Posh Swaps Blog

Style Eyes Fashion Blog is the latest in a number of designers, celebrities and fashion bloggers to switch their focus to green and ethical fashion. The blog has also changed its name to Style Eyes Ethical Fashion Blog can now be found at www.ethicalfashionblog.com.
Ceri Heathcote, founder of Style Eyes Ethical Fashion Blog, made the change after realising that there was more to looking stylish than constantly buying cheap bad quality fast fashion. She discovered that it is possible to combine a love of fashion with charity shop, second hand, vintage and ethical clothing. She has also joined the army of fashionistas who are getting creative to refashion and upcycle old clothes for a unique and sustainable alternative to shopping on the high street and sharing their creations through online social networks.
Ceri says “How could I enjoy wearing and writing about clothes that had been made at the expense of both people and the planet? Blogging about second hand and ethical fashion is the perfect way to indulge my love of clothes without any guilt and hopefully inspire others to get involved too.”

Future plans for the Style Eyes Ethical Fashion Blog include a monthly new letter with ethical fashion news, tips and offers, plus affordable ethical fashion and vintage clothing guides.

For further information
www.ethicalfashionblog.com
Email: ceri@heathcotecommunications.co.uk

Festival fashion is all about individuality and doing your own thing and vintage clothes are a great way to do this. Of course if the weather looks ot be wet, you might change your mind about wearing one of your favourite vintage pieces for fear of ruining it but a piece of second hand clothing might just fit the bill.

For style inspiration remember to check out the streetstyle blogs and pictures of the US Coachella festival. If you can’t find just the right thing you could always have a go at customising something. Look for practical clothes that look great and will help to protect you from the elements be it sunshine, rain or the cold weather.

Here are just a few ideas of vintage and secondhand clothes that would make great festival fashion

Denim mini skirts or cut off shorts are a great choice for festivals. If the weather gets cold you can always layer them over a pair of leggings.

A colourful printed top is a great for a festival as it will not show dirt or creases as much as its plain counterpart.

With seventies styles being so popular this year, the maxi dress is a great choice for the summer’s festivals.

Trends are great but they come and go. If you are a true follower of fashion you will need to update your wardrobe constantly to keep up with the latest fashions and trends. If everyone shopped in this way it would have a huge impact on the environment with a high carbon footprint and lots of waste.

Classic pieces of clothing are a great way to build a timeless wardrobe that will effortlessly take you from season to season on style. Most pieces of clothing that have earnt ‘classic’ status have done so for a really good reason. They are usually incredibly flattering and wearable pieces. But if you are worried you will look dated in classic clothes, don’t be. You can pick out some amazing modern classics that combine timeless style with a modern twist. You can also keep your look on trend by adding fashionable accessories. Here are our favourite 4 modern classic pieces.

Sheath Dresses - the sheath dress is a style which has been made popular by Victoria Beckham. It is simple but very stylish and suitable for an range of different occasions.

The Wide Legged Trousers - these are such a flattering cut of trousers, they will never go out of fashion. Whilst peg legged, skinny and harem trousers have come and gone out of fashion wide legged trousers have remained a firm favourite with so mnay stylish women.

The Classic Blazer - you really  can’t go wrong with a classic cut blazer. It is one of the most stylish and flattering pieces of clothing that you can own. Wear with jeans for a casual look or tailored trousers for work. You can even wear with a little dress for the evening.

Floral Shift Dresses - bright florals, romantic florals and ditsy florals all come back into fashion year after year. Pick yourself a simple shift dress for the most timeless style.

Classic clothing is also great for swapping, buying and selling second hand.

Which classic pieces do you love?

The great thing about swapping and buying second hand clothes is that although you might not be buying the latest designer collection, if you know what to look for you can find some great pieces that work perfectly with the seasons new fashion.

Get some fashion inspiration for your swapping and shopping with these 5 trends for SS11.

Stripes - stripes are one of those looks that are always on trend. For SS11 they featured heavily in the Prada collection, a sure sign that they are going to be huge for SS11.

Floral Prints - another look that never really goes out of fashion floral prints just keep on coming back. There were some amazingly bright and colourful prints featured on the catwalk at D&G for SS11.

Bright Colours - the perfect way to get yourself noticed bright colours were the perfect contrast the neutral colours that have become so popular recently. Look out for neons and juicy citrus colours to brighten up your spring wardrobe.

Maxi Skirts - hemlines will be moving downwards for the spring with long ankle length and mid calf length skirts and dresses. As maxi dresses have been popular for some time now there are likely to be some great second hand choices available.

The Seventies - the seventies will have a huge influence o Spring fashion with flare, maxi’s and pussycat bow blouses all featuring. Also watch out for that Studio 54 disco style.

For more ideas on trends for the season ahead check out www.theshoppingforecast.com

Christmas is such a happy time of year when we get time off work and time to spend with friends. The chances are that you will also recieve a fair few presents and possibly some that you are never going to wear or use. When it comes to clothes, it ca be very difficult to buy for some one else and wrong sizes and inappropriate styles are just two of the problems that you may encounter.

There is an element of guilt involved in not liking or wearing a piece of clothing that some one has given you as gift which often results in them being stored in the wardrobe for a few years before being thrown out or donated to charity. If a piece of clothing that has been given to you doesn’t fit, it is always worth checking to see if the reciept has been kept allowing for an exchange. Another idea is to swap it or sell it on Posh-swaps.com. That way you don’t really lose out, you get a great piece of clothing in exchange and if anyone asks you can just say you swapped it because it didn’t fit.

Set up an account today and list your unwanted Christmas presents (clothes and accessories only) for free on Posh-swaps.com now.

Image- Pussycat Bow Blouse

The two latest trends around in the fashion world at the moment is Clothes Swapping- clothes swapping parties and clothes swapping websites. The idea of clothes swapping is for us ladies to be able to update our wardrobes, on a budget and by doing so, helping the environment as you are recycling rather than throwing away clothes and buying new ones. But which one is the better one to do?

With a clothes swap party, you can make it in to such a fun time, allowing you to socialise with people. You can invite your best friends, your work colleagues, and even your neighbours and ask them to bring a friend with an armful of clothes, so that you have even more choice and the chance to make new friends as well. You will have the opportunity to see clothes up close, and if there is a designated changing area, then you also get the chance to try items on. However, no matter how many people do come to your house/party, the choice will be almost nothing compared to what you will find on a website. Your friends/neighbours/colleagues may also have different sizes to you, so what you do like may not fit you. The items are there for you to take home right away, but there could be arguments over certain popular items.

On a clothes swap website, you will have an endless choice of items from all over the world, so that this way you have more control over which items you receive in the swap. It may take a while to negotiate the swap as you may have to wait for the other-end person to come online, and if you are swapping from abroad, you may get caught up in each others’ time differences. Normally with clothes swapping, not a penny gets exchanged whereas online you may have to pay postage and packaging. However, the price of a parcel may just be worth it for that gorgeous dress that’s only available in America!

For those of us looking to update our wardrobes, there is a new craze sweeping around which could be the answer to all our shopping dilemmas- Swishing Parties. Swishing Parties are great as they don’t cost anything, you get to clear out unwanted items from your wardrobe and gain new pieces simply by swapping what you no longer need for something that you really want but what your fellow swisher doesn’t want. You can do swapping online as there are more websites appearing that are dedicated to swishing, or you can organise one in the comfort of your own home. All you will need is a few friends/neighbours/colleagues with an armful of clothes that they are each willing to trade! And because you’re not throwing away your clothes or spending money, swishing parties are environmentally friendly- even more perfect!

How to organise your swishing party:

. First round up as many friends as possible, telling them to completely empty their wardrobes and decide on what they no longer need. This can be clothing, shoes, accessories, jewellery, and bags.                           

. Next, decide on a date and venue for your party, sending out invitations/emails if necessary.

. Encourage your friends to bring along other friends so that you have a wider variety.

.You will need to think about how to organise everyone’s clothes for show, perhaps by size or by type, and use whatever space you’ve got- doors, chairs, tables etc.

Once you have organised everything, you will need to lay down a few rules so that everyone knows where they stand and that it works out fair for everyone.

. First things first- No money should ever be exchanged- all clothes are free!

. Second- Everyone must bring at least one item but can leave with as many as they like!

. Third- If two people are arguing over the same item, then toss a coin to make it fair.

. Forth- No one can claim items before the opening of the swish- it’s first come, first served!

. And finally- Whatever people take is theirs, but make sure that you are happy to give things away (although you don’t have to). To prevent people from walking out with armfuls of clothes they may never use, encourage them to try things on- perhaps create a dressing area in a room with the curtains closed and where no one can accidentally walk in!

If your party is a success, then maybe next time you could make it even bigger. Find a suitable venue such as a cafe and create posters to advertise it.

You could even try having a themed swap party. how about ski wear. Just take you old ladies ski jacket and ladies salopettes along and hope that you will come away with a lovely piece of Adidas Stella McCartney Ski Wear.

There has been a lot of talk lately about sustainable clothes and eco fashion. Every day a new brand emerges that is in some better for the environment than conventional clothing and usually more ethically produced. But with fast fashion and the culture of buying cheaply (and often unethically) made high fashion clothing still highly popular and ‘environmental green washing’ becoming the new in phrase, what really can be done to make clothing more sustainable?

At Posh Swaps we believe that there is no right or wrong way to become more sustainable, anything that we can do, no matter how small is a positive step in the right direction. But there are some things that we can do that are likely to have a more positive effect than others.

1. Buy less clothes - it is quite simple really, the less clothes that we buy, the less environmental damage is caused in their manufacture and the less waste we make. Clothes swapping is a great alternative to buying clothes. It allows you to update your wardrobe without having an impact (or a very minimal impact on the environment)

2. Buy second hand clothes- this is the most eco friendly way to buy clothes. There is no additional carbon footprint (except for transport) associated with buying new clothes. But we understand that you cannot always find exactly what you want second hand and will sometimes need to buy new.

3. Buy quality clothes that will last, where possible in Eco friendly fabrics- fabrics made from recycled materials, probably have the smallest footprint as they do not have to be made from scratch. There is also the benefit of having saved materials that may have otherwise ended up in landfill. Other eco friendly fabrics including organic bamboo, cotton and hemp are all better than their conventional alternatives but still have a carbon footprint associated with their growth and manufacture and contribute to the problem of waste so should always be bought to last.

Finally, in order to ensure that your clothing is really sustainable, you should consider its whole life  cycle:

• Buy clothes to last
• Wash and dry (or clean) in as eco friendly manner as possible
• When you no longer need them recycle by selling or donating to charity.

Posh-swaps.com was at the Southbank Centre in London on Wednesday for the Sustainable Clothing Conference and update of the Sustainable Clothing Roadmap. The conference included entrance to Estethica, London Fashion Week’s sustainable trade show, a reception and address by Environment Minister Dan Norris.The conference brought together over 200 clothing industry representatives to discuss the ethical and environmental impacts of clothing.

One year on from the first sustainable action plan in which Posh Swaps pledged to promote recycling and reuse of clothes by encouraging clothes swapping and buying and selling of second hand clothes as well as other eco fashion and sustainable clothing. A further 40 companies and organisations have signed up to the action plan including British Retail Consortium, Ethical Fashion Forum, Forum for the Future, Levis Strauss, MADE-BY, Cotton Made in Africa, RSPCA, Society of Dyers and Colourists.

Since its creation the SCAP has brought together over 40 organisations, from high street retailers, to designers and textile manufacturers to battle the environmental and ethical impacts of ‘throw away’ fashion.  Some of the biggest names in fashion are working to take actions which will make a significant difference to the environmental footprint and social inequalities which blight some of the consumer fashion supply chain.

Many of the initiatives from the original action plan are now well underway including Tesco’s new sustainable clothing range in collaboration with From Somewhere which will launch this Spring and the Oxfam ‘Clothes Exchange’ partnership with M&S.

There was also the announcement of a £3.5 million fund to be made available over 3 years by the Responsible and Accountable Garment Sector (RAGS) fund for bids from organisations who want to make the clothing business more ethical and contribute more strongly to development in poor countries.

Check out these swap parties for great winter coats.

Swish 3rd - Cancer Research

06 Mar 2010 19:00

Venue: St. Gregorys Social Club, Swarcliffe Leeds

This is the third Swish Party I will have organised; only this time this one is at a Venue!

I charge £5 for tickets and ALL PROCEEDS go to Cancer Research UK as the kind people at St. Gregorys are letting me have the room for free!

If you would like to come or donate a prize for our Raffle; please email me at nickicarney@aol.co.uk

Thanks

Nicola

Email: nickicarney@aol.co.uk

Kid Frock Harrogate

11 Mar 2010 10:00

Venue: withheld…

A SWISHING EVENTS FOR JUST KIDS CLOTHES

AGES 0-6

£6 ADMISSION FEE

FREE MAKEOVERS & NAIL TREATMENTS

RING 01423 505368

Email: info@pacaconcept.co.uk

Clothes swap party hosted by Carbootles

23 Feb 2010 19:30

Venue: The Plough, Northfields Avenue, Northfields

The FIRST BIG CARBOOTLES clothes swap of 2010!

Carbootles have hosted many a clothes swap party gaining the experience needed to make any clothes swap run smoothly enabling all guests to enjoy the clothes swap scramble! Hehe….

Please don’t hesitate to contact Christina with any questions you may have either by phone or email.

To join the Carbootles mailing list email info@carbootles.co.uk subject header ‘mailing list’. You can also join our facebook group page - just search Carbootles.

Peace out!

Email: info@carbootles.co.uk

Dr Challoners High School ‘Big Swish’

12 Mar 2010 19:00

Venue: Cokes Lane, Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire

A senior school Swishing Party for girls & parents to raise funds. All female event, entry £5, get exchange token for quality clean pressed items you bring along (max 5). Viewing from 7pm - Swish begins at 7.45pm. Girly drinks & nibbles available - great night out!

Email: committee@dchs-pa.org.uk

The Shelford Swish

12 Mar 2010 20:00

Venue: Great Shelford Memorial Hall

The Great Shelford Swish promises to be the glam, feel good event of the Spring for Cambridge ladies.

Email: alison_j_denton@waitrose.co.uk

Frugal Fashionista Clothing Swap

21 Mar 2010 12:00

Venue: Orgasmic, York

A whole new wardrobe for only £5 entry fee (pay on the day on entry)
which all goes to a great cause- the British Heart Foundation.

If you haven\’t been able to afford to treat yourself to any new fashion pieces lately because of this crazy credit crunch then this is the perfect event for you to come and cheer yourself up…..Come to enjoy a fun afternoon with friends and SWAP not SHOP!!
Clothes swap parties are a sociable, fun, exciting eco-chic way of shopping. You can refresh your wardrobes and feel fabulous with your newly exchanged finds. You and your girlfriends can be sure to enjoy an evening of fun, fashion & treats in style
Bring in your nice, quality, clean clothes, shoes, bags and accessories that you haven\’t worn for ages or simply dont fit anymore and swap then for a whole new refreshed wardrobe- it couldnt be simpler.
Drop in to the upstairs at Orgasmic Bar in York from 12 onwards to early evening time, bring in any items you want, refreshments available from the bar and you can also treat yourself to some sweet treats on sale- remember it is all in the name of CHARITY!!
Hope to see you all there!

Email: nicthechick8@hotmail.com

THE CITY SWISH

24 Mar 2010 18:00

Venue: London, South African High Commission, Trafalgar Square,

Get your stylish girlfriends together for a fabulous evening of clothes swapping, bubbly and treats! Raid your wardrobe for three gorgeous pieces that are unworn or that you no longer wear to swap for other lovely pieces in return. Friends and fashion - what a perfect evening out!

Buy tickets now at www.starfishcharity.org

Bring: Shirts, tops, skirts, dresses, jumpers, cardies, trousers, coats, jackets, shoes, handbags, necklaces or scarves simply bring them to be swapped 1 for 1 for some lovely new pieces for your wardrobe.

Don\’t bring: As we like to keep the exchange as fair as possible, please leave at home the shabby old bits that you aren’t wearing simply because they are worn out. Please bring between 3 and 10 clean quality items that you would be proud to pass on.

Why should I go? Swishing is a sociable, fun, exciting eco-chic way of shopping. You can refresh your wardrobes and feel fabulous with your newly exchanged finds. You and your girlfriends can be sure to enjoy an evening of fun, fashion & treats in style.

About Starfish Starfish Greathearts Foundation is an international development charity, aiming to bring life, hope and opportunity to children orphaned or made vulnerable by the AIDS pandemic in southern Africa. Starfish supports community based organisations providing services at grassroots level in the areas of crisis intervention, community support and building sustainable capacity. Starfish relies on the support of individuals across the globe to help provide a positive response - one child at a time. For more on Starfish information, please email ukinfo@starfishcharity.org or visit www.starfishcharity.org.

Where your money goes? This event has been sponsored by Investec so that 100% of the ticket price goes directly to the children Starfish support.

Email: alice.gilkes@starfishcharity.org

SWISH - Plymouth’s Biggest Clothes Swapping Party

26 Mar 2010 18:30

Venue: Plymouth Guildhall

SWISH - Plymouth\’s Biggest Clothes Swapping Party! TICKET ONLY event. Available in advance £8 each: 01752 492626.
Doors open at 6.30pm - Browsing from 7.30pm
SWISH countdown at 9pm!
RETAIL & BEAUTY STANDS, PERSONAL STYLISTS, CATWALK SHOWS, ENTERTAINMENT, BAR & REFRESHMENTS …PLUS…FANTASTIC MAKEOVER STAND TO HELP YOU RESTYLE & FIT YOUR OLD/NEW GARMENTS!!
Book early to avoid disappointment: 01752 492626
www.stlukes-hospice.org.uk

Email: events@stlukes-hospice.org.uk

The Pink Shoe Spring Swish

31 Mar 2010 18:00

Venue: Westminster

Spring clean your wardrobe & swap your quality cast-offs over fizz & nibbles in luxurious surroundings! To support Dress for Success, helping disadvantaged women back into work so bring an extra interview-ready outfit if you can!

Email: info@pinkshoeclub.com