how do you have a fashion exchange party?

you invite all your girlfriends, cheer squad, girls from where you work, from the soccer team... wherever. the more the better because it's more stuff! before the party, everyone goes through their closets and pulls out everything they want to get rid of. then everyone brings their "get rid of's" to the party. it's meant to be fun and positive, so be good spirited, only invite girls you trust, don't take anything that's not yours, haha, and don't fight over anything sillies... it's just clothes :D.

why it's awesome...

• all the clothes are FREE. how could that be not awesome.
• you'll take risks! your friends may buy things you wouldn't necessarily ever pick out - but since you have nothing to lose, you may take risks and trade for some clothes outside of your predictable style.
• your friend may finally get bored of that adorable dress you've been envy-stalking in her closet for months, and now it could be yours!
• it will motivate you to actually get rid of the clothes you're clinging to for no reason and revamp your style.
• it's an amazing way to recycle fashion. clothes that were sitting in your closet forever could now have a second fashion lifetime with another girl!
• it can end in charity! when we were done exchanging, we collected all the things noone wanted and took it all to The Salvation Army.
• it was honestly SO fun. we had 11 girls, and none of us had ever done anything like it, so it was new and exciting!

what you need for the party....

of course you want it to be fun, so bring food, drinks, have music, and make it a fun environment for sure. for the actual exchange part, here is a list of things you'll need...

stickers

have every girl bring a set of stickers that will represent their "i want this" items. make it fun... bring cartoon characters, hearts, stars. we had Hello Kitty, Invader Zim, Disney Princesses, etc. keep them small though, because you'll be using them to mark the things you want.

mirrors

have anyone that has a portable wall mirror bring one. that way everyone can check out what their trying on.

reusable shopping bags

bring bags to take your goodies home in!.

clothes racks

you're going to need something to hang the clothes on. have each girl bring either a clothes drying rack with hangers, or two folding chairs with a rope, and we even had an actual clothes line in the back yard.

safety pins and post its

before you bring your stuff to the party, safety pin a post with your name on it on every item, so everything stays organized.

how it all goes down...

1. every girl sets up their stuff to give away in their own section. keep the sections spread out so you don't mix stuff up.

2. then, you all go around and check out each other's goodies! try stuff on, tell each other how cute you look, and so on haha.

3. whenever you see something you like, put one of your stickers on the back of the post it on the item. that lets the girl know you want to trade something for it.

4. once everyone has gone around, every girl sees who they have trade matches with, and the trading starts!

5. there isn't an exact science to it, so don't be stingy, don't take it too serious, and you may not get everything you want, but it's supposed to be FUN, so relax and go with the flow :D.

fun fun fun!

at the end of the party, you'll have some cute new stuff, and maybe even some new ideas, so get some girlies together and try your own fashion exchange party!