North Texas Daily

Upon arrival at Studio One16, a specialty salon and barber shop located off of the Square, customers were told to go to the back for the clothing swap. There, they were greeted with a vast array of clothing all organized by size, smiling employees and many bags of clothes ready to be sorted.

Starting the swap

A pop-up clothing swap is an event where people bring in their clothing, accessories, shoes, purses, jewelry and more that they either do not wear or do not like anymore. They trade it in for clothing and accessories brought in by other people. Amanda Sweet, producer for her own business Culture Creator, had been doing clothing swaps with her friends since she started buying clothes.

“Basically you’re trading your closets or cleaning up space and also revamping your wardrobe,” Sweet said.

When Sweet got older, her friends who got apartments would throw big pop-up clothing swap parties.

“My friends and I would be like, ‘I never wear this anymore,'” Sweet said. “‘I’m trying to throw it away, get rid of it. Take what you want, and then I’ll donate the rest.'”

Sweet has seen a lot of clothing swaps on Instagram in big cities.

“A lot of times it’s fashion bloggers, or it’s people [who] have an excess amount of clothing and want to make connections and network,” Sweet said.

Accessories available to be swapped during the pop-up clothing event at Studio One16. Emily Olkkola

Sweet and Studio One16

After recently moving to Denton, Sweet approached Studio One16 to host a pop-up clothing swap as part of a collaboration with the specialty salon and barbershop, as Sweet also does photography.

“I was like, ‘This is the perfect event that I could host at a venue to meet people,'” Sweet said.

Studio One16 agreed to host the pop-up clothing swap. The first one occurred on May 20, 2018. Another swap, entitled “Pop-Up Clothing Swap #backtocool,” was recently hosted by Studio One16, this time including children’s clothes because school was starting back up.

“Part of the reason why I wanted to do [a pop-up clothing swap] was because I had so much stuff in my closet, and I didn’t know of anyone else that was doing it already,” Sweet said. “So I was like, ‘Why not do a swap? Why not just put myself out there in that way?'”

Clothes that were lightly worn and clean were accepted to the pop-up clothing swap.

“But also there are people who like to craft, so if you have pieces that are kind of like crummy, you could put them in a separate bag,” Sweet said.

With a bag of clothing and other accessories, the price was $10 to participate in the general clothing swap or $15 to participate and also explore the VIP section which included higher-end clothing and accessories. With no bag to swap clothing, the price was $20 to participate. Once the price was paid, participants could grab as many pieces of clothing, shoes, and accessories as they wanted.

“I’m always open to not really being conservative about trends or styles or anything like that,” Sweet said. “I’m super open because to somebody it might be out of style, but to somebody else it might be like the best thing they have ever seen.”

At the first pop-up clothing swap, Sweet and Studio One16 both offered a glam photo shoot that one participant could win. She and Studio One16 offered the glam photoshoot giveaway again for the most recent pop-up clothing swap. Two 10 percent off coupons and one 20 percent off coupon for services at the salon were also given away.

Three vendors, Tenaga Jewels with Monique Martinez, Mariah Smith and Circa 77 Vintage, attended the pop-up clothing swap with slightly discounted prices.

“We wanted to give the opportunity to local artists and people that do sell clothing or do sell accessories or art or whatever to sell to a different demographic than say like, the marketplace, or have to go through a big company to do it,” Sweet said.

Mariah Smith, a social media marketer, blogger and Creative Consultant for Studio One16 and product stager and photographer for Million Dollar Rustic, 22, on Facebook Live during the pop-up clothing event at Studio One16. Emily Olkkola

No clothes left behind

Everything that was not swapped, used, or sold in the pop-up clothing swap was donated to Denton County Friends of the Family which, according to their site, “is dedicated to providing compassionate, comprehensive services to those impacted by rape, sexual abuse, and domestic violence, while partnering with our community to promote safety, healing, and prevention.”

Rain Sprague, full-time special effects makeup artist, also attended the pop-up clothing swap.

“They are a great organization, and we know that our clothes will go to good use there,” Sprague said. “They always have people of all ages coming into that charity, so we’re hoping that we can donate the rest to them.”

There was an attempt to donate all of the clothing from the first pop-up clothing swap. However, a lot of the clothes were in the back of Sprague’s car, which got stolen.

“But, we’re very excited,” Sprague said. “We had a bunch of clothes last time to donate — just bins and trash bags full after everybody came and picked everything they wanted up. We’re very, very excited about it.”

Sweet said most recent pop-up clothing swap was able to raise over 20 filled bags of clothes, bags, accessories, shoes, toys, books and more to Denton County Friends of the Family.

Looking toward the future

Sweet is working with Studio E and Studio One16 to host a Halloween public swap.

“It’s going to be a little bit different,” Sweet said. “We’re going to have like arts and crafts available, so you can build your costume for the party we’re going to have later that night.”

Featured Image: A participant looking at a fuzzy, hooded snowman sweatshirt during the pop-up clothing event at Studio One16. Emily Olkkola