Written by Hannah Westwood
Welcome to the first post in our slow fashion series! We will be bringing you a range of blog posts on how to cut down on fast fashion without missing out on buying clothes. As always, the most sustainable things you can wear are the clothes you already own. However, cutting down on fast fashion does not mean you have to stop buying new (or pre-loved) clothes entirely. This series will cover our favourite ways and top tips for cutting down on fast fashion whilst still being able to buy some clothes. Remember though, even when buying clothes in a more sustainable way, you should think about how much wear you will get out of an item - if you are only going to wear it once, do you really need to buy it? Can you borrow it from a friend or make do without?
This blog post is about swopped.co.uk, a clothes swapping marketplace. The premise of Swopped is that you send in your high quality clothes to them and get credits. You can use these credits to buy other clothes on their website which have been swapped in by other people. The website is subscription based, with different levels depending on how many clothes you want to send in each month. You can pause or cancel your subscription at any time whilst still being able to access your credits and the shop. The best thing about Swopped is that not only can you get yourself some new clothes, but you can also give clothes you no longer wear a second life!
How does it work?
Depending on your level of subscription, you can send in either 1, 5 or 10 items a month. The only costs to you are your subscription fee and the price of postage to send your items in. Once you start ordering clothes from the website you will get free delivery, and if you want to return the item, the cost of the return postage can be claimed back in credits after your first month of subscribing. If you don’t have any items to send in on a particular month then you can cancel your subscription. You can also browse the shop without being subscribed, so you can find out if there’s anything you like before committing.
One of my favourite features of the website is that you can get your clothes valued before sending them in and make sure you are happy with the valuation before committing, there’s no obligation to send them in if you don’t want to. I got 12 items valued and picked the 10 I wanted to send in for the first month. To get your items valued all you have to do is describe it, send in a picture of the front and back and select what condition it is in. I was very impressed with how easy the process was, and how quickly my items were valued. The credits were in my account as soon as the parcel had been received by Swopped.
Once you have the credits you can start ordering clothes whenever you want with free delivery. The clothes I ordered were with me in 4 days (including the weekend!). They came in fully recyclable packaging (even the tape!) and Swopped encourage you to reuse the packaging when sending more items in. Just this week, Swopped announced that they are switching from recyclable paper packaging to compostable bags which again, they encourage you to reuse before composting them.
The items I ordered were as described and in really good condition. They all fit really well and I’m very pleased with them! I will definitely be continuing to use Swopped and think the concept of it has been executed really well.
Pros
Recyclable/compostable packaging
Quick service
You don’t have to wait for your items to sell to receive the credits to buy new items
You can swap out an item for an event and swap it straight back in once worn - if it’s within 30 days it won’t even count towards your monthly swapping limit
You can return items if they don’t fit or don’t suit you
‘Try before you buy’ - you can look at what is in the shop and get your items valued before paying for membership, so you can decide if it is for you before committing
Cons
You can only spend the credits on items on the website and they cannot be exchanged for money
There is (usually) only one of each item so you have to get in quick if you see something you like!
Currently only available for women’s clothing
Overall Conclusion
My experience with Swopped has been great so far and I’d definitely recommend to anyone who has some good quality items in their wardrobe that they just don’t get the wear out of any more. I also think it would be a great website if you have a lot of events you are going to where you want an item that you’re likely to only wear once as you can swap out and then swap it back in once you’ve worn it. If you want to find out more about them, head to swopped.co.uk. Let us know if you give it a go!
*Plan-It Change is not affiliated with Swopped and the opinions stated on the article are those of the author*
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