The fashion lovers of Stellenbosch University (SU) definitely melted into style on Friday 14 March while thrifting and swapping in 30-degree weather at Into Style’s thrift and swap event.
After their first successful thrift and swap hosted last year October, the dynamic duo, also known as Into Style, decided to bring the heat back and melt into style once again for the end of the summer season.
Two SU students, Marize Mulder (MPhil, Interdisciplinary Arts Studies), and Jasmine de Wet (BA Humanities graduate) hosted the event at CoCreate Hub. From 4 pm – 9pm, you could bring 5-8 items of preloved clothing to CoCreate Hub and receive tokens in return for your items based on their style and condition. With these tokens, you can pick and ‘purchase’ other second-hand items.
The event was a success with approximately 150 people thrifting and swapping, and the duo plans on hosting a thrift and swap once every semester, for every season.
With a range of people attending, all with different styles and aesthetics, items ranged from men’s long pants to the cutest Y2k tops, but “thankfully no skinny jeans this time around,” says Marize.
Thrifting is quickly becoming popular in Stellenbosch, with the market on the Rooiplein and multiple thrift/hospice shops in and around town. However, Marize pointed out that [thrifting] “has become something that we have to convince people to do”.
With this in mind, thrifting should be affordable since it is second-hand clothing after all. However, it becomes difficult to convince someone to thrift when the prices are just as expensive as fast fashion retailers.
Marize’s approach to the thrift and swap is “to make sustainability worth people’s while, not only environmentally but also economically. The thrift and swap is a way to make sustainability worthwhile by introducing swapping, having everything priced under R100 and to ‘make it more than just consumption and rather an experience (an event) where you are interacting with and talking to people.” This kind of thrifting environment is important to Into Style as they value a sense of community in the vast heap of sustainable fashion. But what happens to the unswapped clothing? Does it go to waste?
Well, Marize explains that after the event, “we evaluate everything and keep most of the clothes for inventory for the next thrift and swap”. CoCreate works with a string of charities, and clothes are given to a specific charity based on the types of clothing received. Marize explains that they were left with a lot of small clothing at the previous thrift and swap and donated the clothing to a charity that helps single mothers and children.
With growing support, Into Style is set on making these thrift and swap events a staple in Stellenbosch’s sustainable fashion scene. Make sure to keep up with upcoming events and follow @into_style_ on Instagram.
By Rebecca Rossouw
