SpendIt ShoppingFashionTechnology Swap shop To kick off our More For Less shopping special, Claire Sawers hosts a clothes swap party and, below, investigates the strange world of the car boot sale
MORE FOR LESS Shopping Alternatives
vintage dresses, spray-on t-shirts or tiny shoes when our collective body parts covered all bases from 34inch legs to size seven feet, via B cups and E cups, proved a more delicate business. Needless to say, a swap works best when your friends not only dress in a way you like, but when they also fill out their clothes in the same places as you do.
After a bit too much attention was paid to a striped cashmere cardigan, one swisher decided to withdraw it from the swap. Seeing her friends pawing it lovingly made her think twice about saying goodbye, and she ended up wearing it to work the next day. A couple of truly unlovable items ended up in a bag for the charity shop (sorry, denim ankle-length skirt, and so long, khaki fleece bodywarmer; where the hell did you guys come from anyway?), but most wardrobe outcasts found themselves a loving new home. If you’ve already got a clothing black market going among your friends and you’re looking to open up new trade routes, there are clothes swapping nights springing up as we speak, including new event Dolly Mixtures (part of the nationwide ‘swishing’ movement) at Edinburgh’s Electric Circus. The organisers ensure fair trade so head down to pick up some economical and ecological (after all, clothes- swapping is a form of recycling) new pieces.
Swishing at Dolly Mixtures, Electric Circus, Edinburgh, Thu 4 Feb. Clothes Swap night, Sofi’s Bar, Edinburgh, Tue 26 Jan. Dress ‘n Gown – Swishing Party for Deafblind Scotland, Georgian Hotel, Coatbridge, Fri 29 Jan. For free online clothes swapping go to swishing.co.uk, whatsmineisyours.com, bigwardrobe.com, iswap.co.uk or www.swapz.co.uk. To set up your own swapping event, visit getcrafty.com.
S wapping, swishing, switching and bitching, wardrobe editing; call it whatever you like. Gathering up a bin bag full of leftovers from your clothes rail (the too-small jeans, the dress bought in a sale that never quite ended up being ‘customised’ as planned, random ill advised tops from a new romantic/nu rave moment many moons ago) and trading them with a friends’ cast-offs might just provide a cheap (and by cheap, we mean free) solution to the fashion blues.
Though there are people organising mass, public events of this kind (see below), my first clothes-swapping experience was a homespun affair, limited to swapping with friends at my own Edinburgh flat. After pouring wine and draping my living room sofa and bookcases with no-longer-loved jumpers, skirts and bags (both my own and my guests’), we were ready to get started with the rummaging. Accessories were a no-brainer – fingerless gloves, chunky scarves and art deco brooches were traded up instantly, but swapping nipped-and-tucked
CAR BOOT TALES
Hitch up your wagon and join the weird, wonderful world of the ‘Booters’. . .
At the sound of the klaxon, hundreds of boots pop open. We’ve been in position for a good hour already, sipping coffee from a thermos and recovering from the shock of leaving bed at an utterly ungodly 6.30am on a Sunday. ‘Booters’, like Sunday joggers – and the very godly, come to think of it – are the ones avoiding the pubs on Saturday nights to be fresh for their Sunday exertions. My friend and I – both car boot amateurs – have hired our clothes rail and table from the man at the NCP car park, and have been
waiting for the signal to officially set up our jumble sale stall. Keen shoppers descend pretty much straight away (the sale starts at 9am, but the pros lurk by the car park doorway and swoop in when the klaxon goes at 8.30am). They’re shoulder-deep in our car boots and raking through back seat shopping bags before we’ve got time to shoo them off. While I drag a slightly over-zealous Russian man away from a Tupperware of my old jewellery still in the car boot (‘Gold?’ he asks optimistically. ‘Plastic’, I reply, sheepishly), my friend is already haggling with an eagle-eyed vintage clothes collector over a lacy 50s dress. The first two hours are
unpleasantly hectic, but the stack of notes in our biscuit tin cash box grows fast, the buzz of playing at shopkeepers and haggling with diehard car boot addicts is good, and we quickly realise that – providing you follow the ‘pile ‘em high, sell ‘em low’ golden rule of car boots – you can shift a lot of bin bags of unwanted stuff in a very short time, and for a tidy profit. ■ Corn Exchange Boot Fair, Edinburgh, Sat and Sun morning, 7am–1pm. Car Boot Sale NCP Car Park, Greenside Place, Leith Street, Edinburgh, Sun, 9am–1pm. Blochairn Car Boot Sale, Blochairn Fruit Market, Blochairn Road, Glasgow, Sun 6am–3pm, www.citymarketsglasgow.co.uk
16 THE LIST 21 Jan–4 Feb 2010