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Do you constantly feel pulled between your desire to change your wardrobe every season and being environmentally responsible? How about a magical wardrobe that evolves every season making sure that your previous season’s clothes do not end up in a landfill? The magician who makes it possible is Ghislaine Walker, the designer / stylist who takes sustainability and circular economy out of conference room jargon and makes sure it becomes a happy social routine for you.
There's a deceptively simple concept that is not new. Clothes swaps as social events in local spaces that are easy to access to add a very different aspect to how we see our wardrobes. Every individual is able to walk in with 5 of their good quality clothes that they might not be wearing anymore. While your clothing goes on the rack immediately, with a payment of a small amount as an entry fee to the event, you walk away with 5 other fantastic pieces of clothing (placed on the rack by other sustainable fashion enthusiasts) of your choice. Add to it the pleasure of meeting new, like-minded people and a renewed wardrobe without having to feel guilty about it. And the fact that your beloved piece of clothing that you were not able to use for some reason is now being cherished by someone else, and not rotting itself in the dark corner of a cupboard. We had a candid chit-chat with Ghislaine over two sessions, here are some excerpts from the conversation:
How did you come up with the idea of 'Evolving Wardrobe'?
I have been a stylist by profession in my other venture, ‘Tales in Style.’ We've embraced this fast fashion environment, but how can we move away from feeling ,’ Oh, what - I'm only going to be acceptable at this function if I have something new’ or ‘Oh, I'm only going to be properly dressed for work if I wear this particular kind of thing which so and so is wearing’. Wouldn't it be great to actually wear what makes each of us look our very best? It was then I realized how dysfunctional our relationship with our clothes has become, ending in excess, both materially and psychologically. This, in effect, gave birth to my recent venture, ‘The Evolving Wardrobe’. The goal was to provide a fun way of keeping good clothes out of landfills while helping clients to start exploring the relationships they have with their clothing.
You've taken up a very tough task. You are trying to bring about a behavioral change, a change in attitude, and that's one of the most difficult things to do! Skills can be taught, but behaviors and attitudes are difficult to change, and so one thing I want to ask is how it all began.
I was a student in the 80s and my friend introduced me to second-hand clothing. Since then, I've been exploring pre-loved items. To start with, they were just some of my little treasures that I wore and it was nice to tell people about the fact that ‘Oh I bought this jacket from there’ and so on. Once I became aware of the environmental crisis, which was many years later, I realised the connection - how clothing is contributing to this environmental crisis.
I was working for Kew Gardens, and that's when I began using storytelling to create behavioural change. So I became more aware of how you can use stories in a way that is more powerful than a lecture. Yes, and that was the point at which I started to actually realise the power of the stories a piece of clothing has. As time has gone on, my own wardrobe is organized exclusively now either clothes that have been made by somebody or I research the company from which my clothes come, or my clothing is bought second hand!
What were your early experiences with upcycling?
I believe the beginning was probably with my grandmother who was blind but she came from a tradition of always mending things and she always had to do something with her hands. So she was always mending and when she became blind most of her work had to be redone and it upset her, so I learned to knit; and so by putting right the products that my grandmother had made and it literally began there. I've actually realized that my mother was also a creator so I spent a lot of time around her and when I finally left home I'd already developed this love for clothes.
Tell us an interesting story about one of your clothing swap events.
A friend came to one of the first swaps and she had brought clothing for swap that was really beautiful. But she was actually a little bit worried to part with, so she put it on the rail kind of still unsure. One of the beauties of the venue as it happened was that we had a communal changing room. While this friend of mine was trying out another ensemble, she noticed this other woman trying out her thing; it was a dress and it looked stunning on this other person and instantly my friend felt so happy! When she told me that, I shared this story on social media. Again (shiver down spine), my friend said she felt free now. This is absolutely what I hoped for.
What are the typical challenges you face in your clothing swap events?
The second swap we had a friend who brought his wife. She was probably not very convinced about the idea of parting with her clothes even though she was not using them. She did bring 5 pieces of clothing with her and they all were absolutely exquisite. One of them was the coat in purple, it was just gorgeous! And there was a lady in the group who was a very kind and skilled woman. She tried that coat and she looked stunning. However, I could see that the original owner of the purple coat was not very happy about this lady wearing the thing. So there was a really uncomfortable dynamic going on there. I still see this beautiful garment being worn on our high street in Twickenham with a confident sashay!
I tell my visitors to the event up front that it's an exchange. You can usually tell from someone's body language if they're unsure about going ahead. I have one occasion where I had to remove an item from somebody because someone challenged it and said, ‘Those are my trousers & I've changed my mind.’ I left this conversation between those two people, and the other woman was like, ‘Oh, of course’; she was fine about it. So, I try to pick up the body language of someone who's not certain, and I will say to them - if you're not sure that you want to go ahead with the swap today, you can take your clothes back and maybe bring it back to the next swap. Only bring over the pieces that you really no longer wear & don't have a relationship with. Of course I only want happy stories unfolding on these events.
I do think that actually parting with one’s clothes is not that simple; you actually have an emotional contract with those clothes. One of the things that I love about my early swaps was when a guest encouraged people to say 'thank you' to their clothes when they bring them for the swap and that's really powerful. So I think once you said thank you to something and handed it over, then maybe what happens is that the contract between the individual and the piece of clothing is over!
Clothing Swap Events @ The Evolving Wardrobe by Ghislaine Walker
How are cloth swaps different from giving clothes away to charities?
What happens with the charities embracing second-hand clothes is actually that they have unwittingly become part of the problem. While giving clothes to charities, we have changed some of our behavior to replace the desire for the new, expecting to go to the charity shops and get things cheaply! So a lot of people are of that mindset, which is,’ Well, I'm not damaging the planet because I bought my designer dress from a charity shop’. So seeing the donation as a replacement for shopping guilt has to a degree, added to the problem. Donating clothes to charity shouldn't be an easy way to dump unwanted items in order to move on to the next shopping spree. Doing this only adds an extra stop along the way to landfill for poor quality items.
How have you managed the economics of ‘Evolving Wardrobe’ swap events?
We started with charging an entry fee to the event which was between 5-8 pounds in the beginning, depending on if someone pre-booked or bought the ticket on the door. So what happens is you pay this entry fee, walk in with your 5 pieces of clothing, put them on the rail, and receive 5 tokens. You can then look around at the collection and exchange your tokens with some other 5 pieces of your liking. We arrange for some changing rooms and mirrors so that you can try on these clothes before you make a final decision. Someone might walk in with 5 sets of clothes and are happy to go back with just 2 or 3. In this case, the leftover clothing becomes part of our next swap event. So if someone might like to pick more than 5 pieces, they can offer a price for the 6th piece and so on! The amount collected from the entry fee goes into arranging for the venue rent, food and other logistics for the event. We are not making any profits at the moment but as the event becomes more popular, higher footfall will fill the revenue gap. Some pieces remaining after swaps are good enough to sell through a small retail space in a local community marketplace. These are competitively priced, and the proceeds intended to contribute towards setting up The Evolving Wardrobe as a CIC social enterprise.
Think of The Evolving Wardrobe as an agency bringing environmental change but on the sidelines, as it is also meant to be a profit-making organization. Was it conceptualized as a business, a social enterprise, or a non-profit?
I do believe that for businesses to survive, they have to make a profit. What they choose to do with that profit is really important, and I'm not making any of it at the moment. However, I believe it will be possible with the right team to run workshops simultaneously that support this behavior change, and the initiative will become more sustainable—ideally, workshops run by people who have this really strong connection with what they want to do. At the moment, I don't have sufficient funding to be paying for workshop leaders that will start to become something, and then the story grows, and that's the point. I think that will be the tipping point in bringing behavioral change.
Where do you see this initiative going in future?
I think initiatives like these can go a long way in championing not just environmental issues but also mental health and well-being issues in the local communities. With this venture, I’ve now got a pool of people interested in regenerative fashion and regenerative economics. We want to set up some kind of physical hub in this area, bringing together people who are working basically towards the same purpose, which is still loving clothes, still loving fabric, still loving craft and activities but not in the need to consume, rather to create. The idea to explore if a piece of textile craft can have another life. So that when something is worn out, how easy it is to break it down into something so that it can be reused; or possibly taking the knees out of your jeans and just replace it with the patch; and giving people the skills so it's quite broad! What I'm doing at the moment and in a way to be a bit crazy about kind of exploring all these different ideas. I think I've got the luxury to explore these ideas. At the moment, I don't know if any of that makes sense, but that’s the direction I am thinking into.
OMEMY take: Evolving Wardrobe is a revolutionary project in the complex times we are living today. While we might have more disposable income to spend on fast fashion than ever, our environmental currency is depleting fast! However, it would still take a lot of daring to step out of social constructs & prejudices to be able to embrace this kind of change in our clothing habits. Nevertheless, the concept can make a huge mark in big, metropolitan cities that have more working and fast-moving populations, as it is easy to fight against social constructs with a veil of anonymity.
But every revolution doesn't have to be of a vast social scale. We can make a small start by finding our own ‘swap buddy’, with whom we are comfortable swapping clothes as and when we want to refresh our wardrobe. Let’s face it: shopping for clothing is done more for psychological reasons than reasons of actual need. Let’s find ways to overcome this boredom with existing clothes by just ‘swapping’ them with another buddy or in an event……don’t replace your wardrobe every time; just evolve it!
Bringing this story to you is our sincere effort to advocate the cause of sustainable living. It would be rewarding to know if this story could inspire a few people to start such initiatives in their own communities. You could leave your comments and star review in the comments box at the end of this page!
About the Author:
Personal Stylist & Regenerative Fashion Activist.
Ghislaine brings a long-held love for good clothes together with experience in both environmental education and storytelling. Having trained with the London College of Style, she is now working locally with clients who share her belief that it is possible to dress well through mindful, conscious choices. The concept of an evolving wardrobe has grown out of this work. ghislaine@talesinstyle.com
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