Lucie Loves...#Blogged // My very first ‘swishing’ experience at the @vouchercodesuk Blogger #MWSwapshop

I recently attended a Blogger clothes swap in East London after receiving a lovely invite from the vouchercodesuk Most Wanted team. How does that work you might ask? Well… you take along stuff from your wardrobe that you’re sick o’ the sight of and trade it in for a few stamps. The number of stamps you get depends on what items you are 'cashing’ in so to speak and where those items were originally bought.

A MW revolution…

“The first rule of a MW Swap Shop? Absolutely do talk about, Tweet and Instagram the #MWSwapShop!”

How it works…

Rummage around in your wardrobe
Find up to 5 items of clothing or shoes, in good condition, that you’re fed up of or no longer wear and bring them along to the party.
Arrive at party (on time or you’ll miss all of the good stuff!) and exchange these old clothes you’ve brought for stamps.
Browse the rails for clothes that other peeps have given away and see whether there’s anything that tickles your fancy. 'One woman’s waste is another woman’s is treasure’ and all that…
Start shopping other fashion bloggers’ clothes using your stamps. All items at the end of the night that are not swapped will be donated to charity.

To make the swapping fair all clothes are separated into different categories.

It works like this:

1 stamp – Affordable high street (e.g. H&M, Primark, supermarket clothing), small accessories.
2 stamps – Mid-Affordable High Street (e.g. Topshop, Warehouse) jumpers, shoes in a good condition, good vintage clothes.
3 stamps – High-end high street (e.g. Reiss, All Saints) and designer clothes.

I handed over a dress from Warehouse, a pair of boots from Newlook, a Topshop handbag and a Topshop cropped vest and ended up coming away with a beautiful dusky pink recycled vintage blouse that had actually belonged to my friend Laura. (I could’ve just gone and raided her wardrobe… but then again… we would’ve missed out on the cocktails, DJ, Say Fromage photobooth, nailbar and DIY clothing customisation action.)

It was a fun night!

We both went a bit stud crazy. Laura picked up a navy blue cardigan and added little gold star studs all over the front and back of it whilst I decided to take the plain pink buttons off my shirt and replace them with snazzy vintage looking gold replacements and add a smattering of gold tiny circular studs to the collar - so that it looked like I had collar tops on. Nice!

After quaffing down a few cocktails and nibbling on a few cakes and old school sweets, we got in front of the camera and pulled silly faces in the Say Fromage photobooth.