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- by Charlotte King
- In Student Life
Posted Dec. 17, 2014
Clothes Swaps – Perfect for Student Fashion
It's hard to be fashionable on a budget - Primark is all well and good for your everyday wear, but not so much for formal wear. It can be pretty disappointing to find yourself wearing the same fancy outfits every time an evening event or formal meal happens, so perhaps you find yourself wanting something new. That, or maybe the student diet has made you lose/gain a bunch of pounds, and now your clothes are too big/small. Fear not! Because student friends can help.
Clothes swaps are hardly a new trend, but they've grown in popularity over recent years. Both eco-friendly and cheap, they're a great way of updating your wardrobe without having to worry about going over your grants . Plus, they're something a bit different from your average student social. Let's take a look at how to organise one.
Friends Only?
Depending on the scope you have in mind, there's a couple of approaches you could take. The first - and more common - version is just to invite all your friends round to one person's house, have some informal rules in place (such as whether you can take something without trading something, whether you can trade non-clothes items (or even things like 'I'll cook you meals for a week!') and so on. This is pretty great if you're not so hot on organising - it's informal, you can fit it in with a glass of wine (or three!) and go away happy with some brand new outfits.
The second, much bigger, version, is to make it part of the union or similiar - think big! Rather than having a small social, why not do a campus or university wide swap? This can be a lot harder to organise, but also brings a lot more choice. You'll need more formal rules in place - in this case, one method can be that you trade in your clothes for tickets, and then those tickets allow you to 'buy' clothes with them. This ensures no-one comes in with a scarf and goes away with a ballgown, whilst still keeping it free!
How Regular?
Generally, on a student budget, we find most people don't update their wardrobe that often. Having a clothes swap once a month - we recommend the end of term, rather than the beginning - is great, because it allows you time enough in between to have actually bought new clothes, but also is regular enough to keep it fun. Of course, if there's some big event coming up, it can be worth having a special one-off to accommodate that - especially if it's fancy dress. As we all know, fancy dress can get expensive, so swapping things around is a great way to reduce costs.
Bonus Offers!
If you can sew , now is the time to make good use of it. Offer your services to repair and resize the clothes being swapped around, and you'll be well loved. Whether you ask for beer money, free meals or even just first pick of the clothes, you can almost certainly barter your sewing skill for some pretty neat bonuses in a clothes swap.
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Clothes swaps are hardly a new trend, but they've grown in popularity over recent years. Both eco-friendly and cheap, they're a great way of updating your wardrobe without having to worry about going over your grants . Plus, they're something a bit different from your average student social. Let's take a look at how to organise one.
Friends Only?
Depending on the scope you have in mind, there's a couple of approaches you could take. The first - and more common - version is just to invite all your friends round to one person's house, have some informal rules in place (such as whether you can take something without trading something, whether you can trade non-clothes items (or even things like 'I'll cook you meals for a week!') and so on. This is pretty great if you're not so hot on organising - it's informal, you can fit it in with a glass of wine (or three!) and go away happy with some brand new outfits.
The second, much bigger, version, is to make it part of the union or similiar - think big! Rather than having a small social, why not do a campus or university wide swap? This can be a lot harder to organise, but also brings a lot more choice. You'll need more formal rules in place - in this case, one method can be that you trade in your clothes for tickets, and then those tickets allow you to 'buy' clothes with them. This ensures no-one comes in with a scarf and goes away with a ballgown, whilst still keeping it free!
How Regular?
Generally, on a student budget, we find most people don't update their wardrobe that often. Having a clothes swap once a month - we recommend the end of term, rather than the beginning - is great, because it allows you time enough in between to have actually bought new clothes, but also is regular enough to keep it fun. Of course, if there's some big event coming up, it can be worth having a special one-off to accommodate that - especially if it's fancy dress. As we all know, fancy dress can get expensive, so swapping things around is a great way to reduce costs.
Bonus Offers!
If you can sew , now is the time to make good use of it. Offer your services to repair and resize the clothes being swapped around, and you'll be well loved. Whether you ask for beer money, free meals or even just first pick of the clothes, you can almost certainly barter your sewing skill for some pretty neat bonuses in a clothes swap.
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