Guest Author - Vicky Talbot

If you’re feeling the January pinch after the pricey festive season it may be time give your credit card a rest and swish your way to a new wardrobe. A new clothes-swapping craze that ticks all the economical and ethical fashion boxes, organising a swishing party is free, easy and a guilt-free shopping experience you could just get addicted to!

The concept is simple: get together with a collection of lady friends, share a bottle of wine over a bundle of clothes you no longer wear and swap to your heart’s content. The start of the year is a great time to detox your wardrobe. Spend an afternoon rifling through your closet and pull out anything you haven’t worn for a few months. Get rid of clothes that no longer fit, gifts you’ve never worn, lose the shoes that give you blisters and use this opportunity to smuggle out any dire fashion disasters you’ve had hidden at the back of the wardrobe for years!

Once you have a decent pile of unwanted goods, you’re ready to swish and here’s how:

Organising the Swish

• Invite friends and female family members and ask them to bring a friend or two – the more swishers you can find, the more varied the items of clothes, sizes and styles will be.

• Don’t stop at clothes – encourage fellow swishers to bring handbags, shoes, scarves, sunglasses, beads whatever they can muster that no longer have a use.

• Be brave and brutal – if you’re unsure of whether you want to keep an item of clothing or not, make a note of it and keep it in the drawer. If by your next swishing date it’s still in the drawer, unworn, get swishing and swap it for something more wearable!

• Make the most of the goods donated to the swish by hanging them up wherever possible (if you’ve got a clothes rail great, but if not collect as many coat hangers as you can and hang over chairs/doors) to avoid a disorganised jumble sale occurring.

• Make sure you have a space or a spare room for people to try things on if they want to.

• If you like, make an evening of it and provide some wine and nibbles followed by a swishing catwalk show giving your guests the chance to model their free, new fashion finds!
A swishing party should be a fun, ethical and social way to recycle old clothes and gain new ones in a simple, free swap. However putting a few rules in place will help the swish run smoothly:

Some Swishing Rules

• Each guest should bring at least one item to swish to take part.

• Be brave - there are no limits to swishing! You couldn’t be more wrong if you think no one will be interested in that jade mini skirt you bought five years ago – take along absolutely anything you no longer have a use for as long as it’s still in reasonably good quality.

• No money should be exchanged at a swish – all swishable clothes are free to whoever claims them first.

• Don’t take things for the sake of it. If you can try things on, do so and be sure you’ll wear the item before claiming it so as not to deprive others who may be interested.

• No fighting! Keep a coin handy for tossing if two people want the same item.

On leaving the swishing party with your bag full of goodies, feel warm and fuzzy in the thought that you’re walking home with a new, free and eco-friendly wardrobe after only a couple of hours work (no trekking up and down the high street laden with heavy shopping bags required!) It may also soothe you to know the clothes you donated are going to a new home and will be worn by an appreciative owner and not just relegated to the back of the drawer for another two years!