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Clothes swapping a new trend in fashion
Ready to wear: Clothes are on display at a clothes swap event in Central Jakarta
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eady to wear: Clothes are on display at a clothes swap event in Central Jakarta. Clothes swapping is an alternative for people who want to have “new clothes” without buying new ones.(Courtesy of Imanzah Nurhidayat)
A new trend in the go-green movement is on the way, and it might be a fashion revolution.
Clothes swapping or mindfully opting for used clothes, instead of buying new ones, for the sake of environmental sustainability are some of the new phenomena that some people are trying to make into a lifestyle.
One such person is 21-year-old fashion designer Hayuning Sumbadra, who refrains from buying new clothes.
Hayuning had always given clothes she no longer used up for donation or to her relatives, but then she found out about a clothes swap event on Monday evening at KeKini coworking space in Cikini, Central Jakarta, and decided to bring five items of clothing to swap at the event.
“I wanted to get ‘new’ clothes without buying new ones and I want to enliven this clothes swap movement as well,” Hayuning told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Although she took along five pieces of clothing, she only swapped one as there were not too many people at the event.
“I still had four things I could swap sometime in the future,” Hayuning said.
The Fashion Revolution Indonesia movement introduced clothes swap events for people who want new clothes without buying, which can quickly use up storage space and is more wasteful.
Fashion Revolution Indonesia activist Imanzah “Iboy” Nurhidayat said clothes swaps encouraged people to reduce their consumption and in turn their waste.
“With clothes swaps we are trying to change perceptions about how to make the environment better by not generating waste,” Iboy told the Post on Tuesday.
He said there were also eff orts from the industries, including fashion, to lessen their environmental impacts through environmentally friendly technology research, but that might take time to be implemented.
“On the other hand, [we can also] stop [overconsumption], which can reduce waste,” Iboy said, adding that clothes swapping was one of those eff orts.
He said that around 30 items of clothing were collected for swapping on Monday, and that by next week a locker would be installed at KeKini coworking space for people who wanted to swap their clothes with others.
Swappers must fill out a form describing their clothes. They then get a token that can be exchanged for other clothes or kept until they find what they want.
Iboy said the organizer would keep the clothes lockers at Ke- Kini for around six months to gauge people’s interest in clothes swapping.
He said clothes swapping was also a business model experiment for a sustainable fashion practice.
“You could also think of a clothes swap as a store that sells clothes [with the clothes as currency] based on a membership or rental system, not a consignment store,” Iboy said.
Hayuning said she was glad that clothes swaps had become available in Jakarta.
“I hope everyone can slowly refrain from shopping for clothes too much,” she said.
