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It's simply really. Good clothes are hard to find!
Actually, it's a bit more complex than that. There are two main motivations behind the clothing swap:
CLOTHES! Finding the right size is becoming more and more difficult, and many stores don't even carry a petite section. If you've ever visited Fred Meyer's clothing department, for example, you know that the only sections that carry smaller sizes are the athletic clothes (and even those are simply "Size Small") and the Juniors Department (where some clothes are definitely not cut for adult women, even petite women!). Thrift stores and vintage clothing stores often offer less-than-ideal pickings in the right sizes, too.
Not only that, how often have you bought a beautiful shirt and worn it for a few months before you tired of it? Have you ever been given a lovely skirt that fits perfectly - but the color just doesn't look right on you? Replenishing my wardrobe every season isn't in my budget, either!
ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMY and SOCIETY: The exchange isn't just about getting some new threads and getting rid of your stuff. It's also about making a difference environmentally, economically and socially.
Take a look at the tags on that sweet t-shirt in your closet. Where was it made? Probably not in America. What's it made out of? Probably a synthetic, non-composting fabric. Now, we're not here to turn you into a radical, nudie environmentalist (Portland's too cold for that, anyway) - but part of living in this world is understanding the impact we make on it. If there was less demand for new clothes because more people were sharing what they already have, we could see a drastic reduction in the number and amount of clothes produced by companies with a serious interest in the nimble, overworked fingers of 12-year-olds in Indonesia.
Socially speaking, clothing swaps make sense, too. Remember when you were a teen-ager and just had to have that Charlie's Angels t-shirt or those Air Jordan sneakers? They cost a mint and you really could only wear them for a year. (OK, my Charlie's Angels t-shirt actually lasted 3 years, but let me tell you, enough times through the washing machine and Farrah starts looking like Chewbacca.) Now that we're all grown-ups, some of us are still playing that game: buying the newest, the coolest, the latest fashions by musicians and ultra-hip clothing designers. Can we afford it? Maybe, maybe not. But should we contribute to fashion crazes? No way! Chasing clothing is like chasing money: we do it for the status it gives us.
Now it's time for a new status: we give, we take, we share and communicate. Your shirt is my shirt and my skirt is your skirt (until the next swap, that is!). We are our own cool and we make our own fashions!
See, you have a new mission in life! You are a smart, funny, indepent woman on a mission to save the planet from overabundance and excess - and you get some cool clothes for FREE! It's just downright peachy with a side of keen!
So what's a bunch of sharp gals to do? We created a clothing swap! Periodically, we go through our closets and take out the things we don't wear, or things that don't fit, and bring them all together for the good of small-womankind!
And that, dear friends, is why we do this.
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