Host a Clothing Swap!
One the easiest and most fun solutions to re-build this throw-away fashion industry is to build community by hosting clothing swaps!
Hosting a clothing swap can be as simple as having few friends over or as complicated as a full-on organized community event with over fifty people!
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This year (2019) with Fibershed I decided to host a full-on clothing swap with over 35 students, teachers, and community members (see the photo gallery below for inspiration)!
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I have a few tips and tricks to share for those you to who decide to host a full-on community clothing swap:
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Label tables with clothing types like shirts, shoes, etc. and have attendees sort the clothing they bring to swap onto the correct table. This helps make the swap less chaotic and more organized.
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Have a welcome table with an informed host to let people know how the swap is working and how they can participate
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I recommend this system to operate the swap under = Have the participants count how many pieces of clothing they brought to swap, give them the number of tickets that equals their clothing they brought [1*ticket = 1 piece of clothing], have them separate their clothing onto the tables [making sure they put them in the corresponding categories], have them shop the clothing and turn in the used tickets once they find something they like)
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Combine a clothing swap with another event like a documentary showing. I decided to do this and included a showing of "The True Cost" in my school's theater right after the clothing swap
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Make sure to advertise the clothing swap via posters, video announcements and texting friends/family. I also recommend having an RSVP google form for people to fill out so I knew approximately how many attendees I would have
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Music and food always make people happier and help set the mood so bring them if you can!
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If you can, have a place for attendees to write their name, number and email so you can follow up with a thank you + how many pieces of clothing were swapped (counting the number of used-tickets returned)
*tickets can be buttons, pieces of cloth or regular carnival tickets (that you recycle and re-use of course!)
Host a Re-designers Workshop!
I am all about re-designing clothing! This term "re-designing" refers to the liberating and exciting act of taking a piece of clothing that might be sitting in the back of your closet for a number of reasons (stained, has holes, not your style anymore or something is wrong with the fit) and refreshing it with a natural dye or mending job!
A workshop like this can look like so many things with a variety of possible natural dye and mending activities. Just like the clothing swap, this workshop can be as small or big as you want it to be (however, I advise it to be at a maximum of 15 people. Above that number things get chaotic). I decided to cap my attendee limit at 10 people (see the photo gallery below for inspiration). My attendees included peers, friends and their parents!
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What I decided to do when I hosted it was to make three dye pots (avocado, oak gall, and onion skins/pomegranate) and have attendees bring two pieces of clothing to dye (preferably clean and made of natural fibers) to put into the pots. Depending on the natural dye sources you use you might need to look up specific recipes but I just filled big pots with water and boiled my plant matter down for a few hours each day for a week. As we waited for our pieces to steep in the dyes, we talked about different natural dye and mending techniques with the help of some amazing books and swatches. When our clothes had sat in the dyes for around an hour and a half we rinsed, dried and admired our garments! Make sure to take a lot of photos!
Something that we did that I really recommend was heating up a pot of iron powder dissolved in water so participants had the opportunity to dip their dyed pieces in the solution, creating new exciting hues!
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We decided to choose the three dye pots that we did because avocado, oak gall, and pomegranate all have natural tannins that make them self-mordanting (meaning the color naturally is adhered to the fiber). Because these dyes were self-mordanting we were able to skip complicated and annoying steps like scoring the fabric with mordant so the color will stay later.
Workshops like these are a great way to build community and inspire normal people like you and me to become natural dye extraordinaires with our own food scraps!
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