One of the items I bagged - love it!

I am very excited to say that, for the very first time, I did something I had wanted to do for ages: attend a clothes swap party. It was organised by a friend who, after having so much fun at one in the past, decided to host her own.

For me it was the perfect excuse to perform my biannual wardrobe season change – this is when, for pure lack of space (or as my boyfriend seems to suggest, too many items – crazy – you can’t have too many, right?!), I put all the bygone season clothes in suitcases and shove them in the loft. They then come out around six months later, and the cycle is complete! I often use the opportunity to review my collection and get rid of clothes that made in and out of the loft a couple of times and haven’t been worn. Usually, they end up in the charity shop, but this time they had a different destination.

Armed with some nibbles, I pulled a small suitcase packed with a mix of  clothes (some I really liked and had worn a fair bit, others a bought and didn’t sit well or were simply not my style) all the way to my friend’s house, where I was met by around eight other girls holding glasses of bubbly. Promising!

The format was pretty straight forward: you went in the middle of the room, opened your case, showed each item and the ladies interested asked to try them on. If there were no takers, the garment would join a pile on the floor, for later perusal or disposal. If two or more parts were interested, they would all try the disputed item and sometimes this alone would solve it, otherwise, negotiations would commence – all very friendly, flattering but honestly on how the other part looked to decide who the item was better suited for, with all the girls giving opinions! I pretty much got everything I wanted, and I have the feeling everyone was satisfied with their new acquisitions. I certainly took more items with me to the party than I brought home, and this was my intention from the offset!

The vast majority of my items were tried on by more than one girl (it feels nice when other people like your taste!), and two lovely dresses went to a good home – they were sexy numbers, and I am sure she will do them justice!

I ended up with a flower print full skirt dress, which I wore to work the day after, a pair of high heel grey boots, a wool wrap mini skirt, a pencil skirt with leather panels on the side, a skirt suit, a bright pink lipstick, a hair volumising spray and the best of all, three MAC brushes (227,212 and 275)!!!

A great experience altogether, I would certainly do it again. It worked very well and I loved it, plus,  it makes so much sense –  I cannot see a better way of recycling and exploring styles that you might not necessarily go for, as well as making new friends and most of all, having a LOT of fun. And the clothes which ended up unclaimed, were gathered by the hosts to be taken to the nearest charity shop. Nice!