by Elizabeth, Delightfully Tacky
One thing that has been a really fun part of blogging is swapping. Swapping is a great way to not only interact with fellow bloggers in concrete way, but to increase the variety in your wardrobe in a fun and free way. A cool thing that I've discovered about swapping is that it lets me try styles that may be a bit outside of my comfort zone or just styles that I thought might not work well on me. Because the clothes are swapped, though, I don't have to invest in clothes that I'm skeptical will work on me, I can try it out for free!
I started the Delightful Dozen back in 2009 because I loved the idea of a sort of "sisterhood of the traveling pants." Plus, I thought it would be really cool to see how 12 different girls styled up the same item. I knew they would all style it completely differently, and it's such a great way to show how the items in our closets have so many different options, we just don't always have the mindset to see it. Someone with a different brain could see the same clothing item and think to style it totally differently than you would! Another swap group that started up in 2010 is the Take Ten girls in the UK. They decided to make their own swap group after seeing what the Delightful Dozen was doing in the US! Don't feel like you can't start up your own swapping group, just find some of your closer blog friends and bring it up! Chances are, they'll think it's a really fun idea and would love to be involved.
Another way to swap is by going to local clothing swaps where you take some of your clothes and a ton of other people bring theirs too, you put it all in a pile and then start picking what you want! I've never been to one before but I want to so bad! The Swapaholics do swaps all the time and they even have listings of swap events all over the world at their event page (pssst, there's one coming up on Sept 29th in Boston!). You can search for swaps based on your country and state. If you're hosting a swap, you can list it too, so more people find out about it!
Some tips for swapping
1. Find a blogger (or bloggers) who are similar in size to you. This isn't absolutely necessary, but it can help you guys fit into each other's clothes. Sometimes it's interesting, though, to style things that aren't exactly your size. More problem-solving and innovation happens!
2. Start a flickr group where you can post discussion topics with photos of the item you're putting up for swap. That way if you have more people in your swapping group, they can take a look at it and comment if they'd like to swap that item.
3. Create an address directory of the girls in your swap group. This makes it easier to find the address you need to mail the item to. Not so much a big deal if you're swapping with one or two people, but if you have a group of swappers it's nice to have on hand.
4. If someone doesn't style your item, don't feel bad. Sometimes it's just too hard to style, or doesn't fit, or the person just can't figure out how to incorporate it into an outfit.
5. Ask one of your sponsors if they'd be interested in sending you guys an item to all style up. The Delightful Dozen did this with a top from Ruche and it was way fun!
