Swishing

Swishing refers to swapping an item or items of clothing or shoes or an accessory with friends or acquaintances. Parties must willingly give an item to participate in the transaction, once they have given an item they are free to choose something of interest from what others have offered. Value does not come into the equation, swappers do not necessarily get an item of equal value and are free to choose anything that the other person if offering (without having to pay). Swishing is now being more widely practiced throughout the world, and has evolved to include other items such as books and furniture. Not only do people hold 'swishing parties' either as a charity event or simply for the enjoyment of it (while recycling and saving money at the same time) but, there are several websites that have online swishes taking place.

History

Swishing (deriving from the dictionary definition of 'to rustle, as silk' - which in the eyes of the Swishing team means 'to rustle from friends') began in 2000 when Lucy Shea, founder of green PR firm Futerra and her work colleagues wanted to come up with a way to combine a love of retail shopping without contributing to increased consumption. It has since been imbursed by fashion model Twiggy in Twiggy's frock exchange, and as a result has become one of the most popular ways of swapping clothes.

Practice

A Swishing Party usually has a Swishing Host who, once the guests have arrived with their items, will lay them out around their venue. The Host sends one half of the party - depending on size of party, could be one, three, or four groups of guests - to look at the items while the other groups wait or do an activity. When an allocated amount of time has passed the groups rotate. When all guests have seen the items the Host will place everyone's names into a hat or bowl, draw them one at a time and when the guest's name is called they go claim their item. The Host waits for only a few seconds before calling out the next name. Once all the guests names are called you repeat until everyone has claimed what they wished to swish. The remainder of the items are them donated to charity by the Host.

There are many different variations - for example if you Swish for charity people have their names placed into the bowl an extra amount for a donation; different sizes of groups with specific items like clothes, crockery, shoes, handbags and accessories; it can be for family or friends or workmates; you could make it a free-for-all instead of a drawing of a name. Make any variation you wish when you swish.

In 2009, Swishing.co.uk was launched to give people an online platform where they could swish from home and swap clothes with thousands of people. The website has proved to be hugely popular with nearly 10,000 loyal Swishers and features in national press and television.

External links

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