So as you may (or may not) know, the production of fast fashion is taking its toll on our beautiful planet. So in order to prevent some of the damage you can do two things which is 1 don’t buy clothes or 2 buy sustainable conscious clothes. This includes second hand clothes or like my review of NobodysChild, buying from brands that source their clothes in a sustainable way. Then there is this, the swapping of fashion. The idea is simple, why buy when you can swap? Realistically how many times have we all been guilty of buying something just for a specific occasion then left the item at the back of our closet? So with this you just swap your unwanted garments with someone else. 

For this swapping review I attended one of SwapAholics events here in London. Their system is very easy and basically you walk in with your items, give them in to one of the receptions and receive a token per item. Then you go and browse the room filled with clothes and pick out what you want with the tokens you have.
So 1 of your items = 1 token = one item of your choice to take home. Simple!
So I packed 4 carefully selected items that I have loved including a top that was never worn as the size was wrong and a long faux fur coat. All my items were bought in the last two years from Zara and all still relevant to todays fashion trends. In my mind I was thinking what would my friends want to pick up and put a lot of thought and consideration in to this as I wanted to see the fellow swapper happy. 

I took my friend with me to take part in the experiment and she too packed 4 of her beautiful mint condition garments and we took off to the Grafton in Kentish Town to the event feeling like christmas was about to arrive. 

This is where it all went wrong. We entered the room and lord behold. It was like a very bad thriftshop store. There was plenty of clothes but the selection was….how do I put this delicately. It was horrendous. Most of the items were in terrible condition and looked like they’ve had been in the tumble dryer one too many times. Some of the other things were just plain irrelevant like a comic christmas t-shirt (really?) and dodgy looking grandma dresses. We were both shocked and felt somewhat betrayed by our fellow swappers. It was like people were just in it to grab something without the consideration of what they are giving away. Also it made me question the regulation of these events and what they deem acceptable as a swapping garment. 

Even though I found one dotted sheer blouse at the end of much rumbling I thought the selection would have been much much better. So much that I was upset I even gave away my original clothes and considered to ask for it back. 

My verdict: Honestly, the concept is so great but if I don’t tell you the truth in my reviews  then who will? So to most of y’all I will say don’t bother. Unless you live near the area and you happen to have one or two items you don’t mind giving away. But really, don’t go out of your way to go to this until they’ve figured out a system. Sorry SwapAholic! I won’t be returning.