Want a new wardrobe at low cost? Try clothes swapping

Sarah Magliocco visits Ireland's first permanent swap shop and explores why the sustainable practice is revitalising fashion.

Turning off the footpath under an archway on Thomas Street, a room full of clothes, shoes and accessories waits behind the doors of a high-ceilinged community space. Neither for sale or rent, these clothes are waiting to be traded and swapped out for incoming donations.

As more and more people turn away from fast fashion, second hand shopping is getting more popular. However, swapping clothes is already on the rise among conscious consumers, who want to take their pre-loved pieces and exchange them for something new - at least, new to them.

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Change Clothes began as Ireland's first permanent swap shop in Crumlin, and has now moved to the city centre, with the community-based clothing reuse hub working hard to normalise the concept of swapping rather than buying to a wider audience.

Swap shops are not a new concept, but their growing presence in the sustainable fashion space was curtailed by the pandemic, since it’s not really possible to swap clothes efficiently over Zoom (though clothes swapping groups on Facebook have found success).

The premise is simple: book a time slot online for €5, choose up to five pieces of your own clothing you want to part ways with, show up and receive a set of tokens to use to "buy" the clothes at the swap. The amount of tokens you receive is based on the value of the clothes you bring - vintage and premium brand clothing will fetch more tokens than brands like Shein or Penneys.

Walking into Change Clothes’ HQ, double stacked rails of clothes line the walls, arranged in size order. Immediately, a white linen French Connection shift dress catches the eye, as does a Roisin Linnane evening dress with a tulle hem and a fluffy red teddy coat.

A table is laden with small bins of accessories, showing off their treasures: a vintage beaded bag, an assortment of hats, a pair of electric blue high heels from Zara. Two kids are playing with a sequin dress while their mum browses the selection, letting the plastic discs reflect the light coming in from the large window that occupies the far wall. The cosy space has been open for a few months now, with the project now in its second year.

Founded in 2022, Mary Fleming began hosting roaming swap shops in 2016, when the idea was "still very novel", before seeking out a more permanent location after the opportunity came up to get some pilot funding for a creative climate action project.

In the beginning, Change Clothes took place in whatever school or parish hall that could be found to rent, before becoming a permanent fixture which enabled their growth into an "actual social enterprise."

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"You can't just tell people to do things without giving them an accessible solution," Mary said of conversations around sustainability. Her own journey with sustainability came after she travelled in Africa, and saw first hand the "unmanageable amount of textiles being sent abroad."

After a number of years shopping fast fashion, she wanted to make a change after witnessing the reality that the clothes we buy and dispose of don’t just disappear into thin air. "We've all seen the pictures now of textile mountains across the world in developing countries. And it was easy, standing in front of all that, to connect it to what I was doing at home."

When she returned from her travels, the swap shops began, with the goal being to raise awareness around the importance of keeping things in circulation for as long as possible. She notes that the clothes in their swap shop are a mix of brands and quality - with the unusable or damaged pieces being kept to use as scraps and materials in their workshops.

"The amount of gems that people find…We had a proper Prada bag in a couple of weeks ago with the certificate and everything inside it. It is amazing what you find!"

Aside from the potential to find some incredible designer drip, there are some economic benefits too.

"There's huge money to be saved on it as well," says Mary. "You can have a ‘new to you’ wardrobe whenever you like for as little as five euro or for free if you're swapping in your community or with friends."

"The environmental part is huge too, it’s a gateway into living more sustainably once you start swapping your clothes, you kind of start thinking about other things, like maybe repairing your clothes. And you meet other people who might be kind of further along in their sustainability journey, and of course meeting other people is a key part as well. You have the chats with other people and get inspired by each other. So there's economic, environmental, and social benefits too."

When it comes to repairing clothes, Change Clothes hosts workshops on all manner of textile crafts, from making seasonal decorations with fabric scraps to sewing machine lessons and basic clothing repair classes.

"I think people, once they start repairing, are aware of the life of clothes and how important that is to keep things in use for as long as possible, even if it's not the best quality," says Mary.

Swapping clothes with your cousins or siblings on a family trip, borrowing and lending out dresses for teenage discos and trading outfits on holidays with friends are memorable life moments where the exchange of one garment for the other feels personal, and adopting pieces from peer’s wardrobes can have a huge impact on your personal style growing up.

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Swap shops as an adult can have the same effect. Of course, it’s possible to find trendy items in swap shops, but it also allows you to browse without being dictated to by visual merchandising that might otherwise steer you towards certain trends and styles.

Mary adds: "It allows you to explore your own kind of fashion sense outside of what's trending. You don't have to stick to things that don't necessarily suit you. Instead you can explore your own style, and I think that's a really nice thing that I see through the Swap Shop, it's just people getting what they want, instead of what they think they should get. There's such a big selection of stuff, and a lot of exploration and creativity."

Alongside their swap shops and workshops for the public, they are running a program for young people who are long term unemployed, aiming to teach garment repair and upcycling skills with the goal of providing valuable skills in the circular fashion industry.

"It's very much a social project as well, where we really want to give positive opportunities to people who might not be able to access them otherwise," Mary explained.