Posh Swaps Blog

Patagoniais a company that leads the way in environmentally responsible clothing manufacture. Not only does it use a number of environmentally friendly fibres including hemp, bamboo and organic cotton for their outdoor and sports clothing, but they also actively promote and facilitate the recycling of their garments.

In 2005 Patagonia launched their common threads recycling program which is a scheme where customers can return their used clothes to be recycled It started by recycling just the Capilene® Performance Baselayers but then expanded  to include the worn out Patagonia® fleece, Polartec® fleece clothing (from any maker), Patagonia cotton T-shirts, and now some additional polyester and nylon-6 products that come with a Common Threads tag. The garments are recycled into new clothes.

Patagonia has a great company goal of taking responsibility for every product that they make and I think there is certainly a lot that other clothing manufacturers could learn from Patagonia. They don’t just talk the talk, I think they really walk the walk when it comes to environmental responsibilty with 1% of their sales going to preservation and restoration of the natural environment.

Pear shaped girls tend to put on weight on their hips. The art of being a beautiful and stylish pear is disguising and minimising hips by drawing attention to your top half and balancing the hips with wider hems and necklines. You can do a wardrobe audit by going through all of the clothes in your wardrobe and checking that they emphasise your best points and disguise those that you don’t like. Try them on and look in the mirror, if they don’t look 100% swap them for something else that will.

Swap long and baggy tops, tapered trousers, skinny jeans/ trousers, anything biased cut, pencil skirts, hip length jackets and leggings.

for

Slash neck tops, cropped tops, flares, wide legged trousers, A line trousers large collars and 3/4 jackets that flare out from the waist.

Most of us have clothes in our wardrobes that just don’t suit our shape. It doesn’t really matter  what clothes you wear, as long as they suit your shape, colouring, lifestyle and personality, you are going to look gorgeous and stylish. The key to getting the perfect wardrobe is finding clothes that disguise and draw attention away from the parts of your body that you don’t like and highlight the parts that you love. In this the first part of a series of posts on clothes swapping for your shape, we look at the best clothes for those with large arms.

The key to looking gorgeous is basically to cover up your arms with sleeves that are loose fitting and avoid sleeveless tops.

Try Swapping

clothes with spaghetti straps, halterneck tops and puffed or capped sleeves

for

clothes with 3/4 length sleeves, loose fitting sleeves, long sleeves and patterns and fluted sleeves.

Also swap chunky  bangles bracelets which cover the thinnest part of your arm for delicate bracelets and bangles which highlight and show off the narrowest part of your arm.

Landfill in the UK is becoming a huge problem. With the drop in the price of recycled products, the issue is what to do with all of the waste that we produce. The breakdown of waste in landfill sites creates huge amounts of the greenhouse gas methane. There are also many products that will not breakdown and will remain in the environment for ever with the potential to contaminate water supplies.

Traid, a charity specialising in the recycling of textiles reports that 900,000 tons of shoes and clothing are thrown away each year in the UK. Only 200,000 tons per year are recycled and the rest is dumped in landfill. The government estimates that similar amounts of between 550,000 and 900,000 tons of textiles are thrown away each year.

Clothes swapping is the perfect solution to the problem of clothing going into landfill. You can do your bit for the environment by buying quality clothes that will last and swapping or selling your second hand clothes. When you get bored with your clothes do not throw them out, swap them. You can also buy some great clothes second hand, often they have hardly been worn or are in almost perfect condition.

Some more great second hand outfits this week. these photos are from Flickr, but don’t forget, we would love to publish photos of your second hand style to posh-swaps@heathcotecommunications.co.uk.

picture from bmentes photostream on Flickr

purple striped longsleeve shirt: Express via TJ Maxx a million years ago, neckhole cut out by me.
black cap-sleeve: H&M
wrist/arm warmers: Hue, gift from a friend <3
belt: thrifted
skirt: thrifted
tights: Hue, via TJ Maxx
boots: remixed
burgundy string-bandana: possibly my mother’s?
feather hair ornament: self-made from feathers my cats pulled out of their toys

I love the layered look of this outfit.

Picture from Mai Le’s photo stream on Flickr

vintage 1940s cocktail dress from Clothes Contact, recut and tailored to fit
*straw belt thrifted eons ago
*socks from Nordstrom Rack
*Randall Loeffler platforms

An outfit with real wow factor - some gorgeous colours and tropical pattern.

Rockabilly Swing Dress - Nelda’s Vintage

Teal Cotton Rockabilly Dress - Nelda’s vintage

I love vintage clothes because each piece has a bit of history associated with it. There a number of popular vintage styles that people love to wear, quite simply because they are timeless and always look good. I believe vintage clothing is a bit like natural selection with only the best styles and quality standing the test of time. Out throw away fast fashion clothing is unlikely to become vintage in the future, but perhaps some of the key designer pieces of our time will.

One of my favourite styles of vintage clothing is the rockabilly dresses from the fifties. These dresses were made or dancing just looking at those full skirts makes me feel happy. This was a time when women dressed to look pretty and feminine.

  The great thing about second hand, vintage and recycled clothes is that they all have a story to tell. In reconstructing the clothes this history is preserved but updated to give the clothes a very modern day relevance. Recycled and reworked clothes will always be very individual and one off pieces and this is also a great selling point.

 In terms of fashion and creativity this is great news. Recycling is one of the most sustainable ways of making clothes and adds interest in ways that clothing made from scratch could not.  The great thing about second hand, vintage and recycled clothes is that they all have a story to tell. In reconstructing the clothes this history is preserved but updated to give the clothes a very modern day relevance. Recycled and reworked clothes will always be very individual and one off pieces and this is also a great selling point.

Julia Barbee of Frocky Jack Morgan produces the most exquisite clothes by deconstructing recycled and vintage pieces . The dresses are fit for fairy tale princesses and incorporate intricate details and embellishment. She loves to use extraordinary antique pieces and old couture hems to add something really special to his pieces. Her formal training in sculpture shows through in the amazing gowns which have such amazing structure. The colours are almost always neutral, not detract from the interesting textures.

Who would have though that being Eco chic could be this desirable.

picture from www.frockyjackmorgan.com

Here are a few tips on how to become a top swapper by swapping your second hand and vintage clothes online. A top swapper will get great swaps and also a great feedback score helping them to get even more great swaps.

1. Always be truthful and give as much information about the item that you would like to swap as possible. Be honest about any damage as well as giving information on material, washing instructions, the make and measurements where relevant.

2. If you are looking for specific items in exchange make sure that you list them on your wish list. If you do not have specific requirements give details on any preferences that you may have including your style, colours that suit you and designers that you love.

3. Always ask lots of questions before you swap to make sure that the item is exactly what you are looking for.

4. Get your item to be swapped found on the search engines. Make sure you enter a specific title for your item. For example instead of black dress, try black mini sixties cocktail dress. Also try and write at least 200 words in the description, the more you write, the more likely your item will be to show up on the search engine. Also fill in as many of the category details as possible ie size, designer, style, material. You can mention these details again in the description if you like

5. Sell your item in the description. Rather than just the facts, you can say a bit about why you like the item, what it would look good with or how it fits in with the seasons trends e.g the dress is made from beautifully soft material that skims rather than clinging, making it very flattering. It looks great with a pair of sandals on the beach or heels for an evening out. This dress is a great version of this seasons greek goddess style one shouldered dresses.

6. Include the best photos that you can. If the item of clothing fits and looks good on you, try modelling it in one of the photos. Take close up pictures of any interesting detail or designer labels and different angles if relevant.

7. Always send your items by recorded delivery with adequate insurance and keep details of all postage, payments etc.

8. After the swap, message your swapper to let them know that you were happy with the item and check they were happy with theres. Also remind them to leave feedback. Don’t forget to leave feedback for your swapper.

9. Get more exposure for your items by sending us your pictures of your second hand style. If featured, you will get a link to you profile and items listing from our Posh Swaps blog.

10. Help to get your items found on search engines by linking to them from your blog if you have one. A link using the item title would be ideal.

I have made yet another great recycled discovery. Tia style freestyle sandals made using beautiful vintage sari silk which can be tied in different ways to create your own unique style. Check out this video showing how the sandals can be created.

Each sari yields only 2 to 12 pairs of straps, depending on its condition. So you can pretty much be assured that nobody else you know will have the same straps. Not exactly one of a kind, but close to it! What a great way to recycled this beautiful silk which is too good to waste.

The leather base of the sandal can also be used with different straps to co ordinate with different outfits. Not only is it Eco friendly but frugal as well we love it.  They also sell scarves made from recycled saris and whole second hand saris for you to turn into your own creations.

The cost of eco fashion has always been something that has concerned me a bit and put me off buying organic or other eco fashion. But since the credit crunch, I have started to think about the whole fashion / Eco / frugality thing in a new light. It has dawned on me that not only is it possible to be eco concious and frugal at the same time but the two actually go hand in hand.

I read an interesting post the other day about low cost fashion and whether it is possible to produce low cost clothes ethically. I think it is difficult and clothes produced with little regard for ethical issues are often also produced with little regard for the environment. But whilst these clothes at first sight might seem like a frugal buy, in the long run they are not. I usually find that they don’t look that great and so they don’t get worn much, to me  they look like cheap clothes. Perhaps it is an age thing and fast fashion that would have been fine in my teens is a lot less forgiving now.

For me cheap badly made clothes look just that cheap and badly made. To buy them is a false economy and I would much rather save up and buy something that is well made. If I do get fed up with it I can be frugal and eco friendly by selling it second hand or swapping it. 

Buying second hand clothes is the perfect solution to both Eco and frugal fashion. Quality second hand clothes are cheaper than their new counterparts and help to reduce waste, landfill, pollution and carbon footprint associated with the manufacture of clothes.