Spotlight On: Back to School Clothing Swap (Part II)

Posted on | October 1, 2009 | 1 Comment

Last month we did a spotlight post announcing a Back to School Clothing Swap in Boulder Colorado. As promised, we’ve asked co-hostess @gwenbell to write a follow up post, including a how-to. If you are planning a similar event, let us know – we would love to do a spotlight on it!

How to Hostess a Clothes Swap

It was a pleasurable evening of wine sipping, clothes swapping and laughing. Liz (http://lizfranco.com) and Sarah (http://sjoystudios.com) flew in from the West and East Coasts, respectively, and together we greeted our guests as they started coming in. The event lasted about two and a half hours and we had about twenty-five women join us.

Your Co-Hostesses @sarahjbray @srslyliz @gwenbell, originally uploaded by gwen bell.

Finding a Sponsor + Location

The first thing I did was find a location. Restaurant 4580 (http://www.restaurant4580.com/) was kind enough to give us an entire room to hold the event. We chose a time (right at the start of Happy Hour) that is lively and upbeat. If the location doesn’t have mirrors, secure one before the day of the event. The restaurant provides drink tickets and after the event you total up how much you owe (we charged a $10 cover that included a drink and the remainder went to charity).Pangea Organics (http://pangeaorganics-store.sparkart.net/index) sponsored the event by providing samples to the women coming.

Liz Waits for Guests, originally uploaded by gwen bell.

Promotion

For our event, co-hostess Liz (http://lizfranco.com)was lovely enough to create a poster that we used to promote the event on Facebook, our blogs, our friends’ blogs, Academichic (http://academichic.com) and in the newsletters our sponsors send out. We also shared the links on Twitter and uploaded photos to Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenbell/tags/swap/) after the event.

During the Event

Take a moment to thank your sponsors. Thank your co-hostesses. Let people know about the charity (if you decide to go that route) and remind them to use their drink tickets. It’s a great chance to introduce yourself and your hostesses. Also, if you’ve collected Twitter handles (as we did: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwenbell/3919307705/) shout out who is in the room so that further networking can be done.

Thank you for joining us!, originally uploaded by gwen bell.

Swapping

It helps to label tables XS, S, M, L, XL, shoes and accessories. This makes it a little more streamlined during the “digging through piles” process.

Sorting, finding, originally uploaded by gwen bell.

Clean Up

The folks at our event helped us clean up which made the clean up process simple and fun. Our guy friends carried out heavy boxes of clothes to eventually be donated to a local women’s shelter.

Results

The event was small, warm, intimate and fun. I would happily co-hostess or attend another one in the future. It’s more than just the fashion – it’s the getting together, making new friends and supporting causes we care about that I love about swaps. Special props to my friend Laura Coulter, Girl About Town (details: http://www.gwenbell.com/blog/2009/8/24/youre-invited-its-a-back-to-school-social-media-clothing-swa.html), for introducing me to swaps in Tokyo. Where, honest to goodness, every Japanese skirt I tried on stopped at my knees. Swaps kept me from going around naked.

Yours in swappy goodness,

@gwenbell (http://gwenbell.com)