Last Saturday was the highlight of my spring. Our third Clothes’ Swap! It seems preposterous that those events bring me so much joy (more than travel) and meaning (more than the thesis), but that’s how it is. I was doing snack-shopping, cooking, going through check-lists not to forget garbage bags, water filter and lemon slices, packing things and carrying them back and forth… And it felt amazing! It’s a quintuple win of happy organizers, happy un-customers, happy Ateneu, increased supply to Banc Expropriat’s Tienda Gratis and decreased supply to textile charities and landfill. So this will clearly continue, and we’ll see you in September to swap again. Meanwhile, here you have suggestions of how to organize one on your own!
Some of our happy un-customers with their finds.
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On top of my previous observations about our Clothes’ Swaps, here are few additional ones:
1. On abundance. This is not new, but strikes me harder each time. We are drowning in textiles! They just keep coming, and I can’t see the end of this. Not much more to add here… These were the leftovers:
2. On the state of stuff. I did already write about this one after January’s Swap, but it just keeps surprising me. There are stains, holes, pilling, shaplesness, wacky seams… Yet the Swaps might be the best option for these damaged garments. My heart breaks every time I see a pile of clothing spread on the sidewalk, usually after somebody has either broken a charity container or explored a bag of garments that somebody else had left by the garbage cans (probably feeling ambivalent about sending them right to the landfill and too ignorant or too lazy to take it to the charity containers). It is such magic (a very black one!) how things turn from “perfectly OK” to “garbage” just by changing location. It was “yours” at home, then “somebody could still wear it” when you deposited it in the orange container, then an actual somebody dived in that container, went through the content, left the unwanted pieces on the sidewalk, and now it’s “yuck, don’t touch the garbage”.
I keep fantasizing about a radical “reclaim the garments” initiative that would pick up all that “garbage” from streets and turn it into “recovered/upcycled textiles”. (For a moment ignoring the fact that, unfortunately, most of those extra thin cotton/elastane mix garments can be downcycled to rags only.) This would require some serious infrastructure for picking them up, sorting, washing and mending (or cutting) but it feels amazing in my imagination. And then accompanying it by a sewing workshop to mend and construct new garments. Oh, well, maybe someday…
3. On doubts. My feeling after three swaps is that the decisions to let go are harder than decisions to incorporate. Makes sense: “mine is mine” feels good and acquisition gives instant gratification. During the swap we actually encourage people to adopt things and bring them back next time if those garments are not working for them (and that has happened).
I have recently developed two strategies to override those mental hang-ups, one to fight the outgoing blues and one to resist the urge to adopt garments. For the bye-bye garments I push myself to admit that if I have doubts about an item that I own, I most probably need to get rid of it. Knowing my strong status-quo bias, it makes sense to assume that the little annoying “no, no, don’t give away the precious” voice in my head is just a mind trick. So I do my best to override that voice by turning it on its head: I have 0 doubts about the real heroes of my wardrobe, hence doubts mean that it’s not a top-of-the-pops garment.
It is hard, though, sometimes. Especially if it’s an old comrade in arms. I have always found it funny that KonMari strategy entails taking each thing in hands. Rather counterproductive… Touch activates the emotional attachment! I got choked when writing the post on my departures for this swap and those garments weren’t even anywhere close. But it all went well on Saturday! I saw 3 of the 6 items I brought finding new wardrobes, and others continue their journeys at Banc Expropriat.
For the incomings, I trust the classic: a shopping list! I have a latent wish list in my wardrobe spreadsheet and I revise that before each swap (and I revise it several times, as you can see at the end of the departures post). My list for this time was as follows:
Sandals
Raincoat
Dark leggings
A simple bodycon dress
Summer jersey Empire dress
A winter layer (a short sweater or caridgan)
Yes, those are very specific but I know the exact feeling and function I am looking for. So here is what I got: a ramie/cotton cardigan from Julie and a jersey mini skirt (exactly the same H&M model I used to have in black between 2011 and 2013). They are not what I was looking for – the hemline of the cardigan is too long (and shortening this design would be stupid) and the skirt is only half of a full bodycon – but they respond to the function I was looking for. So you will see those two a lot starting from October.
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As it is such long time from now till September, we might be able to squeeze another activity in-between. A movie night! How about a chilling documentary on a hot July night? That’s what we are thinking about… We’ll keep you posted!
