I kept hearing about clothes swap parties - my sister went to one, I read about them in an eco newsletter, then again on a simple living / frugal living website. There must be something in it, I thought, and sent out some invitations.
It was tremendous fun. People brought along clothes they hadn't worn in ages or had such sentimental value they wanted them to go to a friend rather than the op shop. We hung them on racks, or folded them in piles, admiring as we went. When everything was organised, we dived in to try things on. There was such a lot of beautiful clothing - everything from Cue work dresses to royal blue jumpsuits made out of parachute silk (whoever wore that?! It's gone into Miss G's future dress ups.)
The afternoon wore on but there were no signs of fatigue. As we tried things on and built up our piles of treasure the kiddies ran wild outside (there were ten of them under five). We kept our energy up with coffee, cake and red wine, and when all was done two hours later, we each had bundles of "new" clothes. It was like shopping for free in your own lounge room. The funny thing is, afterwards nearly everyone said to me they felt guilty because they had brought such old, ordinary stuff and taken home real gems... just goes to show beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
And one last note - when it was over there were six green bags of unclaimed clothes. I took them to St Vinnie's that week, so everyone's a winner.
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