Sometimes I feel like I’m wearing memories.
No one else knows which memories I have on, but I know. I walk around, being reminded of what thoughts I’ve woven into the fabric each time I look to make sure I didn’t tuck my skirt into my stretch pants or have my belt on backward.
I would like to give my old memories to you. They’re free for you to take; all you have to do is come over and bring me some of yours.
It’s recycling at its finest, and this weekend that is exactly what I did: I had a clothing swap. I traded the clothes I didn’t want for what were somebody else’s old memories and unfitting clothes, waiting for new memories and a perfect fit on me.
I’ll admit this idea is reminiscent of my UC Santa Cruz days, before I transferred here. But there’s nothing wrong with that.
How does it work? Everyone brings at least one unwanted item of clothing. If there is a large group, participants alternate accumulation, taking an article of clothing, each in turn. If less people show up, it becomes a thrift-store-esque, free-for-all swap. Any disputes can usually be solved by rock-paper-scissors or arm wrestling.
Letting go of the clothes is “harder than you think because you have to be completely unattached to the item of clothing,” said Ambika Luthra, a second-year electrical engineering student.
I find it odd that I wouldn’t have taken my old clothes to Goodwill already, because I don’t want these clothes and don’t ever wear them. At the same time, I’m a lot more comfortable giving not-so-recently worn memories to my friends for free, rather than shipping them off for strangers to buy.
Before my friends showed up with their soon-to-be-abandoned clothes, I was hiding in my room, looking through mine and asking myself, would Buffalo Exchange buy these? Will there be a late-’90s revival anytime soon?
Finally I decided on a group of clothes that I was unattached from enough to let go of.
I was surprised when fewer people showed up than I had been anticipating. Maybe we are all a bit more attached to our past than we think.
“We have to have something tangible to retain … memory,” said Whitney Ellis, a first-year Design | Media Arts student. But, she added, “We have to realize that tangible items are only as important as you make them.”
I think, as consumers, we take so much ownership over our clothes because we bought them and want something back for giving them away, even if it’s just a smile and a thanks from a friend.
There aren’t many outlets in our culture, especially for busy college students, that allow us to get rid of the objects we accumulate in constructive, fun ways. Or at least not in Westwood. For this, I would recommend exchanging unwanted clothes.
“You have to free yourself of your possessions,” said Michael Tank, a third-year Design | Media Arts student. “We define ourselves by our clothes and in a swap you are shifting your persona.”
In Isla Vista, the town surrounding UC Santa Barbara, there exists a free bin for clothing. Homeless people and sorority girls alike flock there to get, and often give, unwanted items of clothing. Though it is uncanny that I trust a bin of clothes just because it is in a small, surfer-college town, everything I accumulated I washed hot before wearing.
I wouldn’t trust anything from a free bin in Los Angeles ““ who knows where it has been?
The clothing swap is the less fearsome alternative to finding clothes in a free bin, and, regardless, is usually a lot more fun.
Try it. You’ll be surprised how nice it is to receive clothes you like in exchange for ones you don’t want.
Have clothes you don’t want in size medium? E-mail Rood at drood@media.ucla.edu.