Dress swappin'

Hello again! I have a few other posts in the pipeline, but I just had to write about what happened last Sunday first.

Let me set the scene: About a dozen sweaty women in their underwear. Their hair is dishevelled and they're wearing expressions of intense concentration mixed with excitement. The air is filled with the sound of rustling and soft jazz, occasionally a grunt or an exclamation of delight or disappointment can be heard (It's too small!). Yup, I'm talking about a dress swap. Why? What did you think it was?

This time it was my turn to host the event and I dare say it was somewhat of a success. Everyone started arriving in the afternoon with their Ikea-bags, storage bins and suitcases. Everyone also brought something nice to eat for our coffee table. I, sadly, hadn't had the time to bake anything, but there was still plenty on offer, don't you think?

I had however spent the day clearing away clutter and making space. Good thing I did, because there was a lot of stuff!

I found three dresses, a top, a skirt, a girdle, a pair of lovely shoes, two patterns and some fabric. Got rid of some items too, which is always a bonus.

The idea behind a dress swap is very simple: swap some of your useless crap for something you use/like. This includes money. A swap is also easy to organise: just invite some friends over and ask them to bring the stuff they don't need and put out some snacks. It's so much more fun trying out clothes with a room full of friends at the ready to give you an opinion. It's also very liberating not having to undress and dress between every item. Hence everyone ends up in their underwear (slips mostly). This is why we impose a strict rule of no men over 10 years of age.

At this swap all the participants were vintage enthusiasts and had mostly vintage clothes and housewares/crafts supplies for swapping. Anyone living the "vintage lifestyle" will know, that crap accumulates. You pick stuff up from flea markets. Even stuff that doesn't fit, because, you know, you kinda have to save it. Then there are the items that have cost an arm and a leg from Etsy or eBay, but you haven't worn because they're too small/too big/wrong colour/just not you. These items are so much easier to sell to other vintage buffs, because, lets face it, to others it's just old clothes.