The Day We Celebrate the Land of the Free (Stuff) and the Home of the Brave

Happy Fourth of July my fellow Americans! To you international readers,* um, happy Monday?
*Do I have international readers? I don't know, but I'm going to assume I'm cool enough to have at least a few.

In honor of the fact that my best friend was in town for the holiday I decided to host a clothing swap. For those of you too lazy to click the link, a clothing swap is a type of swapmeet wherein participants exchange their valued but no longer used clothing for clothing they will use. Clothing swaps are considered not only a good way to declutter and refill one's wardrobe, but also are considered an act of environmentalism. Thanks, wiki!

Just a little something I designed for the invitation. Cute, no?

In retrospect it was probably dumb to plan a social gathering for a holiday weekend, but in my defense I think of July 4th as a stay-home-and-eat-burgers holiday not a traveling holiday so I assumed people would be around and bored the day before. I was wrong. I was hoping for 15-20 people but only ended up with 5 swappers. And, sadly, that 5 included me and my mother who only agreed to come out of pity. Or was it that I only invited her when I didn't think I'd have enough real guests? Either way, one of us (probably me) was being a prick.

In the end I think 5 was a good number, mainly because it required WAY less organization and rule enforcement on my part. I had all these schemes in my head for how to keep the swap moving swiftly and fair for all the swappers, but luckily I didn't need them. Even better, the actual clothes sharing was more successful than I had thought, considering the 5 swappers had very different body types and size ranges.

The most fun was when more than one swapper wanted an item and we would have a "model off," which is basically exactly what it sounds like: whoever is competing for the item tries it on, everyone else judges and then whoever looks the best in the item wins it. I would now like to point out that my mom - who is taller than me, has bigger boobs and smaller hips than me, AND just lost a ton of weight - battled me for a dress and I won. HA! Take that, Mom! But also, congrats on the weight loss. You look kind of terrific.

But enough business chatter, let's talk about my free stuff! I walked away to my closet with 7 tops, 2 pairs of shorts, 4 pairs of pants, 3 dresses, 4 sweaters, 1 leather jacket, 2 kick-ass skirts and a pair of sandals. And, of course, I got rid of some items that I just didn't wear much so now i have room for the new stuff. I won't show you everything I got, but I will hit the high notes.

DRESSES
LOFT, Kohl's, Target

SKIRTSTarget, Vera Wang for Kohl's

Just look at these gorgeous patterns. I could eat them with a spoon.skirt, skirt, dress
which is like duck, duck, goose only way more fun

PANTS
H&M, Kohl's
Admittedly the brown pair look a little sad on the hanger but they are quite flattering on, AND they're super comfortable.

TOPSTarget, LOFT, Old Navy

I intentionally set up the red, white and blue for all the patriots out there. Except for these Patriots. Coaches who cheat at football wear hideous sweatshirts get no love from me.

Speaking of red, white and blue today's 4th of July outfit (except for the shoes) was entirely from my swap loot. I normally don't do "theme" outfits, but this patriotically plaid tank was just begging to be worn today.


Oh, I almost forgot the best part - the shoes! I have been looking, and looking for a pair of gray or silver sandals but coming up with nothing. I have 4 or 5 pairs of gold/bronze summer shoes - seriously - but no gray shoes, so that situation clearly needed to be remedied. But as I said I have been looking with no luck. Imagine my delight when my mom pulled this pair out of her bag:


I may or may not have shrieked "MINE!" and hid them in my room before anyone else saw them. Whatever. I'm the hostess, I'm allowed to cheat.

So that's the tale of my surprisingly successful clothing swap. It was loads of fun so I am already thinking about hosting another one in the future. To keep with my (poorly thought out) tradition I'll stick with holiday weekends, so mark your calenders for Thanksgiving and Easter. Heh.

Have you guys ever hosted or attended a clothing swap? How many people participated? What made the swap really successful? Go ahead, spill those beans.