How to find your personal style at a clothing swap.

So, you’re coming to swap at a transitional time in your style: you’ve entered a new stage in your life, and the clothes you have right now just don’t work for you anymore. Whether you’re transitioning from kid to young adult, school to career, career to motherhood, motherhood back to career, career to retirement, masc presentation to femme presentation, you’re dressing a newly sized body, or you just… never really bothered with a personal style before now. Here’s some tips on how to come prepared to find clothes you’ll love for the you that you are right now.

 

First, do a little research. Get your color season typed, if you can’t have it done professionally you can use an online quiz or photo analysis: https://coloranalysistech.com/what-season-am-i

 

Knowing your Kibbe body type will also help you know the kind of cuts and styles you’ll want to look for: https://www.kibbe-body-types.com/

 

Next, you’ll want to think about where you’ll be wearing the clothes you pick up, and what you’ll be doing while wearing them. First, take a survey of what you do have in your closet as you’re putting your swap donation bag together, so you know what you already have. Then, think about the kinds of clothes you need in your wardrobe - do you need more gym clothes? More pajama pants and t-shirts your baby can crap out without you feeling guilty? Clothes that are actually cute to wear to the park or the grocery store, but that your baby can crap out without you feeling guilty? More clothes to wear to the office? More clothes for date nights? Something more modest to wear to church? A dress to wear as a wedding guest? Feel free to make this your ideal wardrobe, if you find the perfect outfit to wear to your dream concert, or on your dream vacation, take it! It’s free! Make a place to wear it!

 

Now, I know a lot of people hate “following trends,” but I find staying up on what’s current in fashion, and then incorporating what I like in my own way and with what I already own or what I find at swap or while thrifting I find this keeps my look fresh and current while not following a cookie-cutter aesthetic. That kind of thing is dying out in favor of more long-term wardrobes of favorite pieces, anyway, hooray! So, if you’d like to participate in some current trends, keep an eye out for these kinds of items while you're swapping, and see if you like wearing them. I can tell you from the experience of many swaps that these are items that are very commonly found on the swap tables.

 

• The color teal.

• The color deep chocolate brown.

• The color olive green.

• Shades of off-white.

• Bold floral patterns.

• Structured blazers, especially in bold colors, or timeless fabrics like tweed.

• Lace.

• Denim. It seems to be a free-for-all right now. Wide legged styles are still preferred, but skinny jeans are starting to come back into style, and so are 2000's style low-rise bootcuts. The only thing that seems to be universally "out" with denim is distressing, but that doesn't mean you can't get creative with patchwork and stitch work to mend them if you find them, and have a unique, wearable art piece.

• Khaki with unusual color pairings.

• Polka dots.

• Stripes; particularly rugby shirts, and colorful stripe patterns.

• Athletic wear worn with non-athletic wear pieces.

• Casual layering with light, functional pieces.

• ​Dressing up to go out, especially if you're hitting the clubs.

• Brooches.

• Fashion scarves.

• Heavily layered jewelry.

• Large statement jewelry.

• Either very large, or very small purses.

• Flat, leather shoe styles, like loafers, moccasins, and boat shoes.

• Knee-high boots, especially with some slouch.

 

Feel free to use an app like pinterest.com to create yourself a fashion vision board, especially if you’re a very visually-oriented person. Just remember that we’re going for inspiration, not to fully copy a look. Take note of what makes the outfits you find appeal to you - is it the use of the colors, or the patterns, or the layering pieces, or the cuts of clothing? You don’t need to find the exact piece the Pinterest model is wearing to re-create the look, that would be nearly miraculous. But you likely can find something with the same shape, or color, or general style that would re-create the look, with your own unique twist.

 

Now, when it comes to the DIY aspect, another fashion rabbit hole you can fall into on Pinterest and the like - if you have ever seen a clothing re-fashion tutorial for something you’d love to wear, but it requires disassembling clothing to re-assemble into new clothing, and you just don’t have that kind of clothing to waste? Remember, you can take limitless free clothes home from this swap. Do you find something that would be just perfect for cutting up into something else? Do it. You’re not out anything.

 

Also, remember that free means that your budget for tailoring got a lot bigger. You can bring your swap clothes to a professional to have them custom fit to you, or follow an online tutorial and learn a new skill. Again, you’re not out any money if you screw it up beyond repair while you’re learning. So, if you try something on at the swap and it’s not quite right, that doesn’t mean it’s not the piece for you, if you can see how it can be easily tailored to fit you. Same goes for if the piece you find needs minor repairs, like a split seam re-sewn, or a stain removed (a half & half mixture of hydrogen peroxide and Blue Dawn dish soap on the stain overnight before washing as usual should take care of that, though you may want to spot test it on the material first before tackling the stain).

 

So, come ready to swap! Know what you’re looking for - while having an open mind about what you find, as well. Remember, if you take it home and you don’t like wearing it, we do this twice a year! Bring it back to swap again!

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Want to host your own free swap, for any physical items you want to exchange? Message Katrina on Signal with any questions you have on how to run a swap, she has lots of experience with swap coordinating, and would love to help more swaps get started!