Swap till you Drop

Swap shops have been sweeping the nation and apparently everyone has been swapping rather than shopping. Having heard of the concept for the first time a few months ago, I decided to try and hold one myself. So here's my guide on how to swap shop:

1. Set a date and invite all your friends, neighbours, relatives (even strange aunty Betty), classmates, colleagues etc. over to your house. The bigger the crowd, the more fun! There's only one condition; they have to bring at least two old items of clothing they no longer wear... (it turns out, most people will bring way more!). 

If they are reluctant to come, tempt them with gorgeous treats and coffee! Me being me, there were lots of chocolate goodies going round at my swap shop. My wonderful mother-in-law was so good to provide us with gorgeous home-made chocolate truffles. Another real success were my strawberries dipped in chocolate. Light and delicious, they are incredibly easy to make!

The gorgeous spread at my Coffee, Cakes and Clothes swap shop

2. Before your guests arrive, set up the rooms and decorate! It's a good idea to get yourself some clothes hangers and rails... we ran out of hanging space very quickly. If you fancied it, you could give your swap shop a theme and decorate accordingly. I tried to create a bit of a vintage-tea-party-feel at mine by using my mother-in-law's good china and tying lace ribbons randomly to things. I also made these size signs... however, organizing the clothes into sizes proved a rather impossible endeavour.

3. Do it for a good cause! I decided to host my swap shop as a fundraiser for Hand of Hope, a small charity that organizes camps and fun events for orphan children in the Czech Republic. At some swap shops, there's a set entry fee. I decided to go with a suggested donation of €10, figuring that depending on how much people got out of it, they may want to give more or less accordingly. 

All the clothes lovingly displayed. Top right: my donation box served on a silver platter

4. As your guests trickle in, lay out and arrange the clothes they brought while they have a chat and a cup of tea. At the beginning of the swap shop, your guests can have a look around, scope out the goodies and try on some things, but they're not allowed to take anything yet! As you can see, it was all very civilized... at the start at least.

5. Then after a certain period of time (I waited for about an hour), you as the host have to give some kind of signal - anything from a bell to a horn to shouting really loudly will do - and let the swapping begin! Basically, your guests are then free to grab anything on offer that they like. NOTE: its a good idea to hide anything belonging to your household and wardrobe that you were wanting to keep! Believe me, at this point, the claws can come out. Things at my swap shop definitely got rather heated :). 

Hunting for that thing you'd seen just a second ago...

We offered up some of the bedrooms as changing rooms, but most girls just tried things on there and then... there was no time to run upstairs, obviously.

6. Finally, once your guests have waddled off satisfied, happily cradling piles of new found treasures in their arms, the only thing that's left for you to do is to clean up and count the money. It was quite an epic clean-up to be fair... (I now know how shop assistants in Primark must feel) but when I sat down with a glass of wine and opened my donations box, I found that we had raised over €150 for Hands of Hope! Not bad eh!                                                                 Overall the event was a huge success, tons of fun and as it doesn't take much preparation, a really easy and social way to raise some funds for charity. I will definitely host one again and I'm so chuffed with my new coat, skirt and swimsuit! The leftover clothes we simply dropped off at Oxfam.

My Five Favourite Vintage Shops in Dublin

This week I'm taking you on a little tour of lovely Dublin, highlighting my five favourite vintage shops over on Ms Wanda's Wardrobe.
I'm so excited to be blogging for this great sustainable fashion blog! Ms Wandas is definitely one to add to your blog reading list.
Head on over and discover all the lovely vintage there is to get in Dublin!

Sneak Peak at my Wardrobe

Hello my dear blog readers. I hope you enjoyed last week's post by my lovely sister. If you've missed it,  make sure to go and check it out. It's well worth a read.
I've been going on my own challenge to only buy fairtrade, second-hand or vintage clothing for a almost four months now and so far I've been doing pretty well! I have to confess, I've had one slip-up. I accidentally bought a band t-shirt at a gig! I have no idea where and how it was made, but as my husband pointed out, by buying it I did support a very good native indie band. That made me feel better. (They're called the Staves and they're amazing - in case you're interested.)

So this week I'm granting you all a little sneak peak at my wardrobe, showing off some of my favourite vintage, second-hand and fairtrade pieces that I gathered over the years and especially within the last four months.

Let's start out with these two... on the left we have a very cool Jack Wills tartan blazer that I snatched up a few weeks ago in Rusty Zip, a cool local vintage & second-hand place. And I paid all of £15 for it. Ka-ching! The sparkly 80's top I bought a while ago in a vintage shop in Temple Bar, Dublin. I love the black & gold diamond shaped sequin patches and it has become my go-to piece for any night out.

The blue hand-bag below is also vintage, although I don't remember what year its from. I got it on a trip to Edinburgh last year. The shop is called Armstrongs and I think there's a few dotted over the city. If you're ever in Edinburgh, you have to go and visit this shop. My girlfriends and I were in there for ages!

The coral dress is from Peopletree (I know I keep going on about them). The pattern on it are actually small dragonflies. I got it in a sale and only payed about a tenner for it I think. So you can get fairtrade clothes on the cheap!

The little blouse is originally from Monsoon. I found it in the Oxfam on Stephen's Green, Dublin. This shop didn't use to sell clothes, but now has an excellent selection of second-hand pieces.
And then there is the floral dress, ah the dress! It's 70's and I bought it ages ago at a Vintage fair at the Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire. I love it - the husband hates it! You know, the usual... anyways I don't wear it enough and have just decided I'll wear it lots this year. The vintage fairs in Royal Marine are also well worth a visit. Watch out for them, they seem to happen every now and again. I'm sure, once a new one is announced you can find out about it here.

Last but certainly not least, especially in the current 0°C weather, comes my wonderful green Hippie Coat. Its real leather, cozy warm and has a huge hood to protect me from the wind and rain. It's also from the 70's and I got it on the same trip to Edinburgh in Armstrongs. Seriously - you have to go to that shop!

But enough of me. I want to hear from you! I'm launching a blog event called My Favourite Piece and I need your help. Send in a picture of you and your favourite piece and I'll feature it on the blog. Whether it's vintage, second-hand, fairtrade, recycled or home stitched does not matter - as long as its sustainable and ethical and you absolutely love it! Include a little bit about yourself too and why this item of clothing means so much to you.  Maybe someone special bought it for you as a gift? Maybe it makes you feel gorgeous? Maybe Ryan Gosling slept in it for a night? Whatever it is, let us know!
Email all contributions to fair.enough.the.blog@gmail.com

I'll include as many of your stories and pictures as possible on the blog at the beginning of February.
Thanks,
Sarah

The Loft Market, Dublin

This week I visited the bright and beautiful Loft Market at Powerscourt shopping centre in the heart of Dublin city. The Loft Market is an Irish design and fashion collective providing a space for up-coming Irish designers to show-case their work. The collective was set up in 2006 by the fashion editor of THREAD magazine, Aisling Faranella, and is currently under the creative direction of Kate Nolan. Having faced many ups and downs in its almost 7 years, the Loft market is still going strong and has firmly established itself as the place to find new and exciting Irish fashion design.

I met with Kate on Sunday and over a cup of coffee we had a good long chat about the Loft, its impact, legacy and future.

Kate Nolan, creative director of the Loft Market

As Kate explains, the vision of the Loft had always been to provide an affordable retail space for young, inexperienced Irish designers where they could get their work out into the world, make some of their first steps, gain experience and learn without having to make a huge investment. As Kate recalls:

"Back then, there was no space for ethical fashion and small Irish Design. It was all too expensive. The Loft is a starting point for designers who want to set up their own label."

The Loft supports Irish design and ethically made fashion and would prioritize items "made in Ireland". Kate is adamant that they would not allow any mass-produced garments to be sold there. It's about the one-off piece, the statement design.
The Loft Market was established in conjunction with Powerscourt Towncentre. With its focus on high quality Irish design, it fitted in with the vision of the shopping centre and so Powerscourt allowed for it to be established as a collective. The designers share the rent for the space and are obligated to staff the boutique for one day per week. Occurring no staffing cost and the low rent makes it possible for the designers to make a profit from selling their work at the Loft. Being a collective also means that most decisions are taken collectively. Kate admits that this can be difficult sometimes, as with 20 different designers involved, there are many voices to be heard. However, Kate sees it as the right way to run the Loft, as it is as much the designers' space as it is hers.

When I ask her, whether the designers can make a living and be successful out of selling their creations at the Loft, Kate replies: "Make a living? Absolutely. Success, that depends on how you define it." The Loft designers can support themselves and produce their work without being dependent on the state or other sources of funding. "Having been around for a while, we know what we can offer designers. We can give them a space, a certain amount of kudos maybe, a community and a knowledge base, but we can't guarantee success in the sense of living a champagne-and-caviar-lifestyle." Although Kate has seen designers move from the Loft straight into places such as Brown Thomas.

The Loft Market recently - and quite unexpectedly - moved into a new venue within the Powerscourt centre. Whereas the old space was bigger and had more of a real atmosphere, the new venue has more of a boutique feel about it. While Kate admits that they are still "trying to find their feet" with the new location, she sees it as progress and an interesting development for the Loft.

What I love about the Loft is how versatile it is. From cutting-edge and rather experimental design to more affordable, conventional pieces, there is literally something here for everyone (or every girl, maybe).

Designer Jane Hayden for instance hand-makes these beautiful and unique silk tops, some of which feature large digital prints.

I also adore the cute and feminine designs by independent fashion label tokiki. From her Dublin studio, tokiki designer Carolyn Moore creates comfortable and flattering dresses, often mixing jersey fabric with prints and lace trims. Tokiki's limited edition garments have even been featured in Topshop.

Set up in 2007, label Aliquo makes fashionable and affordable jewellery pieces. Their designs are very accessible and have a whimsical and girly flair. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I know many a girl who would love to wear one of these delicate pieces.

"The Aliquo jewellery collection is all about vintage charm combined with clean, contemporary lines." 

 -Aliquo website

However, if you are not looking for delicate, but for something that shouts a little louder, then maybe these statement necklaces by artist Ina Suliak are the thing for you. Ina's bespoke collections are created by hand in a highly laborious and skillful process that combines bead embroidery with semi-precious stones. Ina's pieces are reminiscent of her background in art and sculpture. 

I hope I have given you a taste for all the lovely things available at the Loft Market Dublin. Make sure to visit it on your next trip. The Loft is open seven days a week! You can find out more on their website or by following them on twitter and facebook.

Have you visited the Loft before or do you know any other great spots for Irish design & ethical fashion? What was your experience? Feel free to share...