HOW TO HOST A SWISHING PA R T Y
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What is Swishing? Swishing is your new favourite way to revamp your wardrobe, with no repercussions on your bank account. Pretty perfect, right? Picture this: rails full of beautiful clothes wanting a new home (your wardrobe), lines of shoes wanting a new adventure (on your feet), piles of bags waiting to be filled (and hung upon your shoulder). And what do you have to do to take these things home? It’s simple. Bring something along that you don’t use, want, or love as much anymore. And make a swap! You might bring one dress and end up with two pairs of jeans. That pair of skyscraper heels you wore once could be a new winter coat. Who knows, maybe you’ll find the entire outfit of your dreams. So what are you waiting for? Go get swishing!
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Why is Swishing important? Other than getting a brand new look, swishing is pretty good for the planet too. It keeps items in circulation, offsets shopping and stops western clothes swamping and suffocating developing world markets. Think about it. We all know how easy it is to slip into the grasps of fast fashion. But how cool is it when you find that perfect piece, and it has an entire story behind it? That’s why Futerra – the global change agency – came up with Swishing.
“Swishing gives us the perfect reason to get together, get glamourous and save the planet… one outfit at a time. Make friends over a jumpsuit. Give someone else their million-dollar look, without spending a penny. There’s nothing better!” – LUCY SHEA, CEO, FUTERRA –
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How do you throw a Swishing party?
1 –DECIDE ON YOUR DATE AND LOCATION Find a place to hold the party – this could be your house, your office, a local venue. You can either keep it small and intimate and just invite people you know OR you can make it more of a public event and invite anyone from your local community. This might also depend on the location you choose. Try and arrange your event at a time when most people are likely to be free, such as during the day on the weekend or during an early evening weekday time. 2 – CREATE YOUR INVITATIONS AND/OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS You may be planning a small, intimate event so simply message or call to invite your friends. If you are running a Swish that is open to the public make sure you send out invites with plenty of time. If digital is your thing, you can use social media, a newsletter, whatsapp or EventBrite to create and send out the invites. If you’re a lover of print, you can use the good old fashion post, print a poster or hand out flyers. Don’t forget to publish your event on Fashion Revolution events page! fashionrevolution.org/events/community/add Download the official open source branding and the brand guidelines at (insert link) to create your very own version of our posters and event invite templates. Make sure you are carefully following the brand guidelines. Follow and tag you country team, and connect with local like minded organisations to see if they can share your event on social media and put up flyers or leaflets. 04
3 – ORGANISE LOGISTICS WELL IN ADVANCE. If you’re planning a bigger event don’t try and do it alone! Enlist other volunteers to help you execute a successful event. Meet up, make plans and delegate tasks. Make sure you have enough people to cover set up and take down, to meet and greet, to help with orientation throughout the event and to give guidance on how the Swish will run. For smaller events you can ask friends to bring clothes along with them and then set up together. For medium sized events and if your venue permits you could screen a short film or documentary whilst you and volunteers set out the clothing. For large scale swishing events you can ask people to drop off clothes at a designated time before hand. For this you will need a drop off point and somewhere to store them. Make sure these details are included on your posters/invitation. If you are offering refreshments make arrangements for this. As well as how you are going to set out you clothes. Do you need any additional clothing, hangers or rails or mirrors? You can print out and display Fashion Revolution posters, quotes and infographics and you could even create a selfie booth where people can take action using Who Made My Clothes posters to ask the brands they find at the swish #whomademyclothes.
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So how does the swish work? Like all things swishing, it’s simple. And there are only five rules to follow...
The Rules of the Rail 1. Everyone must bring at least one item of clothing.
2. You will have half an hour to browse before the swish opens.
3. No item may be claimed before the swish opens.
4. As soon as the swish is declared open, everyone may take what they want.
5. It’s a party, not a riot. That means fun, friendly and polite!
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What happens after you swish? Share, share share! Swishing gets better the more people know about it. Share your event across social media, take photos, post videos, show the world what you came away with. (NB If you are planning to take photos and to share on social media, please make participants aware and give them the options to decline from being featured before sharing their images) Keep an eye on the time, try and engage with every individual. Share information on how people can sign up for the Fashion Revolution newsletter, follow the @fash_rev handles on social media or sign the Fashion Revolution Manifesto. Follow the swishing movement on Twitter @swishing Tag your photos with #swishing and #fashionrevolution
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This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Fashion Revolution and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.