Let´s swap

About Let’s Swap: Let’s Swap is an association started in 2018 in the city of Porto. It started with the aim of organizing events such as clothing swap markets, book fairs and clothing repair workshops with the aim of creating an alternative to Fast Fashion and promoting a circular economy. Thus forming a community that believes in more conscious consumption at a social and environmental level, showing that there are other ways of consuming clothes.

Let’s Swap at Atelier Retiro: How do the events work? A Let’s Swap market works like this: a person brings up to five people’s worth of clothes and these pieces of clothing are converted into points, depending on the item. An account is created associated with the person's email, so the points can be used at other events throughout the country.

Volunteering: The basis of Let’s Swap is voluntary work and when the opportunity arose to bring this association to Guimarães, getting a group of volunteers was a challenge. In three weeks I managed to gather around 100 people, most of them teenagers.

My work as a co-coordinator: As co-coordinator of the events in Guimarães, together with Berta Valente, I planned posts for social media, prepared the studio to receive the clothes and organized the shifts for the volunteers.

Use of space: Almost all the space was used, from the changing room at the back of the studio as a fitting room, to the bathroom for those who needed it, the rest was filled with tables and carts. At the entrance there were two tables, one for check-in and the other for check-out.

Market frequency: Initially Let’s Swap came to Guimarães every month, eventually it was changed to a quarterly regime. The events had varying degrees of success, depending on the month, whether it was raining or not, among other reasons. However, Let’s Swap undoubtedly left its mark on Rua do Retiro and at each event we had groups of people who always came back. Whether you're passionate about the circular economy or simply want to add something to your wardrobe. At Atelier Retiro, a total of nine events took place starting on December 1, 2022, with the last one on November 18, 2023.

Henrique Pereira