SWAP SPOT – YOUR DYNAMIC WARDROBE

By: Mia Petersen and Natálie Vencovská

In the center of Kolding, Denmark, at the Sustainability House, is the Swap Spot - a volunteer-run clothes swapping community, created by a former SDU student Svetlana Petrova and run by Natálie Vencovská, a recent graduate of the Kolding Design School. The concept is that you can bring your no-longer-worn clothes and exchange them for preloved items from other local users. The more quality pieces you bring, the more quality pieces you can take. For each visit, you can bring up to 10 pieces of clothing or accessories that will be rewarded with points based on a “quality check” that works with factors like heaviness, material composition, or the originality of the piece. Afterward, points are assigned to the user’s account and stay there until they are spent.

Swap Spot has around 300 visits from users every month and has over 700 users in total. Along with following the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and offering an alternative to fashion purchases, Swap Spot is also a community place for diverse people to meet. Most of the volunteers are students from local universities who come to this city from all corners around the world. They are a group of slow-fashion lovers, who enjoy sharing what they no longer need and thereby prolonging the life-cycles of clothing as much as possible.

Swap Spots provides an important service by ensuring users not buy new clothes - this is a key alternative to the capitalist fashion system known, as Sara Arnold noted, as a freecycle. The freecycle starts when you want to be a part of this community. You get an account set up for free, since to use Swap Spot doesn’t require any money. It simply requires you to gift your preloved clothing and then pick any you may like in return. They also started a new concept at Swap Spot, where you can get clothing that needs a new home but also a repair, for free. This community service teaches us to take better care of our clothing and helps us see it having a longer life than we normally would because of the throw-away-culture.

As one of the volunteers, our editorial team member, Mia Petersen, has volunteered her time and used Swap Spot and loved it. She agrees that the concept is working well - you really feel that you are getting something out of your old preloved clothes, but it is also fun to go around and see your old preloved clothing hanging and then maybe next time you come they are gone. Then you know that they have gotten a new home, giving them a longer life.

Another aspect that Mia enjoyed was the thought process behind swapping, allowing her to focus on curating her own style rather than following trends, pre-determined by shop buyers and trend-forecasters only for a very short season in order to sell more. When the focus is shifted away from trending, selling too much, and prolonging the life-cycles of clothing, finding a new favourite piece will have an even more lasting effect and positive affect for the long term of one’s wardrobe and self-esteem. Mia noted that she learned a lot from Swap Spot about looking at clothing as a value action of making and enhancing personal style, rather than just following trends and generating more waste.

we are keeping it or not. Loved or preloved clothes have a long lifespan, and when you are part of a swapping community, you take better care of, and responsibility for, your clothes, long after they have served their use in your wardrobe and become a favourite in someone else’s wardrobe.

Swap Spot on instagram: @swap.spot Address: Bæredygtighedshuset / Sustainability House, Jernbanegade 3 6000 Kolding Denmark

Bios:

Natálie Vencovská is a graduate of the Design for Sustainability master's program at the Design School Kolding, with a previous fashion design background. Natalie's perspective on design lies in critical and speculative approaches applied to holistic and circular models that in practice help her to create a safe and open space for more inclusive designs. She has been running Swap Spot in Kolding for over two years.

Mia Petersen graduated from SDU with a BA in Design Culture and Economics, with a focus on fashion, and will be attending MA in Art History and Museum Curating at University of Sussex next year. She has been part of The Critical Pulse editorial Team for over two years. Mia's interest lies in communicating about sustainability and body positivity through different mediums, with a critical view to the fashion industry and its way of communicating itself.

Swapping pieces 1.0

photo by Mia Petersen

These are some of my finds at Swap Spot. Headbands, sunglasses, Sweater and a pair of pants. All for just 12 waist coins. Preloved clothing that will be loved and used by me now.

Swapping pieces 2.0

photo by Mia Petersen

These were swapped at the same time as the pieces in 1.0. A pair for shorts, headband, and a top. Beautiful finds.

A colorful mix

photo by Mia Petersen

A mix of earlier swapping. Again a good mixture of colors and preloved clothing.