Cheapskates- listen up! On September the 19th,
CarriageWorks will be hosting a wonderful clothing/music/book exchange.
As the
website explains, "Rethreads is the ultimate shopping experience for bargain-hunters, the style-saavy, and the sustainability-conscious." "It’s the most GFC-friendly event around- no money changes hands…if you bring 10 pieces, you can swap for 10 pieces."
One important point to note is that everything must be of a certain quality. CDs can have scratched liner notes, but not scratched surfaces; clothes can be missing buttons, but not sleeves; and books can have torn pages, but not no pages at all. To ensure that standards are met, items will be checked at the door (in a process that could take up to half an hour). However, once possessions are approved, there is no limit to the sort of trades that can be made. So, if that embarrassing company t-shirt you've been dying to be rid of is given the thumbs up, there's nothing to stop you offloading it in return for a designer dress. What a fantastic country we live in.
Besides all the freecycling that's going to be occurring, several vintage shops (including
Pigeon Ground,
Venus in Furs and
Newspaper Taxi) will be hawking their wares. There will also be a bar, a cafe and live music.
Perhaps the most heartening aspect of Rethreads is its community ethos. Community radio stations
2SER and
Fbi will be playing music and soliciting donations, while leftover garments will be donated to charity. And the whole thing is being put together by
The Clothing Exchange, which "is run by three devoted little teams across Australia who host events with the express intention to magnify the ecological benefits to save the earth, for a love of fashion and for the fun of it."
If you don't know where CarriageWorks is, or if you're unsure how to get there,
click here.
