Last month, Global Fashion Exchange hosted a “Swapateria” in New York. The premise was simple— our own closet can be currency. For five days, people gathered to trade gently-used clothes they no longer wear, receiving swap coins connected to blockchain technology with SPIN by lablaco, which prints unique product IDs on QR codes that are applied onto garments, in the world's first blockchain-powered 'swappable' department store concept. 

With more global swapping days on the horizon from India with Seams For Dreams, an NGO founded by Bollywood star Evelyn Sharma, to a plastic-free swap and exhibition which will be coming soon in Paris with NGO No More Plastic and ERE Foundation, to Lagos Fashion Week, swappable events showcase the opportunity to address fashion’s waste issue through collaboration and community. They also demonstrate, on a micro-scale, a sharing economy in practice but would this be possible and impactful at a larger scale?

An effective way to increase the use phase of a garment is to ensure you’re not the only one wearing it. After all, the trend-focused model encourages us to grow tired of a style after one season. Continuing to actively wear a garment for just nine months longer could diminish its environmental impacts by 20–30% and buying secondhand and vintage can reduce a garment’s carbon footprint by around 82%.

Here’s where clothing swaps can come in—while most donated clothes are sent overseas, swapping a garment in person reduces the carbon cost of shipping. It also has the major incentive of being mutually beneficial (as both parties leave with new garments they’ve chosen).

“Swapping and sharing economy is nothing new, we’ve been sharing with our friends and family members for a very long time before the commercial fashion industry,” said Patrick Duffy, founder of Global Fashion Exchange, during a CFS Seminar on swapping and digital ownership. “What works in New York City may not work in Lagos but what happens in Lagos is really important.” With this, Duffy touched on the core aspect of circularity—shared learnings. This will look different for each country and community. 

“In India, clothing swaps happen between family members but I don’t think it goes outside of that,” Seams For Dreams advisory board member, Claire Marrinan, added. “People in India feel that you have to be really careful as items of clothing may have someone else's karma in it.” Based in India, Marrinan has been encouraging a shift to circularity through the discussion of the karma of the exploitative supply chain of new clothing.

Addressing the environmental impact of the fashion industry means changing our consumption model. This includes interrogating capitalist society. By creating a sharing or swapping economy, you create a socio-economic system built around the sharing of resources that differs from the current traditional business model. Omoyemi Akerele, the founder of Lagos fashion week, reminded us of the importance of addressing overproduction during the CFS Seminar on swapping and digital ownership. “Circular fashion as a model is fantastic but I struggle a bit when it comes to fast-fashion companies, as it might still advocate for them to keep producing,” she said. “We shouldn’t overproduce in the first place.”

For Rosalie Mann, Founder of No More Plastic, circularity is not just “reduce, reuse, recycle.” She thinks instead we should replace the model with “reduce, reuse, rethink.” Along with lengthening a product’s life cycle, a focus on circularity encourages this community-minded approach that is integral to addressing our climate and ecological crisis at large. With only nine years left to prevent irreversible damage from climate change, according to the UN, embracing this new economy can’t happen fast enough.

So what’s the action?

“Less shopping, more swapping.”
— Rosalie Mann, Founder, No More Plastic

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