A SWAP Team Clothing Swap (photo by Ian Woo)

Have you heard of clothing swaps? They’re a super eco-friendly way to satisfy your inner fashionista by trading your lightly used duds with friends and colleagues instead of buying new ones. Anyone can organize a clothing swap, but the general guidelines usually consist of the following:

• Bring your clean, nearly new items, including clothing, accessories, bags and shoes to the swap location
• Browse the clean, nearly new items donated by other eco-fashionistas and take home the equivalent amount of what you brought in
• All leftover items are donated to a local charity
• Music, food, entertainment and fun may be incorporated to enhance your swapping experience

Depending on the organizer, clothing swap structure might be strictly regulated or more free-form. For example, some organizers do not allow you to bring intimate items like underwear, for obvious reasons.

Local Clothing Swaps 

If you’re in Vancouver, there’s a clothing swap coming up this weekend organized by local business owner Jane Brookes of Sugarbox waxing boutique. She’s closing shop to open her 1200 square foot space to anyone who would like to attend her clothing swap. All leftover items will be donated to women in need living in the Downtown Eastside.

Event details:

Sunday, January 22^nd, 2012 4pm – 7pm

Sugarbox
1025 Cambie Street
Vancouver, BC

RSVP to the Facebook event page. ethicalDeal ladies Jessica and Olive will be in attendance with fun giveaways! Boxed wine and cupcakes will be served!

If you’re outside of Vancouver, there’s a really cool non-profit enterprise called The SWAP Team that puts on large clothing swap events across North America, with chapters in Montreal, Boston, NYC, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Halifax, Winnipeg, Northampton (MA) and Quebec City. Their mission is to:

• Provide good quality clothing to charities, who then use the clothes for their local community programs
• Provide communities with an alternative to new clothing consumption
• Promote eco-friendly and socially conscious clothing consumption
• Develop upcycled items from used clothing, textiles and waste materials from the garment industry

So far, the organization has swapped 28,276 items, donated 31,948 items and diverted 60,224 items from landfills! Pretty neat!

Interested in starting a SWAP Team chapter in your area? Learn how to get involved.

If you’re in Toronto, they have a clothing swap event coming up on May 11, 2012. Check out www.TheSWAPTeam.org for more info.

Got a swap coming up? Post the info in the comments section of this post!

Swap ’til you drop!

~Jessica at ethicalDeal