Posh Swaps Blog

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.

A very happy New Year from Posh-swaps.com. We hope that you had a great 2009 and also look forward to lots if swapping in 2010. Here at Posh-swaps.com, we  have made a few changes to the way that you list items to make it even easier for you. You can now upload any size photograph and it will be resized to the required dimensions. Other plans for 2010 include more promotion of the site to increase out user base and the choice of clothes for swappers. We hope to promote eco fashion and sustainable style even more, keeping you up to date with the ultimate in guilt free style. We also hope to organise lots more fun clothes swap parties. Finally, we have no plans to introduce any fees throughout 2010 and beyond. Posh-swaps.com is still completely free to register, list, swap, buy and sell second hand clothes. Please let us know if you have any other ideas or feedback about the site.

The new year is a great time to swap clothes. Why not have a clear out of your wardrobe and swap anything that you no longer wear. If you have not worn something for over a year, then you will probably not wear it again.

If you have received clothes from well meaning friends and family that you just know you won’t wear, instead of leaving it hanging in your cupboard, why not swap it for something you will wear.

If your new years resolution is to lose weight, treat yourself to some new clothes in your new size by swapping your old clothes. A great new wardrobe to suit your figure for free.

Happy New Year and Happy Swapping!

Eco fashion is a bit of a trendy buzz word at the moment with so many clothing companies describing their clothing as Eco fashion. Some companies promote themselves as selling only Eco fashion whilst others have a small range of Eco fashion clothing. I would consider Eco fashion to be clothing that in someone has less environmental impact that the equivalent piece of conventional clothing. Obviously the lesser the impact the better. So how as a consumer can you decide what is important in terms of Eco fashion. Here are just a few considerations that may help.

Sustainability - this describes the use and renewal of resources. Is the clothing using resources that can not be easily replaced. This would include many synthetic fabrics which are made using oil a resource that will eventually run out. Sustainability considerations also include the use of landfill to dispose of waste. Clothes that have a longer life cycle are generally more sustainable.

Pollution- the release of chemicals both as gas, solids or liquids into the environment can be damaging to flora, fauna, Eco systems and the people living nearby. Pollution can be caused by effluent from factories where clothes are manufactured, pesticides used to cultivate cotton and dyes, chemicals washed from textiles that have been disposed of in landfill sites.

Carbon emmissions - global warming is though to be caused by the build up of green house gases. This includes both carbon dioxide produced when fossil fuels are burnt and methane released when natural textiles break down in landfill. It is important to consider how much energy has been used to manufacture a piece of clothing (its carbon footprint) this will include the energy used in transportation and again it life span. If clothes last longer, less clothes need to be made and less end up in landfill.

The environmental impact of a piece of clothing does not end with just these factors though. Through out its life a piece of clothing will probably be washed, cleaned, dried and ironed numerous times. In order to really minimise the environmental impact of a piece of clothing, you should also consider how these processes will affect the environment. For example, dry cleaning a piece of clothing will have quite a big environmental impact. A piece of clothing that dries naturally easily and doesn’t need ironing will be a good Eco friendly choice especially if washed at a low temperature.

Clothes swapping, buying and selling second hand clothes is a great option for those looking to help the environment. It increases the life cycle of each item of clothing, reduces landfill and reduces the amount of new clothes being bought therefore reducing all of those other impacts. For those living on a budget it also offers a low cost alternative to fast fashion (which is usually bad for the environment due to the way it is made and its short life cycle), that allows them to regularly update and refresh their wardrobe.

Refashioning clothes is a huge trend at the moment. It is both an economical and eco friendly way to keep your wardrobe up to date and even better it is a great way of creating unique and individual clothes that no one else will have. Recycling is already big news with recent years seeing a surge in the sales of second hand and vintage clothes as well as the phenomena of clothes swapping. By refashioning second hand and vintage clothes, fashionistas are taking it one step further and getting fresh, innovative and up to the minute clothes. Refashioning clothes is also great fun.

When you refashion your wardrobe, you just need to take any clothes that you no longer wear and change them into something that you will wear. For each piece that you no longer wear, you need to think about why you don’t wear it and what would make you more likely to wear it. For example, if you are just bored with an item of clothing, you could make it more interesting by embellishing it, if you feel it is out of date, you could change the style to something more current, if it no longer fits you or is damaged in some way, you may want to deconstruct it and then make it into something completely different.

Dying or bleaching - You can change the colour of a garment by dying or bleaching it. There are a variety of techniques that can be used to create patterns using bleach or dyes.

Shortening - you can shorten or remove sleeves, cut off jeans and shorten a dress to become a top. Depending on the look that you are trying to achieve, you can either leave the shortened edges raw or hem or finish them.

Cutting - cutting is a great way to restyle t shirts. You can cut out the neckline and cut slashes across the t shirt.

Embellishing - There are countless ways that you can embellish a garment including beading, adding trims like lace, appliqué, and embroidery.

Fitting - a piece of clothing that does not fit properly can be altered to make it fit perfectly.

Deconstructing and reconstructing - For those with more advanced sewing and dressmaking skills, a piece of clothing can be turned into something completely different by taking it apart and using the fabric or trims to create another piece of clothing.

There are so many ways that you can refashion clothes to create a really original wardrobe. You will be helping to reduce the ever growing problem of landfill and saving yourself money. Your outfits will definitely be right on trend.

picture from office.co.uk

I noticed in the Editors letter in this months copy of Elle,a mention of ‘ the Uniform Project’ an exercise in sustainability and the brainchild of Sheena Matheiken. Starting in May this year Sheena, pledged to wear the same dress every day for a year. Well actually she has seven identical versions of the exact same dress, one for each day of the week. She aimed to create a different look each day by accessorising with vintage, second hand and hand made accessories and layers. Sheena illustrates just how it can be done and creates so many different looks with the same dress and some very gorgeous and hand made vintage accessories.

Elle Editor, Lorraine Candy explains how she dresses according to her mood and found it very difficult to wear the same black dress every day when trying to replicate the excercise. I can understand completely what she is saying and think it would be incredibly difficult to wear exactly the same style of dress for a whole year, even for someone creative with their accessories.

But, the project does prove an interesting point that you do not have to constantly update your wardrobe with every new trend. It brings a new meaning to the words classic investment piece and versatile staple. It shows that if you buy quality and timeless pieces, you can look amazing and original. For those who just have to constantly update their wardrobe, there is always the clothes swap, you could even try swapping accessories.

picture from theuniformproject.com

Lots more gorgeous green goodies from our Green Chic Links partner this week- enjoy!

Factio Magazine goes to The Green Tie Ball XVIII – Over 1,500 guests attended the “greenest” event of the year that supports Chicago’s Gateway Green!
Fashion Pulse Daily finds out that it’s easy to go eco and fashionable with ultra-hip brand Degree 6.
Buying vintage designer duds from the Decadestwo Pop-Up store in NYC is a great way to be eco-chic advises (a sorta tongue-in-cheek) Fashiontribes.
Looking Sharp! found a new Pittsburgh t-shirt line that is using green practices and giving back to the community!
My Beauty Bunny is celebrating October with 31 days of cruelty-free giveaways! Over $3,000 in prizes!
Posh Swaps checks out the recycled fashion at New York Fashion Week
Who wants to Party? Learn, chat, network, WIN and PARTY? Come see about Prissy Green’s Twitter Party for Sibu Beauty!
Runway To Retail: A Video Fashion Story of Blake Standard’s Fall 2009 Look Book.

Back in February, we posted about the launch of the Government’s sustainable clothing action plan during London Fashion Week and how Posh-swaps.com is supporting the action plan by promoting and enabling the reuse and recycling of clothes through swapping, buying and selling second hand clothes.

Shared Talent India, one of London College of Fashion’s Centre for Sustainable Fashion’s (CSF) key projects of 2009 funded by Defra and supported by the Indian Government, was showcased on the Monsoon stand at Estethica at London Fashion Week. The project is one of a series of actions being implemented by the clothing and fashion sector under the Defra-led Sustainable Clothing Action Plan and Roadmap process to improve the environmental and ethical performance of clothing.

Born out of a collaboration between UK and Indian designers and London College of Fashion (LCF), Pearl Academy India and AMFI Amsterdam Fashion Institute students, the project has explored and promoted the design applications of a range of sustainable Indian textiles. Earlier this summer the group took part in a ten day workshop in Delhi to produce concepts to showcase Indian sustainable textiles and share their skills and designers and makers. After being showcased at London Fashion Week the collection will go to Indian Fashion Week in October 2009.

The award winning Shared Talent project model, developed to find transformative solutions through collaboration, has already been successfully applied to communities in Ghana and South Africa. Shared Talent India kicked off early in 2009 with a call out by the CSF for applications from UK-based designers and liaised with Pearl Academy to recruit India-based designers* to take part in the project. The designers along with selected AMFI and LCF students travelled to India to engage in a programme of activity including workshops and active design collaboration to produce concepts to showcase the sustainable textiles.

Accompanying the group were members of the Monsoon team; Head of Design, Kim Elliott commented, “This is an exciting collaboration between fashion students and designers in the UK and India which reflects our heritage and we are proud to be involved with it. The students brief for this project will showcase some quite directional design work demonstrating the fashion potential of sustainable textiles, the outcome of which will be displayed on the Monsoon stand at London Fashion Week in September.”

further information can be found on http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2009/090918b.htm

Yesterday, we were really pleased about getting a mention in the Mail on Sunday. The article which was on page 67 entitled ‘Junk? thats my wedding dress’ was about people buying, selling and swapping second hand clothes or swishing. It explains how fashionable it now is to swap, buy and sell used and second hand clothes both because of the recession and environmental reasons.

Forget the latest Chloe, Mulberry or Louis Vuitton handbag, when it comes to carrying your stuff around in sustainable style, the Posh-swaps.com bag is just what you need. Swapping is the new shopping and at a clothes swap, you will definitely need something to carry all your goodies home in. The bags which are Fairtrade accredited and manufactured in a carbon neutral factory are also so much better for the environment than carrier bags. They are long lasting, reusable and biodegradable and perfect for swapping, shopping or even school or college.

The Limited Edition Posh-Swaps.com reusable cotton bag will be given to all attendees at the First Ever Posh Swaps Clothes Swap Party on 17th September. But we are also offering users of the Posh-swaps.com website the chance to purchase one (while stocks last) at only £2 plus postage and packing.

Looking stylish and being green is so much fun. This week my Green Chic friends will show you how with posts face masks and natural hair dyes to bags and vintage clothes.

Viva Woman shares a simple homemade recipe for a DIY hydrating mask.

Thinking of dying your hair the natural way? Karissa at Prissy Green breaks down one of the most natural hair dyes on the market, and warns you! And while you are there, make sure check out her exclusive coupon for 30% off KORRES natural cosmetics!

The Fashionable Housewife wants to know if you swap clothes or have ever attended a clothes swapping party? It’s the economical way to refresh your wardrobe!

Mexico, one of our favorite eco-friendly travel destinations, is getting their very own top model! Factio Magazine checks out Mexico’s Top Model coming soon!

Looking Sharp! is going back to (grad) school with a chic and green bag.

My Beauty Bunny is giving away free Kiss Down Under goodies!

Posh Swaps tells us about the environmental implications of synthetic clothing and clothing swaps.

Bravo’s Real Housewife, Alex McCord was in Chicago to celebrate the opening of Second Time Around. Runway To Retail checks out the high-end consignment shop selling the best vintage designer merch.

picture from thefashionablehousewife.com via shesaid.com/au