Long before our traditional ‘hard currency’ existed, barter or ‘swopping’ served as a societal mechanism for acquiring the things we needed – in exchange for the things we didn’t. As the term ‘cold hard cash’ takes on an almost deathly pallor in today’s context, we see its predecessor - the barter system, making a rather solid comeback.

One formidable example of this is clothes-swopping. Clothes-swopping is not a wholly new phenomenon – ‘swishing’ (smaller scale clothes swopping events or swopping between friends) has been championed less recently in fashion and beauty media. However, a number of interesting service offerings have upped the ante in recent times to provide distinct pockets of value in the current climate.

SWOPSHOP, Temple Bar, is one such offering. SWOPSHOP is Dublin’s first and only dedicated fashion exchange boutique. It offers an alternative to traditional high street, as well as designer label clothing prices that many people are becoming less willing or able to afford. The concept behind SWOPSHOP is that instead of paying forty or fifty euro for something new on the high street - or much more in the case of designer labels - customers can swop items they no longer wear for those they will – effectively using their own clothes as ‘currency’ to update their wardrobes.

To uphold the business model, there is a small service charge for each item swopped. Like for like swops, e.g. high end designer for high end designer, or high street for high street, cost between €5 and €10; upgrading, e.g. from a high street accessory to a designer dress costs a maximum of €30 while the reverse swop would be complimentary. Items offered and accepted will be in immaculate condition, reasonably on trend and wearable.

In Cork, another phenomenon has been the swopping service provided by Chambers Bar. At ‘Stitch or Switch’, you can bring your old clothes or fashion accessories and trade them in for credits which can then be used to purchase something else or to buy from the bar. Stitch or Switch is open Monday to Friday from 10am. You’ll find it at Chambers Bar, Washington Street, Cork.

Throughout Ireland, there are also a number of stores that are called ‘swap shops’ but rather than operate a swop concept, these sell clothes on your behalf, offering you approximately 50% of the sale price or return if unsold. The Bridge Mills in Galway, the StockXchange in Dun Laoghaire and the Designer Swap Market in Ennis operate on this ‘consignment store’ basis which is also popular in the USA. A host of websites also include swopping sections, for example eBay, Gumtree, , WhatsMineIsYours, BigWardrobe and DublinWaste.

With choice aplenty, it sounds to us as if swopping is a fun and frugal way of revamping your wardrobe whilst reducing your carbon footprint into the bargain!

Tags: Add new tag, clothes shopping, clothes swapping, money saving tips, Savings

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 4:30 am and is filed under Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.