Westminster’s Sustainability Team and Fashion Society host clothes swap event to promote reuse and circular fashion

The event took place in the Forum on Harrow Campus and was open to all Westminster students and colleagues. People were able to bring their clean and unwanted clothes to campus and swap for other clothes within CFS’s collection or brought in by other students. Students were given as many tokens as the number of clothes they brought in to swap and were able to shop for other clothes. Drinks and snacks were also made available to attendees.

The event was run by Westminster’s collaboration with CLOSWAP, the UK's leading platform for clothing swaps, offering a fresh and exciting way to update people’s wardrobes. CLOSWAP hosts regular public clothing swap events across London, as well as exclusive events at universities and student accommodations. Swappers can use their un-trade swap tokens at any other CLOSWAP event in the future, which happens across London.

The pop-up event focused on fashion sustainability and encouraging consumers to develop more sustainable habits when it comes to renewing their wardrobe instead of shopping in retail outlets and encouraging mass production. This event successfully highlighted how swapping is an available alternative to retail clothes shopping that is as fun and useful.

There was a total of 140 attendees who swapped 180 items of clothing and saved £3,600 in savings, 684,000 litres of water and 5,940 kilogrammes of CO2 from doing so. This greatly benefits the environment and likely means that fewer clothes will be disposed of, decreasing waste.

Christine Hammond, Lecturer in Sustainable Fashion at Westminster’s College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries, said: “The Clothes Swap event at Harrow last Tuesday was all about valuing the clothing we have and passing it on to be discovered and enjoyed by someone else once we have no more use for it. Swapping is an antidote to all the waste and excess consumption of fashion, and best of all, refreshes our wardrobes without spending more money! We had a good turn out - over 90 people signed up to swap and it looked as though everyone who brought something to swap walked away with something new.”

Lou-Ann Quentin, President of Fashion Society at the UWSU, added: “People around seemed interested by the swap and those that took part seemed very excited with looking through the clothes and finding some clothes they liked to take back home for free! Even those organising like myself and CFS department colleagues exchanged clothing and were very happy with our finds! We hope the event showed students who are the future of sustainability and growing consumers, how present unsustainable practices in the fashion industry can be changed.”

This event directly contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 12: Responsible Consumption and Production and 17: Partnership for the Goals. Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs holistically to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues fulfil their potential and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthier society.

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