How to put on a clothing swap and other event organization tidbits

Last weekend, Marilis and I organized a clothing swap at Wooden apples Atelier on Parc ave in Montreal. It was really nice to throw something together that seemed to require so little struggle. Some of the events we’ve put on or helped put together in the past include:

• The Monthly Mess: eclectic artist showcase, every month
• The Assembly Art Relay: international multimedia collaborative project with performances, produced twice
• Indyish at the Fringe: podcast previews, art markets, a parade, graffiti jam, films, hiphop karaoke, fashion theatre, bands galore…
• Indyish at Pop Montreal: workshops, screenings, craft fair, show reviews

And then of course, we’re always blogging all our events to cover our methods and blogging community events to learn from them. We’ve played all the parts (curator, artist, booker, promoter, director, producer, technician, venue manager, host, reviewer) and dealt with all kinds of unexpected issues in every situation.

Putting together this clothing swap felt like ordering take-out and having it arrive in shiny plastic containers with packaged condiments and utensils. It was so liberating to feel like everything just sort of came together.

Talking to Risa afterwards, she reminded me that it’s not just a matter of contrast between large-scale and smaller events; it’s because we’ve learned to cope with managing crazy multi-venue, multi-genre projects over the long term that we know how to relax and let things work.

For a quick rundown on how it went, check Marilis’ post on her streetstyle blog.

First thing we did after coming up with the idea and talking it over with a few friends was look for a space to host the swap. We sat down with Amy, the owner of wooden apples, and shared our idea and asked some questions. She was helpful in laying out the different ways she’d swapped before and what was good about each version. We decided on the details and then parted ways.

I went home and asked my friend Conor to draw a flyer, which he was happy to help with. Once we had a jpg of the flyer, I emailed Marilis and Amy to pass it along and divide the tasks “I’ll blog it on indyish, Amy can make a facebook event, Marilis will post it on pregnant goldfish, and we’ll make a simple invitation that we can all email around to friends.” Conor got 200 copies of the flyer printed and I dropped them off at all the cafes, and boutiques around where I live. I also gave half to Marilis to cover her neighbourhood and a bunch to Serah-Marie, who was working at wooden apples that day who helped talk it up to people coming in.

By the day before the swap, there were 94 people confirmed on our facebook event, and 100-some maybes, so we knew we wouldn’t have to worry about underattendance. Now we needed to figure out how to orchestrate potentially 100 bodies in a smallish shop. Generally, we counted on about 10% of people invited and 1/3 of people “confirmed” to actually show up.

The day of the swap, I carried several garbage bags of clothes to wooden apples and started sorting as people arrived with their clothes to donate.

5286

We stamped people who brought clothes or donated $5 and asked them to come back in an hour (or to stick around the store and browse). By 2pm, people were lined up in the store waiting to get into the swapping room.

And then the madness began…

5279

5349531052955355

People took whatever they wanted and everyone went home with lots of new stuff. We counted on self-policing to make sure no one took TOO much. Although we wanted to get rid of everything, we also wanted people to be mindful of how much they had brought to the swap.

52985343

A few hours later, everyone had left and we started cleaning up. We put everything left over into garbage bags and took a cab to Le Chainon to donate it all.

5328

In the end, it cost $10 to print the flyers, $15 for snacks, and $10 for our cab. With the donations, we covered our costs and didn’t have anything left over. During the swap, Amy had a raffle for a $25 store credit, and in the end Lise won!

I got rid of tons of old stuff and my closet is so clean! I only have stuff I love now. I found a few nice things to take home (I restrained myself, I do NOT need anymore clothes) and everyone seemed really happy when they left.

We came out of the clothing swap feeling really pleased with how it all went. We’re thinking of having one each season! And now we’ve got the experience to know how to do it again…

For more indyish events, past and present.

We actually also had a clothing swap way back on Indyish Launch Weekend. I totally forgot.

All photos by Marilis.