Naked baby party, anyone?

Renee and I spent a glorious day at the Green Sprouts Festival yesterday hosting a clothing swap. Tons of people came through with bags of outgrown baby, kid and maternity clothes (some still had price tags attached!) and swapped them for clothing brought in by others, who swapped for clothing...and on and on. It was a hit! Nearly everyone asked, "When are you doing this again?" After about the 20th inquiry, Renee and I started talking about doing another one and investigating whether other folks hold clothing swaps throughout the year. It is such a great way to keep clothing in the community, prolong its lifetime and usefulness, save some money, and know that your outgrown clothes are headed to a local family who in turn have passed on their clothing.

Just think: if everyone stopped buying new clothes for a year, do you really think we'd be walking around naked? We have way more clothing than we need (c'mon, you know you do). It's not that I want to put Calvin Klein out of business, but really, manufacturing new clothes -- for the most part -- is really, really hard on the environment. The growing of non-organic cotton (heavy pesticides and major soil erosion), the emissions, and don't even get me started on the working conditions of overseas factories. We are seeing more organic cotton and bamboo clothing; progressive, sustainability-minded companies like Portland's Nau; and stores like Hoot-N-Annie, which operates on an exchange basis rather than a traditional consignment store. But there's a long, long way to go.

So, clothing swaps are a great, local means for getting new-to-you clothing without any cost to Mother Earth. Have you ever attended one? We heard that the Sunnyside neighborhood has held them before, and it would be soooo easy to organize one on a smaller scale, say within a mom's group, a preschool or a church. Would you be interested in attending one or organizing one? (I actually do know of one coming up next weekend, but I'm waiting to hear whether I can publicize it. Stay tuned!)

UPDATE: Well, okay! There is a group of women holding these swaps around Portland. Check out www.pdxswap.com, and get on their email list if you want to be notified of upcoming swaps. So glad someone is doing this...but there is always room for more of these swaps.