Welcome to the world of swishing...


Where for one night only everything on the rails is completely free!

Clothes up for grabs. It's the latest fashion craze and it means you can keep your wardrobe looking chic throughout the credit crunch. With food and fuel prices sky high, it might be hard to justify buying a whole new winter wardrobe - especially when figures suggest an average woman spends £13,000 in her lifetime on frocks and shoes that she'll never wear. Swishing parties can be organised amongst friends. You can also go to pre-organised swishing parties that are first come first served. And if the frock fits it's yours for absolutely nothing - apart from a few of your old clothes that you didn't want anyway. "Wherever there are women there is swishing," said Lucy Shea, creator of the Swishing concept. "Parties have been held in London, New York, Durban and sunny Gloucestershire. Swishing makes you beautiful on the outside and green on the inside." Her swishing idea developed from a desire to give women who love shopping, a chance to save money and the environment in one go. "Swishing is for women who love their clothes so much they want to give them a new home. An added benefit is that it could reduce the 900,000 tons of shoes and clothes thrown away in the UK each year, 75% of which ends up in landfill or is burned," Lucy continued. This sentiment is supported by Friends of the Earth who hope that this will combat the purchase of budget clothing purchases that have contributed to a throw away culture. According to their figures, sales of new clothing in the UK have increased by 60% in the last ten years, largely due to the rise in budget high street stores. The popularity of the concept could soar after 60s supermodel Twiggy set up her own version on primetime TV - Twiggy's Frock Exchange. The programme encourages women to get together and swap unwanted items with mates and even customise their new outfits. Lauren Laverne, a co-presenter on Frock Exchange, told Sky News people have become more open to the idea of pre-loved fashion, she thinks that "de-toxing your wardrobe" and getting new outfits for free is "fashion forward". She continued: "You have to use your head more when swapping and be more creative, which helps develop your sense of style in a personal way, you're not just blindly following trends. In addition to that it's friendly in every sense of the word - eco, wallet and socially," Lauren, also said that an interesting aspect of the swish was inter-generational swapping. Older ladies switched their 80's numbers with girls in their teens and twenties, who made them look really fresh and the older ladies freshened up their look.
Extract taken from Sky News Online by Sandi Sidhu.

For women who love to swap

Want a new outfit but loath to splash out when every penny counts? A swishing party is a swap shop for the smart set. "Everyone's swapping now, darling - it's so fashionable". I nod at the immaculately turned-out girl flipping through hangers in a furious frenzy. I'm at my first swishing party at a beautiful Georgian house in East London. Swishing is a growing trend, where a gaggle of fashion-loving women get together, feast on nibbles, guzzle wine and swap their clothes. Eco-fabulous recycling at its best. It says on the invitation that everyone must bring at least one clean, good quality item of clothing to donate to the rails, but people can leave with as many items as they wish. Is this fair if someone brings just one item but sashays away with a handful of designer clothes? My own donation is a skirt that cost £50 that I've worn once - hopefully someone will love it enough to give it a new home. The dictionary defines swishing as "to rustle, as silk" but Lucy Shea, strategy director of green PR firm Futerra, has applied the term to clothes swapping parties - similar in concept to Tupperware parties of yore. Women have swapped clothes for eons, and the success of eBay shows that women will happily bid for someone else's cast-offs. But that costs, and swishing is free. After an hour of browsing - "of course I don't mind if you try this on," says more than one woman through gritted teeth - it's time to swish. All 40 of us step away from the rails as Lucy outlines the rules: "Remember ladies: no scratching, no spitting, no biting. Three, two, one - SWISH." We all surge forward, a steely glint in many an eye. Several people make a grab for the same top; another two swap high-fives as they clutch their chosen items; and one woman looks devastated as another snatches a green tweed jacket from her hands. But mostly the party-goers bond as they haggle over clothes. A trio huddle over a royal blue scarf, earnestly discussing whether or not someone with blue eyes suits it. The verdict, eventually, is no. Geraldine Brennan, a recent arrival from South Africa, is all for swishing. "Why not recycle - it's like passing good energy on. Not only are you saving the planet but you get a new wardrobe." Traid, the textile recycling charity, says 900,000 tonnes of shoes and clothing are thrown away every year in the UK. A clothes swapping party - whether an official swishing event or a DIY affair - can go some way to reducing this total. Lucy adds although women love to shop, many feel guilty about splashing out on new clothes. "Swishing parties are particularly significant in the current economic climate - why spend £100 on a new pair of shoes when you can come to a swishing party and get them for free? And, the best thing is you can have some glasses of wine, nibbles and make new friends who like you love fashion." She has swishing hosted parties in New York as well as London, and says that the Americans are more ruthless than the mild-mannered Brits. While some leave the party having hit the fashion jackpot, others come away empty-handed - much like a trawl around the High Street, but with the advantage of no cash outlay. As for my skirt, it looks far better on its new owner than it ever did on me. And in exchange, I can now add a silk and lace grey camisole to my wardrobe.
Extract taken from BBC News by Siobhan Courtney

Recycle your way to a 'swish' new wardrobe

Even though I avoid buying clothes that are 'in fashion', choosing things I fall in love with and wearing them till they fall apart – and generally going for vintage when it comes to evening wear – I still, like every woman I know, suffer from occasional pangs of 'clothes guilt'. It's that slightly sick feeling you get when you open your wardrobe and there's more in there than you can possibly wear. There are several potential ways to assuage these pangs, of course: send bin-bagsful to Oxfam, consign your clothes to a designer second-hand shop or set up a trestle at a car-boot sale. But now there's a new option – landed here from the US – called 'swishing', the eco-fashionista's word for swapping. The idea is that you can end up with a completely free wardrobe, while disposing of those instantly regretted purchases (which seemed like a good idea at the time) in the most eco-conscious way possible. Well-organised – and with their own set of rules (see swishing.org) – swishing parties are a great excuse for a girlie get-together to which you can bring shoes, jewellery and accessories as well as clothes. Five minutes later, you might be the proud new owner of a friend's too-small Prada shoes, and have fully, permanently recovered from the panic attack you got after splashing out on that new balloon skirt which looked so great in Vogue but has you hobbling to the office. The brains behind swishing is Futerra, a group dedicated to promoting sustainability among young women. (Swish means 'the rustle of silk', but they take it to mean 'rustling from friends...') And while I don't suppose it's going to take over from shopping any time soon (sadly for the planet), it's no wonder that swishing evenings are joining book clubs and knitting groups as fashionable ways to spend an evening. Free clothes – and not a smidgen of guilt. How about that for the ultimate girls' night in?
Extract taken from thedailymail.co.uk