Element Hotels, leaders in eco-friendly accommodations for the conscious traveler, are hosting The Element Exchange pop-up experience to encourage communities to participate in exchanging, rather than shopping for clothes on National Secondhand Wardrobe Day.

National Secondhand Wardrobe Day is observed annually across America on August 25th in an attempt to bring awareness to the issue of widespread clothing waste. If you’re looking for a  way to participate in cutting down on clothing waste and making fewer fast fashion purchases, then we suggest heading down to secondhand stores in your neighborhood, or, better yet, participating in a clothing swap, like The Element Exchange taking place at all Element Hotels across the United States.  

According to Marlon Whyte, Global Brand Leader for Element Hotels, the brand’s mission is geared toward “promoting balance and wellness to our eco-savvy guests.” There are currently 32 hotels across the globe, with 84 more in development, and they’re the perfect retreat for conscious, healthy, active, travelers on extended stays.

The Element Exchange experience — the pop-up clothing swap — is a practical and creative solution, especially since, according to Whyte, “Clothes are one of the most frequent items purposefully left behind in hotel rooms.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “85 percent of all discarded textiles – 13 million tons – are sent to U.S. landfills every year.  In addition, it takes 2,700 liters of water to make one cotton t-shirt. That is enough for one person to stay hydrated for 900 days,” Whyte notes.

With millions of tons of discarded clothing and textiles each year,  The Element Exchange felt that through the brand’s commitment to its “sustainable and health-conscious mission and roots,” raising awareness of this “massive environmental impact” is the logical choice.

For those who wish to attend, Whyte said of the Element Boston Seaport location, “attendees will be able to enjoy sustainable bites in the courtyard and sample organic wine through a sustainable and automated wine cart while they ‘shop’.”

And beyond the perks of conscious tastings, “The event will see Boston-based clothing upcycling partners helping guests give their items of clothing a new life. Ministry of Supply, Boston-founded maker of performance dress clothes that supplies underprivileged adults with clothing for the workplace and job interviews, will be on-site for attendees interested in shopping and upcycling through their one-in, one-out initiative.”

The Element Exchange pop-up experience is is taking place at every Element Hotel across the U.S. and does not require you to be a guest of the hotel.

“Element Hotels are very committed to helping to reduce clothing waste while educating guests and locals alike on the effects of fast fashion on the environment,” says Whyte. “The donation bins that we will be setting up as part of the Element Exchange will remain in all of our hotels in perpetuity, giving guests and locals the opportunity to continue to dispose of their clothes in a sustainable manner after the event is finished.”

When it comes to what attendees should bring to the clothing swap, Whyte says they will “welcome any type of garment, textile or clothing that is in good condition.” Now is the perfect time to discover some new fall pieces, or run into something that will be perfect for next summer.

We suggest getting a small group of your friends on board, because the more variety in your dress sizes, the better, and making a day (or overnight) of it. Clothes, wine, and good friends together with Element Hotels for a good cause…what’s not to love?

Related on EcoSalon

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OITNB’s Alysia Reiner Helps Launch World’s First Clothing Swap Boutique

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A number of new startups bring convenience to the second hand fashion world.

When it comes down to it, the best thing you can do for the environment is not buy new clothes. A satisfying second best for those not quite ready for minimalist fashion – and I don’t mean the monochromatic simplicity seen at the recent pre-fall collections – is buying second hand clothing.

A growing number of new startups such as Poshmark, Threadflip, The RealReal, Copius, Tradesy and Twice are targeting online shoppers to buy and sell used clothing from their own closets. P2P. Buying green fashion that fits your style has never been more fun or easy.

According to Lorraine Sanders founder of Digital Style Digest, a blog devoted to the intersection of fashion and technology, the trend marks the second coming of the used goods marketplace. “Ebay and Craigslist certainly are its predecessors. But they haven’t done anything innovative in a decade, and Ebay is now moving away from auction-style buying experiences and towards fixed-price sales.”

This sudden growth and focus on the used clothing space is fueled by a confluence of factors: the cultural phenomenon of sharing your personal style through fashion blogs and the increased popularity of fashion bloggers; the mainstream adoption of transparent social media identities, like Twitter handles and Facebook pages, creating a certain amount of visibility and trust between buyers and sellers in the market; and the widespread ability to take quality photographs with mobile phones. As Sanders notes, “It was only a matter of time before someone figured how to make money out of it.”

With its tradition of innovating around sustainability, it’s not surprising that many of the new companies are based in the San Francisco Bay area. But the eco play of moving multitudes of unused items from the average woman’s closet is not their main message. Instead, it’s the technology behind the creation of these peer-to-peer (p2p) marketplaces and the potential for more collaborative economies and business models that’s getting investors to sit up and take notice.

In contrast to the traditional consignment store’s impersonal image, the real-time social experience features squarely in the center of the new site’s product offering, with each handling the theme of making selling more social in slightly different ways. Threadflip spotlights one-of-a-kind items from the personal collections of its Style Stars, allowing you access to your favorite tastemaker. Poshmark has made its mark throwing Posh Parties thrown around specific themes such as “Back to Basics” and “Jet Set Glamour.” Sanders says, “Users are not just there just to buy, they comment on pieces, each others’ outfits, tweeting – having fun in that social way.”

For many women looking for an easier alternative to sustainable second hand shopping, the sticking point may be the prices. This is not the same as shopping thrift; you won’t see the dollar deals that you’d find at your local Goodwill. Twice – The Clothes You Love, Prices You Can Afford – a company that was originally launched as an online version of Crossroads and Buffalo Exchange quickly implemented the standard brand list limiting viable sales to well known brand names.

And unfortunately, it doesn’t solve the problem of what most people across America have in their wardrobes, which is clothing from Target, H&M and Forever 21. If you want to get a sense of the prices you can charge, Twice has a calculator that will calculate what you can realistically expect to buy and sell for. On the other end of the scale, The RealReal currently has a Hermès Lizard Birkin Bag on sale for $18,500. Clearly, saving money is not the value proposition here. The allure is owning something you can’t find in stores, something fundamentally untrendy.

Moving away from trends has ironically been the most significant fashion trend happening over the last decade. “People have more freedom to set themselves apart and dress in ways you wouldn’t find hanging in a store,” says Sanders. And while that concept might seem very normal to us now, “if you look back 10 years you can see how different it is and how major a shift has actually taken place in fashion.”

Image: thirdwavefashion.com

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