Wednesday 21 January 2015

The Big Blog Clothes Swap


I think most of us have those clothes in our wardrobe: the dress we can't quite work out how to style; the trousers that were a sale bargain... if only they fit properly; the shoes that don't go with anything. Stuff you can't bring yourself to donate or eBay, but haven't actually worn in months or even years. Clothes swaps are the perfect home for those clothes.

I've wanted to run a clothes swap for ages but was intimidated by the amount of work I'd potentially have to put in to secure a venue, promote and run it - and the fear that, after all that work, no-one would turn up. So I put the idea to the back of my mind until I was chatting to my soon-to-be-sister-in-law, Steph, on Twitter recently and had a brainwave: what would happen if we tried to organise an internet clothes swap?

I'd seen Steph, in her guise as The Wardrobe Angel, run individual swaps for her own clothes, and looked on in envy at Donna's regular frock swaps (envy because none of her dresses would fit me!) and I started to think about trying to do the same thing, but on a larger scale. Gathering together as many bloggers, and blog readers as possible, pairing them up according to clothes or shoe size, and letting the swapping commence.

And so here it is: the big blog clothes swap!

Want to take part? To sign up, all we need is the following information emailed to jbistheinitial@gmail.com by the 9th February:

Name:
Address:
Blog address and/or social media:
Clothes size (if you need to split this for tops/bottoms, do):
Shoe size:
Swapping preferences (for example, Do you want to swap one item only or more? Do you have specific clothing preferences, e.g. dresses only? Would you be willing, or prefer, to swap shoes, bags, accessories, etc?):

I am especially keen to ensure this swap is inclusive for all sizes, so please do sign up whatever size you wear. I don't fit the 'typical' fashion blogger body type and often struggle to find plus size clothes at swaps, which is partly why I want to run my own.

Once we have all your responses, Steph and I will wade through them and pair you with someone of the same size. You can, if you wish, then use social media to get to know your partner and their style, or you may already have planned ahead about what you want to swap. Either way, you'll be responsible for parcelling up your swap items - be it one top or a whole horde of goodies - and posting them to your partner by the deadline of March 10th.

So, what are you waiting for? Off you swap!

13 comments:

  1. Emailed with all my details (or deets) VERY good idea x

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  2. Ooh - I do love things like this - thank you so much for organising!

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  3. This is a great thing to do. Such a good idea!

    Sadly I cannot take part as my wardrobe is very boring and minimal (I don't shop much and have donated practically everything except for my jeans and plain and striped tee's!)

    Best of luck with organising!

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    1. Thank you. I'm a bit nervous that it's either going to be inanely difficult to organise hundreds of women, or we'll end up with about 10 people and no-one will be the same size... we'll see!

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  4. I do the same thing with Donna's Frock Swaps! She always looks amazing but yup, none of it would ever fit me. I love this blogger clothes swap idea, my post about it will be going up tomorrow and I'll drop you an email with my sign up details in a day or so! :-) xx

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  5. Yay! I've just blogged about it and will send my information soon (a very busy week; having to have long meetings with and entertain one of my Board members!). Excited! :D

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    1. Thank you for blogging about it, and no worries - you've got a couple of weeks still to sign up.

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  6. I'm not organised enough for this at the moment as I would not post in time but this is SUCH A COOL IDEA

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    1. Ah that's a shame - maybe if we run it again in future?

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