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Photos: courtesy Thai Go
Clothing swaps have been a great way for people to trade and recycle items they no longer have use for. Recently, a team of women banded together to incorporate community involvement and charity into the swapping mix. Style With A Purpose (SWAP) is a clothing event that supports local organizations by donating unclaimed apparel, accessories and footwear. These agencies include The Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre, Crabtree Corner and The Wish Drop-in Centre Society.
The SWAP took place last week at the old Boneta space, complete with a fashion show, DJ, a packed house and an abundance of clothing items. With the goal of 200 attendees and 200 work outfits for donation, the event successfully bought together a community of passionate women through contribution.
I caught up with the lead organizer, Jennifer Hart, before the event to discuss the SWAP initiative.
SWAP organizers and Jennifer Hart (Centre).
Valerie Tiu: Tell us about the concept behind SWAP.
Jennifer Hart: It’s a mindful clothing swap. The proceeds are going to our agency partners on the DTES to support women in different areas in their life. The event is just as much about providing clothing for these organizations as it is about women getting together and connecting through contribution, having fun and getting some free clothes. It also covers a lot of different areas. When you recycle your clothing, you’re consuming less, they’re not going into the trash, and they’re being reused by someone that would really love to have them. It’s such a good feeling to see the things that you would have never paid attention to ever again on somebody else, and then they’re lit up by wearing it.
VT: How did it all get started?
JH: I’ve been doing swaps for about seven years, and the last swap that I did started to grow in size. We started bringing in clothing racks, lots of food and a lot of women were coming. By the end of it, there was that question of what would happen if we did this on a large scale.
I had been volunteering with Gospel Mission and I live in the Downtown Eastside, in Strathcona, and I just wanted to see if there was anything else that I could do. I knew that I wanted to host another swap because it’s something that I love doing and I love seeing the community of women that’s been created from it. So I thought about if we do it this way - having fun but do it 50/50, with mindfulness around supporting community. So basically, I had the goal of having 200 women attend and contributing 200 work outfits. Work is a very loose term. It’s anyone’s version of what a work outfit would look like, because there are different women on the DTES that have different jobs or none all. There is a lot of clothing sitting in the back of our closets, and a lot of women that don’t have clothes.
For me, it was the most wonderful learning experience because being a leader and taking on a large task was something I didn’t really feel confident with, and as soon as the team started to come together and I started to see how everyone was involved in the vision, people just started taking on leadership roles. It was almost like this machine being built. It really came together by a community that has been created.
VT: Why is this project so important to you?
JH: When I moved to Strathcona, I instantly felt part of the community. When I saw people on the street that were obviously sick or going through troubles in life, I felt a sense of hope. I think that sometimes when people see that, it brings them down and so they choose to stay away from it. So I think for me, that’s where it comes from, a hopefulness.
VT: Can we look forward to more swaps in the future?
JH: As soon as our team got going, it was brought up that this needs to be at least an annual event, and possibly even more than that.
