Members of the Kilmuckridge community proved it’s possible to avoid fast fashion and still stay stylish at a clothes swap event organized by the Kilmuckridge Tidy Towns committee.

The event, which was the first of its kind for the committee, aimed to marry sustainability and style and was received with great enthusiasm by people of all ages. Exchange participants were asked to exchange their unwanted clothes for tokens, which they could then exchange for other donated items.

“It was 90% women’s clothing and everything was very good quality. During Covid, people were buying a lot of clothes online and sometimes they found that they didn’t meet their expectations or did not fit them It’s probably been difficult to return things or get money back for people to hang on to until now,” said Charles Mossman, Kilmuckridge Tidy Towns board member and head of the group’s sustainability projects. . “When the clothing swap happened, we could see that when people were clearing out their items, some of those unused clothes were 40 or 50 percent of what was brought in, and other people were bringing in things that they didn’t. loved more.

Several members of the Ukrainian community in Kilmuckridge came and enjoyed the event very much, Charles said.

“There was a lady celebrating her birthday that day and she managed to find a cute outfit for the day. She was thrilled.”

Although this is the first time that the Tidy Towns group has held a clothes swap in the village, Charles has taken part in such events when living in the UK.

“My wife and I belonged to a sustainable organization called Sustainable Crediton in the UK and did a number of things around sustainability, including clothing swaps,” he explained. “There is such a waste of clothes. A lot of resources are spent on making clothes and then they are used for a short time and thrown away.

The clothing swap was organized as part of Tidy Town’s sustainability initiatives. Thanks to the “excellent feedback” he has received, Charles hopes to organize another one next year.