How to Throw a Clothing Swap

This year, Catherine Feeney of Fashun Chronicles Podcast (formerly Dreamy Realist) and I threw a Galentine’s Day event of our own…disguised as a clothing swap. We based the idea on one of my favorite college traditions, and an idea from Elizabeth Cline’s book, “Conscious Closet” AND because Catherine asked me to be a host on her fabulous podcast.

How to Throw A Clothing Swap

Make a date, make a list of friends, and send out invites – thanks Basic Invites! Catherine and I also shared information about the swap digitally on Instagram and via text.
Gather friends together at an apartment or house for a girl’s brunch. We used Andrew’s apartment for our swap.
Get your favorite brunch items together and ask your guests to bring around 10-12 lightly used items that they’re fine with giving away.
Group clothing items by category so people can find them easily. For instance: dresses, pants, shirts, shoes, and accessories. For our swap, we piled dresses on the couch (spread out so people can see them), and bottoms on the bed…etc.
Keep the mimosas flowing, and make sure to decorate which is just a lot more fun than a plain-ol party!
Swap till you drop! With small parties like this, people can take as much as they want and it’s all within friends. If you’re thinking of hosting a larger swap, you may want to have more rules around swapping.
Have a full-length mirror out so people can try on items easily.
After the swap, gather all non-swapped items and package them for donation. Fast fashion items if they’re in good condition can go to Goodwill, for business-y items, check if your city has a specific charity that gives business clothing to women in need. For us in DC, that charity is “Dressed for Success.”

What’s the first part of getting your most fabulous friends together for a clothing swap and brunch…invitations of course! After perusing about a million invitations during wedding planning, I knew just where to start for inviting our friends to our clothing swap – Basic Invite.

Basic Invite isn’t just for Galentine’s Day parties, they also have a variety of save the date templates, magnet save the dates (save your guests having to borrow their roommate’s magnets…not that I would ever do that ahah), and classic save the date postcards.

Invitations to the clothing swap have been provided by Basic Invite, however, all opinions and clothing swap information are my own!