’t wear anymore or that they bought on a whim and never wore. So, I thought the idea was great: you go there with your unwanted items, you swap them for things you would wear and what doesn’t get swapped gets donated to charity.

A free glass of prosecco in one hand, my “token” pegs in the other and it was time to shop.

The area for the swap was not huge and it could have definitely been bigger for the number of people there, especially right at the start when everyone was trying to grab the things they liked before everyone else.

A five minute drizzle and an overly hot sun are the only thing I can fault at the event and there was no way of preventing them.

The organisation was good, people arrived an hour early to swap their clothes for the tokens and give time to the personnel to set everything up.

There where even changing rooms, which would have been great if they were ever unoccupied. People would go in with their friends and twenty items to try on, so to actually try things on one would have to wait in line for a while.

I ended up trying things outside the changing rooms on top of my own clothes and it was fine. If you have ever been to Primark in Oxford Street, London, you are definitely used to this.

On the whole, for me the swap was extremely successful, I let go of 13 items of clothing I didn’t wear anymore and went home with 13 “new” items.

The shop section was also well priced, maybe even too well, as some of the items there were new or basically new and you could buy them for as low as €5.

All I can say now is: when is the next one?