Those of us who hoarded clothes during the boom, can start trying to claw back some of that cash, now that swopping and selling is back in fashion, writes CONOR POPE
POOR Fionnuala McCarthy. She had a simple idea six weeks ago that has now got almost totally out of control. Her plan was to hold a low-key clothes sale in a church hall in Dublin city centre involving no more than 50 people, but now she has had to arrange two more sales and has a waiting list of more than 300 people anxious to get involved.
That’s what happens when you have a good idea.
McCarthy was one of 43 Sunday Tribunestaff who were made redundant after Independent News & Media pulled the plug on the loss-making newspaper earlier this year.
With money obviously tight and more time on her hands, the paper’s former magazine editor set about converting some of her wardrobe of clothes into cash.
“Like a lot of women I have a massive amount of stuff that I don’t wear and like many people I am also strapped for cash,” she says.
So she decided to become a seller on eBay. Now, as we have said on this page before, eBay is not necessarily your friend when it comes to such matters: it takes a whole lot of effort to sell anything, the returns are small and the queues in the post office big.
“It was an absolute nightmare. I did sell them but you end up queuing in the post office for 15 minutes to send an item to Lithuania that you managed to sell for €5 and the postage costs €6,” she says.
So she thought about it some more and the Great Rail Sale was born. It takes place in Molesworth Hall off Dawson Street next Saturday. For an introductory price of €25, people have been given the chance to hire a rail that can hold up to 30 items and sell off any hardly worn clothes, shoes, bags and accessories that were thoughtlessly bought during the good times when we all had more cents than sense.
There are a few loose rules. The people who hire the rails are asked to price things reasonably. If Top Shop on St Stephen’s Green is selling a top for €40, there’s not much point in you trying to sell a similar second-hand one for €35.
The clothes must be in good condition and they must be at least vaguely on-trend.
The last thing McCarthy wants is for every single rail to be stocked with frayed tweed trousers like the ones our fathers wore gardening in the 1970s or maxi dresses worn by the mammies to dinner dances of old.
Not only would rails selling useless tat turn prospective buyers off, the clothes would never sell and the idea would be stillborn.
McCarthy says they are not “excluding designer clothes but it is aimed at High St clothes”. She says the country is filled with people (though in this instance people generally means women) with wardrobes full of clothes from River Island, A-Wear or Warehouse, which are in perfectly good nick but “which they are no longer wearing for whatever reason”.
She is one of them. “When I went and looked at my wardrobe I realised I have a massive amount of sequined dresses and tops. Now I don’t go out [she has a young child] but during the boom years, I indulged like most people. I need to offload this stuff and that is where the idea is coming from.”
The organisers have also arranged for Oxfam Ireland to be on site so those who don’t sell their stuff can donate it to the charity if they wish, rather than taking it home again.
Of course it won't just be about the clothes. The Sunday Tribune'sformer food writer Katy McGuinness will be selling home-baked treats with the money going to charity. Another former Tribunejournalist, Una Mullally, will be on the decks playing tunes. She has promised to dedicate Johnny Logan's What's Another Yearto Pricewatch.
There are two more sales planned for June, although the venue has yet to be determined.
Of course the Great Rail Sale is not the only game in town when it comes to getting rid of unloved clobber. In fact it has never been easier to find bargains with the number of second-hand shops offering good quality clothes at knock-down prices increasing as people try to declutter and find cheaper alternatives.
Swapping clothes is also increasingly popular. The Swap Shop in Temple Bar, which allows people to trade in their old clothes for new (to them) ones, and Wear It Again on Baggot Street, which sells a range of high-end clothes for half nothing, to name just two. And then there are the swapping parties.
While Pricewatch has never actually done this, we love the concept. You go through your wardrobes, put all the stuff you never wear in a bag and take it round to a mate’s house.
Everyone involved does likewise, you dump the stuff in the centre of the floor and allow people to rummage. One man’s (okay, woman’s) hilariously revolting gold lamé jacket is another’s coolly ironic fashion statement.
Broadcaster Ella McSweeney has been swapping clothes with her mates for more than three years and they arrange events every three months or so. “I hate shopping and I never found it very satisfying,” she says. “I used to love what my friends were wearing mind you so I decided to organise a swap evening.”
There is a core group of about four or five people who are involved, with each one bringing their own friends.
While the clothes you might walk away with are free, it is not a free-for-all. “I have quite strict rules and I always say people should not bring the clothes they are considering chucking out or giving to a charity shop, but good quality stuff that they simply don’t wear any more.
“The key is people need to be generous when it comes to the clothes they bring and say ‘What have I not worn in the last six months? Initially the quality of the clothes was very poor as people felt guilty bringing along good stuff that they simply had not worn but now we have some amazing clothes and the vast majority of what I wear are clothes I have swapped.”
But what happens if all your friends are different shapes and sizes or you bring along awesome clothes and everyone else comes with tatty stuff from Penneys or everyone ends up fighting over some top or people mock your taste in fashion?
“None of these things ever happen,” McSweeney says. “It just works. There has never ever been a cat fight. In fact it is quite the opposite and you find yourself going home with really nice clothes which you picked up for free in a really nice environment.
“It is just a really calm way of shopping. You save money, you clean out your wardrobe and I swear to God no one notices who brings the bad stuff. You can come in with one bag, 10 bags or no bags. There are always too many clothes.”
Not only has the swap shop idea helped her and her buddies to find new wardrobes, it has also changed their mindset.
“When we started three years ago, we were still a little boomy, but I found the more swaps we did, the more careful I became about the clothes I did buy.”
While all these free or cheap clothes that McCarthy and McSweeney are talking about seem great, they seem to be focused exclusively on women. Men wear clothes too, right? What about us.
“If men want to come along, they are very welcome,” says McCarthy. “We have had some interest from them but my only experience of men is that they tend to wear clothes till they fall off them and they are not even suitable for dusters but if they do have clothes and they have taken care of them we would be delighted to see them.”
McSweeney is not convinced there will be many takers. “We have tried so many times to get men involved. None will. I think there is something about men wearing another man’s clothes, a friend’s clothes, I mean, that many men are uncomfortable with so they don’t come along.”
So for now, McSweeney’s swap shop is just for women. “We are just walking around in our knickers half the time trying on stuff,” she says with a laugh. Hmm, that’s certainly one way to sell the notion to men.
